Land Research Center (LRC)

Activities

• In December 2020, LRC Director Jamal al-Amleh claimed that “It is known that [the Jews] have nothing in Jerusalem and Hebron. All archaeological excavations – even the Jewish archaeologists themselves – have proven that there is no existence of their state in this country, no existence of the Temple on the mountain where al-Aqsa Mosque is built. All of their history and narrative is a false narrative.”
• In May 2024, LRC was a signatory on a petition to the United Nations to “Declare Gaza a Famine-Stricken Zone.” According to the petition, “The actions and policies imposed by the Israeli occupation on the people of Gaza place it in a position of criminal responsibility…The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority must…push toward accountability and prosecution of the occupation for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
• In November 2023, LRC was a signatory on a letter to governments calling to “Recognise Israel’s colonial settlement enterprise as one policy designed to maintain an institutionalised regime of racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole, and  address the root causes of Palestinian dispossession and domination, and the undermining of the individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people, inherent in Zionist settler colonialism,” and to “Recognise Israel’s judicial system as part and parcel of Israel’s apartheid regime, and provide full cooperation to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC and the UN ongoing Commission of Inquiry, to ensure justice and accountability.”
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, LRC was a signatory on a statement calling to “emphasize that the root causes of these events is the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel.” According to the statement, “We consider the flagrant unconditional support the U.S and European officials are offering Israel occupation while ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people as complicity in Israeli human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid. It is the international community’s failure to hold the Israel occupation accountable for its crimes that have led to the current situation.”
• In October 2023, LRC was a signatory on a statement demanding that the “EU leadership must put an end to its double standards and complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.” According to the statement, “For violence to end, European leaders must address and eradicate the root causes of the ongoing violence, namely, Israel’s seven-decade long settler-colonial enterprise and oppression of the Palestinian people…The EU must intervene to ensure that Israel dismantles its discriminatory apartheid regime, including by rescinding all discriminatory laws and facilitating the right of return and to self-determination of the Palestinian people…The resounding silence of the EU leadership on Israeli atrocities committed in Gaza and their blind support for Israel signals that the EU is green-lighting, enabling and encouraging Israel’s military actions, which already may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and incitement to commit genocide.”
• In May 2023, following comments by the EU Commission President celebrating Israel’s Independence Day, LRC was a signatory on a statement accusing the president of “using racist anti-Palestinian tropes and denying Palestinian history and the atrocities of the Nakba.”
• In November 2022, LRC was a signatory on a letter to the ICC Prosecutor to “Urgently expedite his investigation into the Situation of Palestine, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” 
• In May 2022, LRC was a signatory on a petition titled “The Return Appeal” calling on the United Nations to “take all necessary steps and measures for immediately holding the occupation’s state accountable for all the crimes, the latter has so far committed against the Palestinian people, within strict legal means that would not allow the occupation’s criminals to evade interrogation or possible trials.”
• In October 2021, LRC signed a joint statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “This unprecedented designation is merely the latest escalation in Israel’s widespread and systematic institutionalized campaign that has aimed to silence and discredit any Palestinian individual or organization that dares seek accountability for Israel’s grave human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity…the international community, especially the European Union and its member states who are key supporters of and donors to Palestinian civil society, should ensure that banks and financial institutions in their jurisdiction are notified Israel’s designation of Palestinian organizations is unfounded and inapplicable.”
• In 2018, LRC published an infographic on the occasion of the “70th commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba,” featuring antisemitic motifs and a conspiracy theory.
  • The infographic includes, as legend of the timeline, the drawings of an orthodox Jew representing the “settlement,” and an arm wearing a Star of David grabbing the land to represent the “confiscation.”
  • The timeline further features the conspiracy theory of the 1907 Campbell conference, which promotes the unfounded theory that “Great Britain planned Israel in 1907 to destroy Arab nation.” LRC describes this conference as to “implant an alien body at the heart of the Arab world, aiming to create division and civil war,” and features this conspiracy theory by a dagger ornamented with a Star of David.
• In February 2020, Al-Amleh, published a antisemitic Facebook post asking, “How many times will Palestinian Christ be crucified by rogue Jews on religions and humanity!?”
• In 2016, LRC published a statement, “Balfour Declaration …. And the continuous conspiracy,” alleging that the declaration “placed a toxic dagger in Palestine that aims at restricting the advancement of the Arab Nation and disconnecting its east from its west” (emphasis added). This statement also quotes a Palestinian scholar who referred to the Balfour Declaration as “a promise.. [in which] those who did not deserve were given [land] by those who did not possess [it].” 

Palestinian Observation of Israeli Colonization Activities (POICA)

• LRC and the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) launched an EU-funded website as part of its project titled, “Advocating for a Sustainable and Viable Resolution of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” The website features blatant propaganda and allegations such as “Throughout the years of occupation of the Palestinian territory, Israel has engaged in excessive and disproportionate violations of every existing humanitarian code” (emphasis added) and refers to the Israel Defense Force as the “Israel occupation Forces.”
• The website provides a platform for LRC and ARIJ ’s distorted historical account, claiming that “The State of Israel was founded on approximately four-fifths of Palestine, taking more land than the United Nations’ 1947 Partition Plan had proposed,” and that “During and after the 1948 War, a transfer policy was carried out and four out of every five Palestinians in the area inside Israel became refugees.” This “historical” summary omits the context of an Arab rejection of partition and an Arab-initiated war against Israel, and falsely alleges an Israeli “transfer policy.”
• Issues frequent reports claiming to “shed the light on the Israeli violations taking place in the occupied Palestinian territory against lands and properties along with a map depicting the location of the affected areas.”
• POICA rhetoric includes accusations of “apartheid,” “genocide,” ‘ethnic cleansing,” “land grabs,” and “collective punishment.”
• In April 2019, LRC and ARIJ released a “Daily Report” that included  in its rhetoric used against Israel a classical antisemitic attack on the Talmud. The report claimed that “over 250 settlers, stormed an archaeological site in Al-Jib village…and performed Talmudic rituals” and accused Jews of performing “Talmudic rituals in celebration of Jewish holidays” and performing “Talmudic rituals in the town.” 
  • The “Daily Report” was paid for by the EU and bears the EU logo.

BDS Activities

• In September 2022, LRC endorsed a report by Al-Haq and Just Peace Advocates calling to “Update the UN database annually” and “Continue to exert the necessary efforts to ensure transparency and promote accountability for business activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, to counter the pervasive impunity stemming from corporate- related violations and grave breaches of international law in such contexts.”
  • The UN BDS “blacklist” of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line selectively targets Israel apart from all other nations, is aimed at economically damaging companies that are owned by Jews or do business with Israel, and is ultimately meant to harm the Jewish State.
• In May 2020, LRC was a signatory on a statement calling for “Immediate targeted sanctions to stop Israel’s annexation and apartheid.” The statement further called for “A ban on arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel,” “Suspension of trade and cooperation agreements with Israel,” and “Investigation and prosecution of individuals and corporate actors responsible for war crimes/crimes against humanity in the context of Israel’s regime of illegal occupation and apartheid.”
• Signatory to the 2005 “Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS,” which calls for an end to Israel’s “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and promotes the right of “Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.” These goals undermine the fundamental right of the Jewish people to self-determination and would effectually mean the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.