After the Israeli Defense Ministry designated six Palestinian NGOs as arms of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, the Palestinians responded in kind.

Regavim and NGO Monitor

Four days ago, the Palestine News Network published a report claiming that the Palestinian professional and popular unions declared Regavim and NGO Monitor to be terrorist organizations. 

“[They]  operate outside the scope of international law, and we call on all relevant international institutions and bodies to sever relations and never deal with them, as they are among the many Israeli institutions that operate according to the directives of the occupation security services, and with direct instructions from the fascist occupation government[i.e. Israel]”, the report read. 

“They stressed that NGO Monitor is a specialized institution skilled in falsifying facts that seek in all its reports to stigmatize the Palestinian national struggle and the development and human rights work of NGOs as terrorism, while the Regavim organization specializes in supporting settlement activity and works to monitor and prosecute any Palestinian activity in  Area C. using incitement to prevent it for racist settlement goals. The occupation government and its security services rely on the false reports of these two institutions in their decisions against popular and civil Palestinian action.”

Regavim is an NGO that monitors and pursues legal action in the Israeli court system against any construction lacking Israeli permits undertaken by Palestinians or Bedouins in Israel and in the Judea and Samaria.

NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, which analyzes and reports on the output of the international NGO community from a pro-Israel perspective.NGO Monitor says in its mission statement that it was founded “to promote accountability, and advance a vigorous discussion on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the framework of the Arab–Israeli conflict.” The organization routinely exposes self-described human rights groups as being anti-Israel.

It seems clear that the claim against the two organizations had more to do with baseless revenge than any actual connection to terrorism as Regavim and NGO Monitor have been exposing the actual nature of those six NGOs for several years. The Defense Ministry produced proof that they had been diverting EU aid towards the PFLP terror group. All of the organizations employ PFLP members. 

Regavim documented the terrorist ties of the “humanitarian” organizations in a report released in 2018 entitled “The Roots of Evil. Founded by George Habash “In order to circumvent international sanction while continuing its murderous assault against Israel and its citizens, the PFLP co-opted the discourse of human rights and international law and created a web of ‘civil society organizations,’ which was exposed in a 2015 ruling by Israel’s Minister of Defense,” Regavim rote. “‘Civilian activities of the PFLP draw a systematic picture indicating deep involvement in achieving [PFLP] goals – which are terrorist attacks against Israel…’  The PFLP established ‘civil society’ and ‘charitable’ foundations as a means of creating a ‘halo,’ encouraging outside observers to associate the terror group with positive progressive values instead of violence,’ using rights-based rhetoric to justify a host of illegal, violent activity and to obscure its ultimate goal – the elimination of Israel.”

One of the six organizations proscribed by Israel, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, employed at least three men who were implicated in the terrorist killing of Rina Shnerb in 2019. In 2017,  the Netherlands Representative Office and UAWC signed an $11,250,000 agreement to continue a land and water resource management project over the subsequent four years. The Dutch government admitted to paying part of the salaries of terrorists involved in killing Shnerb.