Introduction

Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) is a Palestinian NGO that claims to promote Palestinian children’s rights. However, numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P. The PFLP is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.

On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared DCI-P a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” 

DCI-P seeks to convince government officials, UN bodies, and the general public that Israel is systematically abusing Palestinian children. This campaign, known as “No Way to Treat a Child,” provides false and inaccurate information regarding Palestinian minors and their interaction with Israeli legal and security frameworks. DCI-P receives funding from UNICEF-oPt – UNICEF’s branch in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza – and serves as an NGO “implementing partner” on various UNICEF projects. DCI-P is also a member of UNICEF’s child protection Working Group, ostensibly charged with monitoring and reporting on violations against Palestinian children (see NGO Monitor’s report “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group”). 

DCI-P is also actively involved in promoting BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanction) and legal campaigns (“lawfare”) against Israel, particularly in the US and at international forums. For instance, in November 2023, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit in California on behalf of DCI-P and PFLP-linked Al-Haq, alleging that Israel’s “mass killings,” “widespread and systematic attacks on infrastructure,” and “forced expulsion” amount to “genocide.” The NGOs demanded that the “President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense adhere to their duty to prevent, and not further, the unfolding genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza,” as well as “take all measures within their power to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza.” Additionally, on January 11, 2019, CUNY School of Law Human Rights and Gender Justice Law Clinic and DCI-P filed a joint 57-page submission to the UN Commission of Inquiry into the Gaza border violence (which began March 2018). The submission is replete with egregiously false statements, gross distortions of the law and the facts, and the whitewashing of terror groups including Hamas. (See here for NGO Monitor’s letter to CUNY Law and report.)

In 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023, DCI-P spearheaded US Congresswoman McCollum’s proposed legislation “to prevent United States tax dollars from supporting the Israeli military’s ongoing detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children.” The entirety of the proposed bill is premised on factually inaccurate claims from anti-Israel advocacy NGOs, including direct quotes from DCIP’s “No Way to Treat a Child” 2016 report and website.

The relationship between the self-proclaimed children’s rights NGO DCI-P and the PFLP terrorist organization documented in this report demonstrates that the NGO fails to meet UNICEF and UN guidelines of partners being “neutral, impartial, and independent from all parties to the conflict.” The NGO’s PFLP ties are also antithetical to human rights norms and principles. Given these issues, DCI-P is an inappropriate partner and should thus be removed from the UNICEF-oPt Working Group.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

Founded by George Habash in 1967, the PFLP is a secular Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organization, originally supported by the former Soviet Union and China. The PFLP is a terrorist organization, designated as such by the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel. The PFLP is involved in suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations, among other terrorist activities targeting civilians, and was the first Palestinian organization to hijack airplanes in the 1960s and 1970s. 

The group was responsible for the assassination of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rechavam Ze’evi in 2001, and its members joined with the Baader-Meinhof Gang (a West German radical group) to hijack an Air France Tel Aviv-bound flight in 1976, landing it in Entebbe, Uganda. PFLP members took credit for the house invasion and murder of the Fogel family in 2011 and was responsible for the massacre at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood in 2014 where four worshipers and an Israeli Druze police officer were murdered. The terror organization also praised its “comrades” for their role in the murder of Israeli Border Police office Hadas Malka, and wounding of four other Israelis in a June 16, 2017 attack in Jerusalem. In August 2019, a PFLP terror cell carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother.

The PFLP has never recognized the State of Israel, and opposes all negotiations, instead calling for the “liberation” of all of “historical Palestine,” regularly by means of terror.

The PFLP, a longtime terror ally of Hamas in Gaza, participated in the atrocities of October 7, 2023. In fact, on its website and Telegram, the PFLP proudly shared videos, images, and text celebrating the massacre and the attacks against “occupation army troops and the herds of their settlers” in southern Israel. Reportedly, the PFLP was also involved in illegally holding Israeli hostages brought back to Gaza. For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “PFLP Involvement in the October 7 Atrocities.” 

US Fundraising

DCI-P previously directed donors wishing to make contributions in US dollars to a Citi Bank account in New York (account number 36371743), as well as to  an  Arab  Bank account in Ramallah. On June 26, 2018, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) announced that after presenting evidence of the close ties between DCI-P and the PFLP to Citibank and Arab Bank PLC, “these banks no longer provide banking services to the terror linked NGO.” As a result, DCI-P no longer directs its supporters to make donations through these institutions. Global Giving, a US-based crowdfunding resource, also removed DCI-P from its website.

As of 2025, DCI-P receives donations through Charities Aid Foundation America (CAF America). Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, CAF America facilitates donor-advised grantmaking, offering multiple donor-advised platforms. It lists DCI-P as a member of a “vetted network” of “charitable organizations” to which contributions can be made.

Funding

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) does not include any financial data on its website, reflecting a complete lack of transparency and accountability.

In January 2020, Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), of which DCI-P is a member, refused to sign a European Union grant request that requires recipients to refuse to “transfer any E.U. assistance given to terrorist groups or entities.”

  • On February 13, 2024, the Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that Germany ended funding to DCI-P and the other Israeli-designated PFLP-linked NGOs. German NGO Weltfriedensdienst (WFD) stated, “at the beginning of 2024, on the instructions of the German government, we had to end our cooperation with Al-Haq and with Defense for Children International – Palestine as part of the project work in the Civil Peace Service at short notice.”
  • In 2022-2026, DCI-P is an implementing partner on a Belgian government funded €1.4 million project with Broderlijk Delen titled “Lobby and advocacy by empowered Palestinian communities and civil society in Palestine and Israel for respect for international law.”
    • In June 2021, following Parliamentary questions regarding allegations of Belgian government funding used for terrorist financing, Broederlijk Delen published a press release stating that it has “complete confidence in the functioning and transparency of its partner Defense for the Children Palestine (DCI-P).” According to the press release, Broederlijk Delen, “deeply regret[ted] the umpteenth attempt by the Israeli authorities, reinforced by Israeli lobby groups – including in Belgium – to undermine their legitimacy with very serious charges of terrorist financing. No evidence of such facts has ever been provided.”
  • In 2018-2023, DCI-P was an implementing partner on a $15.4 million “Human Rights Programme” project funded by Sweden via the NGO Development Center (NDC). Other partners include Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Badil, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Gisha, and Yesh Din (Al-Haq and Al Mezan also have ties to the PFLP). In 2024-2027, the Human Rights Program was extended to Phase II with a budget of SEK 120 million (~$11m). Following NGO Monitor reports and analyses, the project was abridged, with funding reduced to SEK 60 million and set to conclude in 2025. 
  • In 2021-2024, Weltfriedensdienst (WFD; BMZ-funded German NGO) implemented a project, “Side by side: strengthening civil society forces,” with Defense for Children International– Palestine (DCI-P), Al-Haq, and BADIL. Amount not transparent.
  • In 2019-2023, DCI-P was part of a  NOK 12.7 million project funded by Norway. Other recipients include Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR) and Ma’an News Agency. It is unclear how much each NGO received.
  • In 2017-2022, DCI-P received $190,000 from Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 
  • In 2025, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) granted an unknown amount to DCI-P.
  • In 2017-2019, the European Commission granted €699,236 to DCI-P for a project titled “strengthening community resilience and social cohesion in East Jerusalem on both sides of the separation wall.” The project included five Palestinian NGOs recipients, including Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), Land Research Center, and the Bisan Center for Research and Development Association (both UPWC and Bisan also have ties to the PFLP). 

DCI-P Ties to the PFLP

DCI-P Staff Ties to the PFLP

Hashem Abu Maria

According to DCI-P, Hashem Abu Maria “served as the coordinator of DCI-Palestine’s community mobilization unit, promoting constructive child participation throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory” where he “focused on Palestinian teens monitoring and documenting child rights violations in Hebron.” In July 2014, Abu Maria was killed during a violent confrontation in Beit Ummar.

  • Following his death, he was hailed by the PFLP as a “leader,” which issued an official mourning announcement.
  • The PFLP announcement praised his work for DCI-P, stating “he was in the ranks of the national liberation struggle and the PFLP from an early age, arrested several times, and was a model for a steadfast struggler and advocate for the rights of our people through his work in Defence for Children International.” The PFLP announcement furthered “With those words, this true revolutionary comrade went to join the demonstration and joined the martyrs of Palestine, his blood shed at the hands of the occupier’s forces. The Front pledges to the leader and his fellow martyrs, to all of the martyrs who have fallen on the path of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, that the struggle of the resistance everywhere in Palestine until all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is liberated.”
  • The PFLP also quoted a post from Abu Maria’s Facebook “It is clear the defeat of the ideas of tolerance, normalization…snuggling, kissing and beauty with the enemy state and its institutions, and instead the rise of the concepts of solidarity, co-operation and mutual support among the Palestinian people, promoting a culture of unity and resistance, a sense of belonging and identity…the youth are rising and the Intifada regrouping.”
  • On September 23, 2014, DCI-P uploaded a video (see Appendix II) of a memorial service for Abu Maria, featuring a speech by DCI-P General Director, Rifat Odeh Kassis. The courtyard where the memorial service took place was decorated with PFLP flags, posters, and pictures of prominent PFLP figures, such as founder George Habash and former leader Ahmed Sa’adat. Nearly all of the audience is dressed in PFLP apparel. 
  • Another video of the memorial service shows posters of Abu Maria featuring the PFLP emblem and of Abu Maria with the DCI-P logo.
  • The PFLP also posted an article in September 2014 noting that the PFLP in Hebron held a memorial service for “its martyr.” The article notes that PFLP leader “comrade” Badran Jabir delivered the speech on behalf of the PFLP and Rifat Kasis spoke on behalf of DCI-P. The article further states that Sahar Francis (see below) spoke as a representative of “Hashem’s friends.” 
  • A December 28, 2014 video of a PFLP event commemorating a PFLP member killed by Israeli troops clearly shows PFLP posters honoring Abu Maria alongside posters of key figures in the terrorist organization. (See Appendix III, video on file with NGO Monitor).
  • An August 2014 article in Ha’aretz about Abu Maria’s death cites his position in DCI-P, as well as noting that “Mourning notices now drape the house, together with banners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the organization in which Abu Maria was active politically.”
  • DCI-P dedicated its 2014 annual report to Abu Maria (see Appendix II).

Riyad Arar

Director of DCI-P’s Child Protection Program.1 He previously served in other roles in the organization, including directing the group’s Hebron office until at least August 2015. Arar is closely involved in coordinating DCI-P cooperation with UNICEF on “monitoring human rights violations.”

  • Arar addressed the December 28, 2014 PFLP memorial event for a group member who was killed “while engaging in a demonstration confronting the occupation forces with stones and Molotov cocktails.” (See Appendix III, video on file with NGO Monitor.)
  • The event featured PFLP paraphernalia and individuals clad in military garb – some of whom appear to be children (video on file with NGO Monitor).
  • In February 2018, Arar spoke at a Palestinian Prisoner Forum event in Hebron alongside “senior” PFLP official Badran Jaber. 

Nassar Ibrahim

President of DCI-P’s General Assembly until at least 2017  – one of the group’s governing bodies – and previously served on DCI-P’s board.

  • Ibrahim is the former editor of El Hadaf – the PFLP’s weekly publication.
  • On May 1, 2014, the PFLP unveiled a mural “developed by writer and journalist Nassar Ibrahim,” honoring PFLP founder George Habash. Several PFLP members attended and spoke at the event.
  • A December 2015 video shows Ibrahim presenting to a group of foreigners where he argues for a Palestinian “right of resistance”:
    • “What you can do depends on you. I’m not asking you to come, to fight, to raise the gun. If you believe in that, do that…But I’m not asking you to come to raise the gun with me. I’m asking you to recognize my right to resist as a people under occupation…Don’t judge me based on how I see my role in order to end the occupation.”
    •  “The balance of power to the ground will not be changed- only by resistance, not by negotiation… I am not saying that I am against the negotiation but the negotiation is not the tool to achieve the right it is a result of our resistance.
    • The policy of the Zionist government in Israel, they are preparing for a new holocaust in the Middle East for the Jewish…350 million Arabs will not be sleeping forever” (emphasis added).
  • In 2002, together with Majed Nassar, Ibrahim published the book The Palestinian Intifada: Cry Freedom, which is unabashedly supportive of the terror campaign of the early 2000s:
    • “The Palestinian resistance movement has therefore concluded that every check-point, every soldier and every settler are legitimate targets in the struggle for freedom and independence, thus rendering all theories and strategies of supremacy irrelevant. In essence then, everything becomes a target: Jerusalem, Haifa, Hadera, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, the settlements, the checkpoints, the military installations and even the Israeli Ministry of Defense” (page 94).
    • “No Palestinian accepts that the political parties that have struggled over the last fifty years should be regarded as ‘terrorist organizations,’ simply because their cause of liberation is anathema to the United States and its stepchild, Israel” (page 117) .
  • In February 2019 and July 2016, Ibrahim published articles on the PFLP’s Lebanon website. He is also quoted on the PFLP’s Syrian branch’s website. 
  • A May 31, 2019 post by the “Alternative Information Center, Palestine” notes that Ibrahim also serves as its director and stated that he “believes in the right of the Palestinians to resist in all its forms, including the armed struggle… and calls for controlling the weapons of the resistance in accordance with a political vision” (emphasis added).

Mahmoud Jiddah

According to DCI-P, Mahmoud Jiddah served as a DCI-P board member in 2012-2016. A May 13, 2017 picture taken at a meeting of the DCI-P General Assembly shows Jiddah standing next to General Assembly President Nassar Ibrahim, indicating his ongoing affiliation with DCI-P.

  • Jiddah was imprisoned by Israel for 17 years for carrying out grenade attacks against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem in 1968. A February 2017 Al Jazeera article furthers that Jiddah was arrested in 1968 for joining the front and carrying out terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tel Aviv.
  • According to news reports, following a 2016 meeting with Jiddah, Didier Ortiz, then a Green Party candidate for the Fort Lauderdale City Council, posted an Instagram photo of Jiddah citing the latter’s PFLP affiliation.
  • An April 2017 article in Arabic language media notes that Jiddah is “of the PFLP cadres” and that he spent his last twenty years serving different periods of time in jail.
  • A March 2006 article in Arabic language media notes that Jiddah was arrested and refers to him as a PFLP official. 

Sahar Francis

DCI-P listed Sahar Francis DCI-P board member in 2007-2008. 

  • Francis was also referred to as serving on “the board of the Defense for Children International and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees” in a September 2019 IMEMC interview.  UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate” and by a USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP. According to academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, UAWC was founded in 1986 by “agronomists loosely affiliated with the PFLP.” 
  • Francis is the director of the Palestinian NGO Addameer – an affiliate of the PFLP.
  • In May 2022, Francis was prevented from boarding a flight to the United States. 
  • According to a February 2019 interview with +972 Magazine, “One of the achievements Francis is proudest of is supporting Khader Adnan during his 2012 hunger strike.” Adnan was senior leader of PIJ.
  • According to the PFLP and Arab media, in September 2014, Francis participated in a PFLP-organized memorial event for Hashem Abu Maria, Sultan Al-Zaakik and Abe Al-Hameed Breigheth. During the event, Francis “talked about Hashem the human, Hashem the fighter, Hashem who did not know the meaning of defeat, Hashem who smiled at hardships. Hashem was a school for love, truth and commitment.”
    • In July 2014, Abu Maria was killed during a violent confrontation in Beit Ummar. Following his death, he was hailed by the PFLP, which issued an official mourning announcement, as a “leader.” (See above for more details.)
  • On February 22, 2016, during Apartheid Week events in London, Francis argued that while it was “not certain or proved…she shared with the audience the increasing suspicions that Israel was harvesting organs from Palestinian corpses before returning them” (emphasis added).

Hassan Abdel Jawad

Hassan Abdel Jawad served as a DCI-P board member in 2012-2018. 

  • The PFLP referred to Al-Jawad as a “comrade” in 2018.
  • In 2018, Al-Jawad spoke at a PFLP event commemorating a group member, the “Palestinian fighter, comrade Jamal Farraj.” According to Al Quds, Al-Jawad spoke “on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in which he said goodbye to the late fighter Farraj.” 
  • On October 17, 2016, Abdel Jawad appears to have spoken on behalf of the PFLP at an event commemorating a PFLP member who was killed (according to the PFLP) “while engaging in a demonstration confronting the occupation forces with stones and Molotov cocktails.”
  • Appears to have spoken on behalf of the PFLP at a 2012 event organized by the group, honoring former Bethlehem mayor Victor Batarseh.
  • Abdel Jawad appears to have been a PFLP candidate for the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006.
  • In 2016 and in 2008, Wafa identified Al-Jawad as “a leader of the Popular Front [PFLP] in Bethlehem.” Similarly, a 2005 book, The Palestinian National Movement, refers to Abed al-Jawad as “a PFLP activist in Bethlehem.”

Halima Abu-Solb

According to DCI-P, Halima Abu-Solb was elected to DCI-P’s board for a period of two years in April 2016 – 2018. A November 2014 article published in Ma’an also notes that Abu-Solb was elected to the organization’s general assembly for a period of two years in 2014.

  • According to a June 2007 article in Arabic language media, Abu-Solb was sentenced to a three year “PFLP prison-sentence.” 
  • In a March 2013 interview, Abu-Solb acknowledged that she was sent to prison before the Palestinian violence in the late 1980s for a period of three years. She also acknowledged that she is one of the founders of the PFLP-tied NGO Addameer and that she is a member of the “Women’s Council at the [Palestinian] lawyers’ bar association.” 
  • In July 2012, the PFLP, under its “news” section, reports that Abu-Solb spoke at a conference organized by the “Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling.” 
  • According to an undated Al-Ayyam article, Abu-Solb participated in an event with the wife of the PFLP secretary general Ahmad Sa’adat at a “Land Day” commemoration event organized by UPWC’s Bethlehem branch.

Mary Rock

According to DCI-P, Mary Rock was a DCI-P board member in 2014-2018.

Samer Ajaj

Arabic language media identifies Samer Ajaj as the coordinator of DCI-P’s Community Empowerment Unit.2 He previously ran DCI-P’s office in Nablus.

  • In 2012, Ajaj appears to have run for elected office in Nablus as a member of a list jointly controlled by the PFLP and another Palestinian organization.

Shawan Jabarin

Shawan Jabarin served on DCI-P’s board from at least 2005-2009.  

  • According to a 1995 Israeli submission to the UN, Jabarin was convicted in 1985 for recruiting and arranging training for members for the PFLP. A 1994 Israeli statement to the UN notes that he “had not discontinued his terrorist involvement and maintains his position in the leadership of the PFLP.”
  • In 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected his appeal to go abroad, stating that “the current petitioner is apparently acting as a manner of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization which has not shied away from murder and attempted murder, which have nothing to do with rights…”
  • In 2009, Jabarin was again prohibited by the Israeli authorities from travelling abroad. Jabarin appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court which rejected his appeal, stating, “We found that the material pointing to the petitioner’s involvement in the activity of terrorist entities is concrete and reliable material.”

Majed Nasser

Nasser served as a DCI-P board member from at least 2007-2009. 

  • Nasser previously served as Executive Director of the Palestinian Health Work Committees (HWC), an organization banned in 2015 by Israel for involvement in terrorism. In 2009, HWC’s Nidal Center was closed by Israel because of its ties to the PFLP.
  • The Independent (UK) identifies him as a PFLP member in a January 2002 article, in which Nassar criticizes Yasser Arafat for ordering the arrest of PFLP General Secretary Ahmed Sa’adat.
  • Nasser co-wrote The Palestinian Intifada: Cry Freedom, a book that praises the Palestinian terror campaign of the early 2000s (see section on Nassar Ibrahim above).
    • “The Palestinian resistance movement has therefore concluded that every checkpoint, every soldier and every settler are legitimate targets in the struggle for freedom and independence, thus rendering all theories and strategies of supremacy irrelevant. In essence then, everything becomes a target: Jerusalem, Haifa, Hadera, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, the settlements, the checkpoints, the military installations and even the Israeli Ministry of Defense” (page 94). 
    • “No Palestinian accepts that the political parties that have struggled over the last fifty years should be regarded as ‘terrorist organizations,’ simply because their cause of liberation is anathema to the United States and its stepchild, Israel” (page 117).

Fatima Daana

Fatima Daana served as a DCI-P board member in 2012-2018. In 2014-2016, she served  as the group’s treasurer.

  • Daana is the widow of Raed Nazzal, the former commander of the PFLP’s armed wing (the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades) in Qalqilya. Nazzal was responsible for several terrorist attacks and was killed in 2002 in a shootout with IDF forces.

Concerning Imagery and Rhetoric

  • In December 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, DCI-P published a statement claiming, “Israel’s segregationist acts of apartheid prevent the Palestinian people from exercising their right to self-determination, violating peremptory norms of international law…The operations of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad can only be understood in the context of this continuing decades long illegal act of aggression.”

Miranda Cleland

  • In October 2023, DCI-P Advocacy Officer Miranda Cleland tweeted, “It is beyond insulting and blatantly racist to assume Palestinians resisting Israeli colonization & trying to take back their land will result in anti-Semitic attacks in DC. What a joke” (emphasis added). Cleland shared a statement by the Mayor of DC condemning the Hamas attacks and committing to protect the Jewish community in DC.

Yaser Amouri

Yaser Amouri, appointed treasurer in 2020, has posted in support of terrorists who attacked Israeli civilians and police officers, as well as has glorified leaders of terrorist organizations.

Adla Nazer

Adla Nazer, appointed secretary in 2020, has used Facebook to honor terrorists and promote violent rhetoric.

  • On December 13, 2018, Nazer posted a picture of Salah Barghouthi and Ashraf Na’alwa – terrorists who had been killed by Israeli forces: “Once more, what a loss for us – every drop of blood of theirs. What a bad morning.”
  • On October 19, 2015, Nazer wrote on Facebook, “our knives that stretch to their necks are not comparable even a little to the repression that the occupation has done to us over decades. Our small and large knives, the ones that kill and the ones that injure, they are but our mothers’ kitchen knives… it is the knife of the Jerusalemite who revolts against the occupation’s policies… They [the Israelis] cause panic in the hearts of our children, they burn our houses, poison to death our sheep, burn our olives, open fire at our hearts, they walk within us with their weapons, they hurl at us the most offensive and racist curses, they celebrate our blood and are even capable of drinking it. They take by force the earth and the heavens… long live the nation, long live the knife” (emphases added).

Yazan al-Zubaidy

Yazan al-Zubaidy became DCI-P’s Vice President in 2020. On several occasions, he has utilized social media to promote extreme rhetoric, dehumanize Zionists, and delegitimize Zionism.

Funding to DCI-P

DonorAmountYear(s)
Broederlijk Delen€92,9002017-2019
EIDHR (European Union)€961,2982017-2019
SwedenSEK 60 million with 8 partners2024-2025
$15.4 million with 7 other partners2018-2023
European Neighbourhood Instrument (European Union)€699,2362017-2019
NorwayNOK 23.7 million project with multiple NGO recipients. Unclear how much each NGO received.2019-2023
Italy€878,1712015-2018
Netherlands€100,0002016
Rockefeller Brothers Fund$100,0002020-2022
$25,0002018
$25,0002017
Basque Agency for Development Cooperation (AVCD)€799,3622019-2021
Municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz€67,6822019-2020
Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID)€449,7352020-2022
GermanyAmount not transparent2021-2024

Appendix 1: PFLP Website Links to DCI-P

Screenshot of PFLP website in English, which links to DCI-P’s website and to the sites of other organizations with suspected PFLP ties (November 5, 2015):

Appendix II: DCI-P Staffer Hashem Abu Maria’s PFLP Ties

PFLP death notice for Hashem Abu Maria:  

DCI-P General Director Rifat Odeh Kassis addressing Abu Maria’s memorial service in front of the PFLP flag and pictures of the group’s founder, George Habash 

DCI-P poster featuring Hashem Abu Maria hung at his memorial service

Screenshot of a PFLP memorial event, commemorating Hashem Abu Maria (Uploaded to YouTube by “عميد بريغيث”, December 4, 2014).

 

PFLP on death of Hashem Abu Maria:

(Source: PFLP, “PFLP mourns Comrade Hashem Abu Maria, murdered by occupation forces,” August 3, 2014: https://english.pflp.ps/2014/08/03/pflp-mourns-comrade-hashem-abu-maria-murdered-by-occupation-forces/)

DCI-P 2014 Annual Report, dedicated to Hashem Abu Maria:

PFLP banner celebrating Hashem Abu Maria (Uploaded by “Defence for Children Palestine,” September 23, 2014):

Source: Defence for Children Palestine, “In Memoriam: Hashem Abu Maria,” September 23, 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFius6K0a6g&feature=youtu.be&t=68

 

Appendix III: DCI-P’s Director of Child Protection Program Riyad Arar Speaks at PFLP Memorial Service

Riyad Arar addressing a memorial service for a PFLP member, surrounded by PFLP flags, posters of PFLP leaders George Habash and Ahmed Sa’adat, and posters of Hashem Abu Maria (Uploaded to YouTube by “حسونه طنينه”, December 27, 2014)

PFLP members marching during the memorial service (Uploaded to YouTube by “حسونه طنينه”, December 27, 2014):

Appendix IV: Death Notice