Defense Minister Benny Gantz last week designated six Palestinian “human rights groups” as terrorist organizations.
Activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and Amnesty International rushed to condemn Israel and called on the international community to help reverse the unprecedented decision.
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Palestinian Human Rights organizations outlawed by Defense Minister Benny Gantz
(Photo: Courtesy)
You can’t really fault them though.
Firstly, anti-Israel bias is a concept deeply ingrained in the agenda of the two international human rights groups.
Secondly, the cries of discrimination from both, the BDS and Amnesty, are echoed by Israeli left-wing parties and coalition members - Meretz and Labor.
Thirdly, the United States also demanded an explanation from Israel behind the decision, which effectively outlaws the six groups in Israel.
Don't get me wrong, human rights are supremely important, but the very concept of human rights has recently become a platform for spreading of lies, manipulation and hate-mongering against Israel.
It has drained every ounce of credibility from these so-called “rights organizations” - to which decent people now seldom listen to, even when they do have something worthwhile to say.
But that's human rights groups in general. Palestinian rights organizations in particular are just political platforms that deny Israel's right to exist, with some taking it even further.
As early as February 2019, the Strategic Affairs Ministry published a comprehensive report, according to which a number of Palestinian organizations have become nothing more then a mechanism for money laundering and terror recruitment - mainly for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), considered a terrorist organization by Israel and many Western countries.
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Paramedic at the scene of a terrorist attack near Jerusalem's Central Station, September 2021
(Photo: TPS)
These so-called “Palestinian rights organizations” received no less the $200 million from the EU between 2014-2021.
These stipends - which Israel has tried to put a stop to - have done nothing so far but strengthen the animosity and hatred of the Palestinians towards the Jewish State, even in matters unrelated to terrorism.
Even more alarming is the revelation - again presented in the 2019 report - that many members of these organizations are also affiliated with known terrorist groups, while some have even carried out attacks against Israelis.
The EU, however, still thinks it knows best and remains adamant in its support.
The Union of Agricultural Work Committees - which is one of the six groups with a terror label on it - sounds like a name of an organization delightfully innocent and pedestrian.
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Paramedics and soldiers in Gush Etzion after an attempted terrorist attack, January 2021
(Photo: AP)
Two of the activists working for this organization - Summer Arabid and Abd a-Razak Farage - not only happen to be members of the PFLP, but were also accused of being involved in the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in August 2019, who was killed by a roadside bomb while hiking with her father near Dani's Spring.
The former head of the prisoners' rights group "Addameer," another outlawed organization, Khalida Jarrar, is also a PFLP member.
The list of members of these EU-funded rights groups who are connected to terror organizations goes on and on.
Nevertheless, shortly after Gantz’s declaration, Meretz MK Gaby Lasky posted a tweet in which she stated that “human rights organizations are not terrorist organizations. The defense minister must reverse his decision.”
Meretz head and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, meanwhile, demanded proof before labeling the six organizations illegal, same as Labor MK Naama Lazimi.
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A girl wearing a protective face mask and the headband of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) looks on during a rally in Gaza
(Photo: Reuters)
Their demands are weird, to say the least, considering detailed proof has been published not only in the 2019 report , but also, repeatedly, by the NGO Monitor organization - which promotes accountability on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the regards to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Serious peace and rights organization should have built a wall between them and the organizations and bodies that celebrate terrorism and work to delegitimize Israel, but the opposite is true.
And when politicians and "rights organizations" in Israel stand up to defend these bodies, they are basically killing what was supposed to be Israel’s "peace bloc.”