US State Department Criticizes Israel for Designating Palestinian NGOs as Terror Groups

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced he was designating six Palestinian human rights NGOs as terror groups, tying them to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  He claimed, without any evidence, that they were all affiliated with the militant group, which Israel has declared as a terror organization.  This would enable Israeli authorities to shut them down, lock offices, arrest staff, and seize bank accounts and records.  It would essentially, suppress all human rights advocacy by Palestinian organizations in Israel:

The six organizations included the Palestinian rights organization Al-Haq, Addameer, which represents Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli military courts, and Defense for Children-International, a group that advocates for Palestinian children. The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, the Bisan Research and Advocacy Center and the Union Of Agricultural Work Committees were also declared…terrorist organizations.

Gantz said in part:

They are “part of a network of organisations operating under cover in the international arena” on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),

“These organisations operated under the guise of ‘civil society organisations’, but in practice belong to and form an arm of the organisation’s leadership, the purpose of which is to destroy Israel while taking part in terrorist acts,” the statement added.

The statement accused the groups of being controlled by the PFLP and employing “operatives who were involved in terrorist activities”.

Such outrageous claims are a regular occurrence for Israel’s security apparatus.  It intensely dislikes all forms of humanitarian aid and routinely arrests and imprisons foreign and Palestinian aid workers on similar trumped up charges.  Muhammed al-Halabi has been festering in an Israeli prison for five years facing charges that have been widely discredited by his former employer, the Australian government and the entire global NGO community.   A Spanish aid worker was similarly arrested and remains in prison.  I was the first journalist to report both these arrests, breaking the Israeli gag order preventing the media from reporting it. These groups and staff have done nothing more than ameliorating the misery of Palestinians.  But even to do this shames Israel before the world.  It would rather they suffer in isolation, far from the cameras and attention of the rest of the world.

Another aim of the charges against the NGOs is to starve them of foreign funding.  Israel already forces human rights NGOs to list all sources of foreign funding (a law observed in Russia and other totalitarian states). Many European countries and foundations support Palestinian human rights activism financially as a means of assuaging their guilty liberal consciences in the face of Israeli apartheid. If Israel can cast doubt on the Palestinian NGOs’ integrity and tar them with a terror brush, then the funders will be leery.  They will not want their reputations sullied by such an association.

Defense of Children International sued a pro-Israel advocacy group, UK Lawyers for Israel, after if offered similar same false claims.  The latter was forced to publicly recant its claim.  My guess is that many of these claims were ginned up by various pro-Israel groups whose mission is to smear Palestinian activism.  While ostensibly independent, they are in effect arms of the Israeli state, attack dogs who snarl at all who threaten their master. Among those which have done this in the past are NGO Monitor, Shurat HaDin, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jewish Chronicle, and Palestine Media Watch.  Nor is it an accident that NGO Monitor published a “summary” of claims about PFLP ties to humanitarian relief and human rights NGOs two days before Gantz’s announcement.  The claims are shoddy and often based on information released by the Israeli government itself in a bout of circular logic. Clearly, they work hand in glove.  Not to mention, that NGO Monitor has been sued by at least one of the Palestinian NGOs it smeared and forced to issue a fully apology for its false claims.

The global response to Gantz’s declaration was almost instantaneous.  Of course, the PA and Palestinians denounced it.  But even members of Congress and the State Department harshly criticized Gantz’s decision:

I stand with @amnesty and @hrw in condemning the Israeli government for effectively banning legitimate civil society Palestinian organizations. This shocking decision must be reversed. https://t.co/7p22CqT50y

— Congressman Chuy García (@RepChuyGarcia) October 22, 2021

The State Department’s spokesperson said:

The US will “be engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for these designations,” Ned Price said…

“The Israeli government did not give us advance warning” that the Palestinian groups would be blacklisted, he added.

“We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance,” Price said.

Of course this is all window-dressing.  The Biden administration doesn’t much care about Palestinian human rights or Palestinians in general. It wants to maintain quiet so it can pursue its interests elsewhere and fight bigger battles {i.e. China, Russia, etc.)

Gantz vastly overplayed his hand.  It’s hard to understand what he thought he was gaining.  With a civil society, Israel can argue that it is democratic state which permits dissenting voices amongst Palestinians.  Eliminating even this thin vestige of resistance permits Israel’s critics to paint it as a authoritarian state.  Suppression of individual rights, minority groups and political opposition is a trademark of the totalitarian state.  This decision is characteristic of fascism.  For those who read Hebrew, Hanna Beit Halachmi has written a comprehensive analysis along these lines.

Gantz will almost certainly climb down from the branch he mounted, before it is sawed off.  This will probably not happen for another 12 hours of so until the end of Shabbat.  Almost certainly, Secretary Blinken and Biden’s staff have contacted Prime Minister Bennett and Gantz and told them to back off.  They will, because such global consensus is the only thing restraining Israel from its worst impulses.

Foreign critics are not the only ones raising their voices.  An Israeli security source told me that while his agency believes that many of the NGOs might have an ideological affinity for the PFLP, they were civilian [i.e. non militant and non-violent] organizations.  Declaring them “terrorist organizations” is “far-fetched,” he said.  Even within the security apparatus there is dissension.  My guess is that the IDF’s military intelligence unit, AMAN, devised this strategem and persuaded Gantz to go along, without consulting other security agencies.  It makes Gantz look like a fool.

In some sense, it would be better if Gantz rejected the advice and played the tough guy.  Then the world would get to see Israel for what it really is: a state pretending to be liberal and democratic, but which is racist and fascist to the core.  The sooner the world sees Israel for what it is, the sooner it will unite to demand an end to Israeli apartheid.