Activities

• AWDA activities include holding medical conferences and “Health Days,” and maintaining hospitals, medical center, and cultural centers throughout the Gaza Strip.
• AWDA itself is a PFLP-affiliated health committee active in Gaza, as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• In October 2023, after an Islamic Jihad rocket “misfired” (i.e. detonated in Gaza instead of Israel) and hit the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital parking lot, AWDA published a statement claiming, “the occupation sought to neutralize the health system from work and distance it from its national, humanitarian and health role through the threat of eviction and targeting, in an effort to exacerbate the humanitarian situation and put pressure on the defenseless civilian population in the Gaza Strip, leading to the direct targeting of health facilities and objects, as the targeting operations extended to medical personnel, ambulances, hospitals and health centres, leading to the direct targeting of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital ‘Al-Baptist’ facility, killing more than (500) according to initial estimates, and injuring thousands of unarmed civilians who took shelter in this facility in search of security and safety in light of the procedures and targeting. Criminal” (emphasis added). AWDA ignored videos, images, and intelligence materials concerning this incident.
• In November 2021, AWDA was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “The main task of our institutions and of Palestinian human rights defenders is to work towards an end to the occupation, the dismantling of the apartheid regime and towards the realization of our collective human rights to self-determination and the right of return…We further call on diplomatic missions, parliamentary representatives, and international organizations to reject and condemn the unlawful designation of the six Palestinian CSOs, to pressure the United States to condemn Israel’s designation and call for its rescission.”
• Signed on the 2005 Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS and helped organize the First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel (BDS).
• AWDA has accused Israel of “Urbanicide,” “Genocide,” the “mass killing of civilians,” and called on its partners, including Oxfam, to condemn “Israel’s human rights violations against the Palestinian people.”
• Mona El-Farra, is a “health development consultant” for the Union of Health Work Committees, and according to American Friends Service Committee’s website, El-Farra also “heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center, which is also in Gaza. The center is a project of the Union of Health Work Committees.”
  • In 2015, El Farra was denied a visa by the Israeli authorities to travel to a conference on Palestine in Dublin for “security reasons.”
  • In May 2018, El-Farra participated in the “Palestinian Freedom Conference: Overcoming the Ongoing Nakba,” which discussed how “In late 1947, colonial Zionist paramilitary forces began the process of ethnically cleansing more than 750,000 Palestinians…70 years later…in Palestine a process of ongoing ethnic cleansing via occupation, colonisation, apartheid, and cruel siege continues apace, with no intervention from the international community.”
  • In an interview in 2004, El-Farra explained that AWDA refused USAID funding because it came with the condition that they promise “not [to] give any help or any aid whatsoever for the families of the militiamen, or their relatives, or anyone related to ‘terrorist attacks’” because “we consider it resistance.”

AWDA’s Ties to the PFLP

• AWDA is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate” and by a 1993 USAID-engaged audit as the “the PFLP’s health organization.”
• As academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, who also identifies AWDA as a “PFLP-affiliated health committee,” explains “Many-probably most-doctors who joined the AWDA had political leanings similar to the leftist PFLP. As health committees tied to other political factions also existed, it was common for doctors and staff to work with that health group which reflected their politics. Both the providers and, to a lesser degree, the recipients of these medical services were aware of the larger political agenda. The ability to translate medical-and other social-services into a particular political vision was the key to the struggle within the Palestinian community for ideological hegemony” (emphasis added).
• HWC’s Youth Development Program, “A community, cultural, and social development program that provide services to Jerusalemite youth through ‘Nidal Center,’” was shut down by Israeli authorities from 2009 to 2012 because, in the words of the Jerusalem District Court, it served as “a place of action of the [PFLP] organization.” According to the Jerusalem District Court, “following the closure of the [Center], the PFLP began operating under the guise of the non-profit the Union of Health Work Committees – Jerusalem…on June 9, 2015 at the request of the Minister of Defense the non-profit was an unlawful organization…”
• AWDA runs the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza.
  • In December 2023, the Israeli army raided Al Awda Hospital and arrested 21 health workers, including the hospital director.
  • In November 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) claimed that three doctors were killed as a result of a strike that hit Al-Awda hospital in Gaza. According to MSF, two of the doctors, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al-Sahar, were employed by MSF; the third, Ziad Al-Tatari, was employed by AWDA. (For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report, “MSF in Gaza: Terror-linked Employee and Hospital.”)
    • Abu Nujaila was the head of the PFLP’s health group, the Democratic Health Association. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila openly supported the PFLP and its violent actions, along with other terrorists who brutally killed Israelis. On October 17, 2021, Abu Nujaila shared a picture of a handwritten stylized text in a notebook that read, “October 17th, when the [gun] silencer cried in joy.” Abu Nujaila wrote, “It was the prettiest day, it was the PFLP’s response, and it was the decree of the people.” He added victory and heart emojis. On October 17, 2001, a PFLP cell directed by PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa’adat assassinated Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
    • On April 28, 2023, Al-Sahar shared a photo of a Hamas “field commander” Mohammed Attallah Al-Sahar, along with a picture of his father in military uniform, and wrote, “Yesterday it was his father and now it is him. May Allah have mercy on them and accept them [in heaven] as martyrs.”
    • On October 7, 2023, Al-Tatari wrote, “The army that cannot be defeated, is weaker than a spider web. Oh Allah be with us…” Al-Tatari was echoing a well-known quote from Hezbollah Head Hasan Nasrallah, “Israel is weaker than a spider web.”

AWDA Staff Ties to the PFLP

• Rabah Muhanna
  • Muhanna, one of AWDA’s founders and former head, served as a member of the PFLP political bureau.
  • On May 5, 2019, the PFLP issued a statement mourning Muhanna’s death and referring to him as a “warrior and a great national leader” and “one of the most prominent national leaders in the Gaza Strip.” During his funeral, Muhanna’s coffin was escorted by armed PFLP militants.
• Rafat Al-Majdalawi
  • In September 2021, Majdalawi, AWDA Executive Director, attended a PFLP ceremony in celebration of Khalida Jarrar’s release from Israeli prison after serving a two-year sentence. In 2019, Jarrar was arrested, together with tens of other PFLP members, and convicted of membership in the terror group. The arrests took place following an August 2019 bombing in which a 17-year-old Israeli civilian, Rina Shnerb, was murdered.
  • In May 2019, Al-Majdalawi shared an official poster by the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades [the PFLP’s military wing] eulogizing deceased PFLP Political Bureau Member Rabah Muhanna. The poster referred to Muhanna as “the great comrade patriotic commander.”
  • In April 2019, Al-Majdalawi hailed PFLP senior member and former PFLP Central Committee Member Ali Al-Qatawi on the occasion of the latter’s death. Al-Majdalawi wrote, “The comrade, commander and teacher Abu Saleh [Al-Qatawi’s alias]. We will depart from you with tears and a promise.”
  • In December 2021, Amad news outlet reported that Al-Majdalawi was elected to PNGO’s coordinating office. Multiple PNGO officials have ties to terrorist organizations, and at least five PNGO members have ties to EU-designated terror organizations, including through their employees and/or board members who are directly involved in activities and programs.
• Mohammed Abdel Qader Abu Samr, founder and former AWDA member, has been described by the PFLP as a “comrade fighter” in a 2016 statement mourning his death.
• Magdi Yaghi
  • Yaghi, AWDA treasurer and board member in 2016-2019, is referred to by the PFLP as a “member of the regional command” and a “comrade.”
  • In February 2019, Yaghi participated in a memorial service organized by the PFLP for Maher Yamani, a PFLP “founder” and a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders.”
  • In addition to AWDA, Yaghi is involved with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), another PFLP “affiliate.” In 2013, he served as a UAWC board member. He also participated in a 2019 UAWC event.
• Fares Nasser
  • In 2017, Nasser, AWDA Director of Administration and Human Resources, hosted an event at his house to commemorate the 50 Anniversary of the establishment of the PFLP.
• Suhail Al Tanani
  • Al Tanani was referred to as the “Direction of the Union’s Communication and Advocacy Department” in an October 2019 interview posted on AWDA’s website.
  • The PFLP refers to Al Tanani as a “comrade.”
  • In January 2019, Al Tanani spoke at a PFLP-organized graduation ceremony at the Al-Qader school.
• Fadi Al Ajrami, a former member of AWDA’s Board of Directors (2016-2018), is also a “member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front” according to the PFLP.
• Dr. Tayser Al Sultan
  • According to a March 2019 US Embassy document, Al Sultan is the “director” of AWDA.
  • In 2015, Al Sultan attended a PFLP organized “graduation ceremony for the ‘Pioneers of Return’ camps in the Gaza Strip,” which featured armed PFLP activists performing military maneuvers.