Introduction

The Palestinian Legislative Elections are scheduled for May 22, 2021; if they are held, it will be for the first time in 15 years.

The Central Elections Committee has certified 36 electoral lists (parties), including those representing Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – both designated by the US and the EU as terror organizations.

According to NGO Monitor’s analysis, at least eleven candidates on the PFLP list – known as “The People’s Pulse” – are also current and former officials of Palestinian NGOs that receive funding from the EU and European governments.

Five of them have been or are currently under arrest for their alleged involvement in terror activity, including the murder of an Israeli 17-year-old in an August 2019 bombing attack.

The fact that the PFLP has selected these individuals as its representatives is further proof of their strong affiliations with the terror group. In light of this evidence, foreign governments should cease funding to the NGOs with which they are affiliated.

NGO Involvement of PFLP Candidates Arrested by Israel

Seat 20:

Walid Hanatsheh (Abu Ras), Health Work Committees (HWC)’s finance and administration manager and a board member at Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) on behalf of HWC. Hanatsheh is on trial for allegedly leading PFLP “military” operations and commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the August 2019 bombing attack. According to the indictment against him, Hanatsheh bankrolled the bombing.

Following his arrest, the PFLP labeled Hanatsheh a “leader in the Popular Front.”

For more information on HWC’s and PNGO’s ties to the PFLP and their funding, see Appendices I and II).

Seat 25:

Ashraf Abu Aram. At the time of his November 2019 arrest, PNGO described him as its “human rights defender and advocacy officer.” According to the NGO, he “was transferred under ‘administrative detention for four months.’”

• A 2012 report in Haaretz identified Abu Aram as a PFLP member who was arrested for “allegedly planning to kidnap an IDF soldier in order to bring about the release of PFLP leader Ahmed Sa’adat from an Israeli jail.” According to the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), “Abu Aram already contacted a local weapons dealer in an effort to obtain two pistols and an automatic rifle with which to carry out the planned abduction.”

Seat 2:

Khalida Jarrar, Addameer’s vice-chair until 2017.¹ Jarrar was arrested on October 31, 2019 on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.”

According to the indictment against her, Jarrar headed PFLP activities in the West Bank, and Israeli security officials revealed that Jarrar has “emerged as the head of the PFLP in the West Bank and responsible for all the organization’s activities” (emphasis added).

In March 2021, Jarrar was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison following “her own confession, of the offense of holding office in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine from 2016 until her arrest in 2019.”

For more information on Addameer’s ties to the PFLP and its funding, see Appendix III.

Seat 4:

Naser Abu Khdair, Addameer board member.²

• According to a January 2018 article published by Samidoun, “Abu Khdeir is a prominent leader in Jerusalem and has spent 15 years in Israeli prison. Most recently, he served five and a half years in Israeli prison for membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”
• According to Arabic language media, Abu Khudair was badly injured in the early 80s while assembling an explosive device, which he planned to detonate near a “bus stop for soldiers in Jerusalem.”
• As reported on the Arab48 website, the Shin Bet arrested Abu Khadair in 2011 for heading a terror cell that planned to commit terrorist attacks and kidnap a soldier. Arab48 adds that he liaised with PFLP leadership in Damascus and met with PFLP officials in Jordan in order to receive training and funds.
• For more information on Abu Khdair’s terror ties, see NGO Monitor’s report “Addameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group.”

Seat 65:

Bashir Al-Kahiri, former board of trustees president at UAWC and an Addameer board member.³ He “was convicted of terrorist offences in 1969 and gaoled for 15 years.”

• Al-Khairi was arrested in 2010 by the IDF along with other PFLP members. An Arab media news articlerefers to Al-Khairi as being a member of the PFLP’s National Council.
• In statements in 2012 and 2014, the PFLP referred to Al-Khairias an “historic leader,” a “comrade,” and a “leader.”
• An August 27, 2002 CNN article identifies Khairi as “head of the PFLP political bureau.”

For more information on UAWC’s ties to the PFLP and its funding, see Appendix IV.

Other officials from PFLP-linked NGOs

Seat 61:

Abdul-Latif Ghaith, Addameer’s former chairperson.⁴ Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri banned him from traveling abroad in both February 2019  and February 2017. According to the Interior Ministry, Deri “was convinced that Abdul-Latif, an activist in the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] organization and a person who has connections to the organization’s activists abroad, will utilize his travel abroad for the organizational purposes of the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine].”

Seat 5:

Ilham Jarghoun, Al-Dameer’s vice chairman of the board.

• (For more information on Al-Dameer’s ties to the PFLP and its funding, see Appendix IV).

Seat 12:

Maher Al-Attar, Al-Dameer’s chairman of the board⁵ and Head of the PFLP’s Democratic Association of Lawyers and Jurists⁶  as of November 2020.⁷

Seat 19:

Mousa Ayyad, Al-Dameer’s board secretary (as of March 2021)⁸ and the Head of the PFLP’s Progressive Scouts Groups (as of August 2020)⁹.

Seat 9:

Bakr Abu Safiya, board member at Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip.

• In February 2020, the PFLP referred to him as “a member of the Central Committee.”
• For more information on Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip’s ties to the PFLP and its funding, see Appendix VI.

Seat 6: 

Shireen Bandak-Mauge, Secretary of the Board at QADER for Community Development.

• For more information on QADER for Community Development’s funding, see Appendix VII.

Appendix I: HWC’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• On June 9, 2015, the Israel defense minister announced that the Jerusalem branch of the Health Work Committee is an unlawful association, designated as a terrorist organization by the Israel High Court of Justice (HCJ 3923/15; emphasis added).
• Numerous HWC staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on HWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Health Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”

Appendix II: PNGO’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• PNGO is an umbrella framework with 142 NGO members based in Gaza and the West Bank, which has also ties to the PFLP (see NGO Monitor’s report, “PNGO’s Ties to Palestinian Terror Groups”).
• According to media reports, during a December 2019 meeting with EU officials, the PNGO led rejection of the EU’s Anti-terror Funding Requirement (Article 1.5 bis of “ANNEX II General conditions applicable to European Union-financed grant contracts for external actions”). In January 2020, PNGO’s head of the board, Shatha Odeh, who also serves as the head of the Health Work Committees (see below), stated, “We disagree with the European Union on the list… which includes seven political organizations and classifies them as “terrorists”. For us, they are national liberation movements.”

Appendix III: Addameer’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• Addameer is a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate.”
• Numerous Addameer staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on Addameer’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Addameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group.”

Appendix IV: UAWC’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate,” and by USAID as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP. In 2019, two of UAWC’s senior employees responsible for financial matters (Samer Arbid and Abdel Razeq Farraj)¹⁰ were arrested by Israel. They are currently standing trial for being part of a PFLP terror celland the August 2019 murder of 17-year old Rena Shnerb.
• Numerous UAWC staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”

Appendix V: Al-Dameer’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• Al-Dameer was established in cooperation with the PFLP “affiliate”
• Numerous Al-Dameer staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. For more information on Al-Dameer’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Al-Dameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group.”

Appendix VI: Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip’s ties to the PFLP and Funding

• PFLP organizes events in the RCS4GS hall. For example, In February 2019, RCS4GS hosted 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.” Yamani “coordinated special operations…in particular the operation against an aircraft of the Israeli company El Al in July 1968 in Greece.” “Fighters” of the PFLP’s Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades and “civil society representatives” attended the event (see photos below).

Source: PFLP website

Source: https://www.abuali.ps/index.php/news/2678

• Several RCS4GS board members have served as members of the PFLP Central Committee and as board members of other PFLP-linked NGOs.

Appendix VII: Funding to QADER for Community Development

• In 2019, QADER for Community Development’s total income was NIS 1.46 million; total expenses were NIS 1.43 million.

QADER for Community Development’s 2019 donors and partners included German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UN Women Trust Fund, Caritas Germany, Global Affairs Canada, Catholic Relief Services, and Save the Children.