Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' Links to the PFLP Terror Group

Introduction

Founded in 1995, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is a Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO) claiming a human rights agenda, mostly relating to Gaza. Its focus is attempting to galvanize international pressure and punitive measures against Israel in the legal realm. It has targeted numerous Israeli officials, including former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livini, with universal jurisdiction arrest warrants in European countries and New Zealand. PCHR lobbies UN bodies intensively, accusing Israel of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, and was instrumental in pushing the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into Israel.

In September 2025, the US State Department imposed sanctions on PCHR for “directly engag[ing] in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”

In addition, as documented in this report, PCHR has multiple links to the PFLP terror organization, designated as such by the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel.

Nevertheless, the UN and foreign governments provide PCHR with extensive funding and rely on it as a source of information.

This relationship between a self-proclaimed human rights NGO and a terror group is antithetical to human rights norms and principles. As such, PCHR is an inappropriate partner for the UN and democratic governments.

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 2011and 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 with Israel, 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.”

NGO Monitor has identified a broad network of Palestinian NGOs claiming to advance human rights or humanitarian interests that have links to the PFLP terror group.  These connections include current and former NGO board members, officials, and employees who served in the PFLP or spoken on its behalf at public events and taken part in PFLP forums.

Funding

PCHR’s terror affiliation is antithetical to human rights norms and principles. Due to its affiliation with the PFLP, the provision of funds to PCHR is in likely violation of international, EU, and domestic terror financing and material support laws. The organization is therefore an inappropriate partner for governments and individuals seeking to further human rights in the region.

In January 2020, Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), of which PCHR 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.”

• PCHR donors have included: the European Union,  Ireland, Spain, France (Consulate General), Open Society Institute, Christian Aid (UK), DanChurchAid (Denmark), Grassroots International, Kvinna Till Kvinna (Sweden), Trocaire (Ireland), Oxfam Novib (Netherlands), Misereor (Germany), and the United Nations (OCHA, OHCHR, UNDP, UN Women).
• In 2023, PCHR received CHF 324,285 from Switzerland. In November 2023, Switzerland (FDFA) announced it was ending funding to PCHR over breach of FDFA’s Code of Conduct. Swiss media, citing FDFA’s head of communications, revealed that the reason was PCHR’s problematic attitudes towards violence.
• In 2023-2024, the European Union  granted €475,000 to PCHR for “Promoting and Protecting Human Rights for Women, Men, Girls and Boys With and Without Disabilities Victims/Survivors of Human Rights Violations in the Gaza Strip.”
• In 2023, PCHR received €100,000 from Ireland (Irish Aid).
• In 2022-2024, PCHR received NOK 7 million from Norway.
• In 2021-2022, Andalucía Agency for International Development Cooperation (Spain) provided €109,825 to PCHR and the Al Quds Association for the “Promotion and protection of women’s rights in the Gaza Strip.”
• In 2021-2022, DanChurchAid (Denmark) granted DKK 300,000 to PCHR.
• In 2023-2025, Grassroots International solicited donations to PCHR, though it is unclear how much money the latter received. In 2024, Grassroots International referred to PCHR as a “long-term partner.”
• In 2025, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) granted an unknown amount to PCHR.
• In 2021, PCHR received $194,255 from the UN OCHA occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund for “Advocacy, monitoring and documentation of HR and IHL violations and related trends in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.”

PCHR’s Organizational Ties to the PFLP

According to information posted on the PFLP website, on June 27, 2015, the PFLP’s prisoner committee participated in a workshop organized by PCHR. The event was held “in solidarity” with Khader Adnan, a member and “leader” of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, during his two-month long hunger strike. During the event, PFLP prisoner committee member Hani Mezher called on PCHR to “exert a double effort to make urgent contacts with all institutions and raise the issue of prisoners with the international community and the free world so we can save his life.”

PCHR Staff with Ties to the PFLP 

Raji Sourani: General Director¹

• Sourani was imprisoned by Israel from 1979-1982 having been convicted of membership in the PFLP. According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012. Sourani was imprisoned an additional three times “in 1985 and 1986…” and held in administrative detention in 1988. From 1986 to 1987 he was “restricted from legal work for one year by an Israeli military decision issued by the Israeli Military Governor.”
• In 2013, the Swedish Right Livelihood Award Foundation awarded Sourani “the Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.” 
  • According to the PFLP’s website, the terrorist organization sent “leader” and PFLP Central Committee member Rabah Muhanna to PCHR’s offices to congratulate Sourani. PCHR Chairman Dr. Riyad Al-Zaanoun “thanked the Popular Front for the visit, stressing the important national role it took upon itself in the field of adherence to Palestinian national rights and principles.”
  • On February 16, 2014, the PFLP held a ceremony honoring Sourani for receiving the award. Several members of the PFLP’s Gaza Central Committee² attended, including its chief, Jamil Mizher.³ 
  • During the ceremony Sourani stated that “I was in the ranks of the Popular Front, and there were comrades who taught us with their own hands. This organization has given us much more. We hope that the direction and the sense of belonging that were planted inside us will remain in our minds. We don’t apologize and don’t regret our past, we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks” (emphasis added).

Raji Sourani accepts award from the PFLP on February 16, 2014. From right to left: PCHR General Director Raji Sourani, PFLP Central Committee member Rabah Muhanna, and PFLP Central Committee member Mariam Abu Daqah (Source: Al Watan Voice, “The people honor the fighter Professor Raji Sourani in recognition of his role in transmitting the message of our people,” February 17, 2014:)

Another photo of Sourani received the award. The banner reads “Recognizing the distinguished professor, Raji Sourani on receiving the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” (Source: PCHR, “PFLP honors Lawyer Raji Sourani for Winning ‘Alternative Noble Prize,’” February 20, 2014)

Raji Sourani standing at the award ceremony with the head of the PFLP in Gaza and PFLP Central Committee member Jamil Mizher (far right) (Source: Al Watan Voice, “The people honor the fighter Professor Raji Sourani in recognition of his role in transmitting the message of our people,” February 17, 2014)

• On November 14, 2017, the Gaza branch of the PFLP held a book launch for the book Echo of Enclosure by PFLP commander Ahmed Sa’adat.
  • According to the PFLP, “members of the PFLP Central Committee spoke at the gathering, along with the fighter Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights…”
  • Following Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in 2002, Sourani and PCHR repeatedly petitioned Palestinian officials to secure his release. 

Raji Sourani participates in a PFLP-organized book launch of a publication by PFLP leader Ahmed Sa’adat. (From right to left) Raji Sourani, writer Abdel Nasser Farawana, and PFLP Central Committee member Allam Ka’abi. (Source: PFLP, “The Popular Front in the Gaza Strip launches the book ‘Echo of Enclosure’ by Commander Ahmed Saadat,” November 14, 2017)

• Sourani stated that Israel prohibited him from leaving Gaza in 1977-1990.
• Sourani was imprisoned by Israel from 1979-1982 having been convicted of membership in the PFLP. According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…”

Jaber Wishah: PCHR board member as of July 2025.

• In 1985, according to a December 27, 1985 article in the Israeli Maariv, Wishah served as “the head of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza.” A September 1999 article in Arabic language media similarly states that he was responsible for the PFLP’s military apparatus.  
• Wishah was convicted by Israel of “holding a leading position in a terrorist organization of which he was a member, intentionally attempting to kill an Israeli Staff Sergeant in Gaza, configuring a bomb and planting a bomb, possession of firearms and conspiring to commit murder.” 
• He was sentenced to life in prison and spent 15 years in Israeli prison in 1985-1999.⁴ 
• Wishah was incarcerated together with terrorist Samir Kuntar,⁵ and Wishah’s mother became Kuntar’s adoptive mother. When Kuntar was released from prison, Wishah expressed his happiness for the release of his “former cellmate,” stating, “Today is a true day of joy for all Palestinians and all freedom lovers across the world.”  

Samir Kuntar, Jaber Wishah’s Mother, and Jaber Wishah from a video about Samir Kuntar (Source: Hager Press, “Jaber’s mother the Palestinian mother to Samir Kuntar mourns…” Youtube (2:05), December 22, 2015)

• In response to Kuntar’s death in December 2015, the “Resistance Committees” offered “condolences” to Wishah’s mother. The Palestinian Resistance Committees (PRC) is a Gaza-based terrorist organization. PRC officials arrived clad in military uniforms and armed with assault rifles. Wishah personally greeted these members, including PRC spokesman Abu Mujahid.⁶

Source: Palestine Today, “Photos: Resistance Commitees support the struggle of Umm Jabor Washah by Quoting Samir Qantar,” December 2015

• According to a February 2023 profile of Wishah published by Vision for Political Development – a research institute that conducts interviews with and analysis of leading Palestinian figures – Wishah believes that “Liberation from the occupation will be accomplished by resistance in all possible forms, and especially armed resistance, which is legal world-wide. This, until achieving liberation and establishing a Democratic Palestinian state of all lands of historic Palestine.”  The profile also notes that “Wishah has been affiliated with the PFLP since 1972 and joined its military wing…and became its head in the Gaza Strip…”
• In 2014, Wishah participated in a PFLP event  where a “committee of the PFLP led by Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Political Bureau, Comrade Hani Khalil, the liberated prisoner Jaber Wishah… honored more than ninety martyrs’ families” (see Appendix I).  
• On May 24, 2014, Wishah took part in a PFLP event honoring the group’s Central Committee (see Appendix I). 
• In November 2013, Wishah was part of a Palestinian delegation that traveled to Lebanon to meet with Hezbollah officials. During the gathering, Wishah stated, “We must establish a strategy to confront this Zionist enemy based on the use of force so that this enemy understands well that the Arab and Muslim nations are decisive…”

Wishah (left) with Hezbollah member Hassan Hoballah (right).

Bassam al-Aqraa: Former Head of Training Unit

• Aqraa served as the head of PCHR’s “Training Unit” until his death in February 2018.
• In February 2018, the PFLP posted an article on its website “People hold a house of condolence for the late Bassam al-Aqra in Cairo,” referring to him as a “companion of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” The article explains that the PFLP held public mourning events in his honor and called on its supporters to participate in his funeral.  
• A February 25, 2018 article in the Israeli Haaretz about Aqraa mentions his involvement in PCHR and his time spent in jail, where “the Front forced us to study all the time.” 

Screenshot of memorial service notice for Bassam Aqraa from the PFLP Information Office’s Facebook page (Source: PFLP Information Office, Facebook, February 17, 2019)

Anwar Matar: Administrative Assistant, Gaza Office⁷

• According to Arabic language media, Matar appears to have been active in the PFLP in the late 1980s and was arrested several times by Israel.
• In 2016, Matar met with a PFLP representative in Tunisia, presenting him with a letter from the Director of the Prison Affairs Unit requesting support on behalf of Palestinian prisoners. In the article, Matar is referred to as a “released prisoner.”
• In 2008, according to the book Palestinian Documents for the Year 2008, Matar was a member of an initiative to resolve a dispute between the senior Islamic Jihad and PFLP officials Jamil Mizher, Rabah Mahana, and Ghazi Sourani.

Khalil Shahin: Head of Economic and Social Rights Unit⁸

In 2013, PFLP organized a political seminar on “ways to develop solidarity with prisoners.” Members of the PFLP’s Central Committee and “PCHR researcher Khalil Shanin” spoke at the seminar.

Nadia Abu Nahla: Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors

• According to the PFLP, in April 2015, Abu Nahla spoke at a meeting organized by the PFLP and PIJ on “the Palestinian crisis and the horizons for solution.” Among the participants were then PFLP political bureau members Rabbah Muhana and Mariam Abu Daqqa, Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, and senior PIJ member Khaled Al-Batsh. 
• On May 13, 2023, Abu Nahla wrote, “Just a moment ago the Zionist occupation war planes attacked a house and completely destroyed it…Nazi criminal occupation…May the occupation demise. May the resistance (a euphemism for Palestinian terrorist organizations) have victory.”

From left to right: Abu Nadia, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Rabbah Muhana, and senior PIJ member Khaled Al-Batsh.

Concerning Rhetoric

• On May 13, 2023, in the context of the May 2023 conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), PCHR published a statement in which it  “affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation by all available means, including armed struggle, all the way to achieve their legitimate rights, end the occupation and establish their independent state” (emphasis added).
  • Following pressure from European donors, PCHR altered the text to read: “to resist the occupation by all legitimate means in accordance with international law.”
• On October 7, 2023, PCHR Fundraising and Program Officer Feda’a Murjan posted on Facebook, “We will truly step in our land. Allah, you are our protector and supporter.”
• On October 8, 2023PCHR, Al-Haq, and Al Mezan published a joint statement calling for “Immediate Action from the International Community to Stop Israel’s Reprisals against Palestinian Civilians.” According to the statement, “On Saturday, 7 October 2023, Palestinian armed groups engaged in an operation in response to escalating Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
• In May 2023, PCHR was a signatory on a statement “condemn[ing] the calculated and cold-blooded slow-killing of 45-year-old Khader Adnan—father, husband, Palestinian activist, and former prisoner—by the Israeli occupying authorities in the early hours of Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Khader was a reputed, revered, and resilient resistance actor within the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement”(emphases added).
  • Khader Adnan, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad member arrested in February 2023 and indicted for membership in a terror group, supporting a terrorist organization, and incitement, died following his 86-day-long hunger strike and refusal to receive medical treatment from the Israeli Prisons Service.

Yasser Abdel Ghafour – Deputy Director of Field Research

• On October 7, 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, PCHR Deputy Director of Field Research Yasser Abdel Ghafour shared a picture of Gazans celebrating on a looted IDF vehicle, and wrote, “Long live the heroes.”
• On October 7, 2023, Ghafour wrote, “This is an action done by a group which has been besieged for 17 years in a catastrophic state. One can only think what would have been if the decision to go to confrontation was collective in which all the [Muslim] nation and the arenas are a part of. In short, in spite of all their breakthroughs which they publicize and the technology they possess, they were still taken by surprise, by Allah’s favor. Peace be upon you heroes, you, and all of the people in Gaza that is supporting and aiding and joyous whatever the hurdles are. #Al-Aqsa_Flood.”

Mkhaimar Abusada – Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors

• On January 27, 2023, following a gunbattle between IDF forces and Palestinian gunmen in Jenin, Abusada shared on Facebook his interview with Al-Araby TV news, in which he said, “…We console ourselves and console our people for the large number of martyrs that fell today while defending Jenin camp and the brave Palestinian resistance in the West Bank…”
• On January 27, 2023, Abusada shared his televised interview on Al-Ghad TV on the same day and wrote, “The rockets of the Palestinian resistance from Gaza is a message of warning and threat to the Israeli occupation so that the latter stop the aggression against Jenin camp and the West Bank [in general]…” During the interview, Abusada said, “The massacre that Israel carried out yesterday in Jenin camp, which caused the martyrdom of ten Palestinians, and the destruction that the Israeli occupation forces caused in Jenin camp and in all of the West Bank…The Palestinian factions wanted to send a clear message to the Israeli occupation that…it is not possible for the occupation forces to isolate the Jenin camp or our people in the West Bank….”
• Two days after the murder of seven Israeli civilians outside a Jerusalem synagogue, on January 30, 2023, Abusada shared his interview with Al-Mwatin, published on January 30, 2023, in which he said, “…In light of the current tough and harsh political circumstances, which we are going through…it does not prevent the Palestinian people from taking revenge against the massacres that are occurring in Palestine…The national Palestinian struggle and fight shall not end, and the flame of Palestinian resistance shall not end, but continue as long as there is occupation, settlement and judaization.”

Appendix I: Jaber Wishah’s Participation in PFLP Events

Jaber Wishah participating in a May 2014 Gaza event honoring members of the PFLP Central Committee (Source: PFLP, “Honoring the Central Committee,)

Jaber Wishah embracing members of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group at a December 2015 Gaza event mourning Hezbollah terrorist Samir Kuntar (Source: Palestine Today, “Photos: Resistance Committees support the struggle of Umm Jabor Washah by Quoting Samir Qantar,” December 2015)

(Source: Palestine Today, “Photos: Resistance Committees support the struggle of Umm Jabor Washah by Quoting Samir Qantar,” December 2015)

Photos from the May 2014 Gaza event honoring members of the PFLP Central Committee (Source: PFLP, “Honoring the Central Committee,)

Jaber Wishah (center) participating in a July 2014 PFLP event in Gaza, honoring the families of “martyrs” (Source: Naba News Agency, “Photos…People honor the families of the martyrs of the center mass rally,” July 4, 2014)

Appendix II: Jamil Mizher at PFLP Youth Military Summer Camp

Source: PFLP, “Graduation camp,” (See also video evidence from August 30, 2015 here)