Jerusalem, 13 July, 2021 (TPS) — From 2016 to 2020, the United Nations (UN) has funneled at least $40 million to Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGO) that have ties to terrorist organizations and promote the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a new report by the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu revealed.
The report, published Tuesday, surveyed 19 Palestinian NGOs that receive funding from the UN and revealed that nearly all of them support BDS and eight of them have ties to Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror groups.
These organizations include Adameer, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).
Some of the terror-linked NGOs named in the report include the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Union of Health Work Committees, which have been identified by USAID as the respective agricultural and health arms of the PFLP, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that has ties to Hamas and PFLP according to Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs.
Just last week, IDF forces arrested Shatha Odeh, the General Manager of the Health Work Committees, and also searched the headquarters of the UAWC in Ramallah and closed it for six months.
The terrorist cell that carried out the bombing at Ein Danny in August 2019 in which Rina Shnerb was killed and her father Eitan and brother Dvir were seriously injured, were all members of the PFLP’s civic organizations. Sammer Arabid, the head of the cell, is one of the organizational management staff of the UAWC, which is supported by France and other European countries.
“As with most rabidly anti-Israel NGOs, their names are innocuous and mislead people into thinking they promote human rights, but in reality, they peddle malicious anti-Israel agendas,” said Eytan Meir, director of external relations and development for Im Tirtzu.
The report further notes that the UN is not entirely transparent in its reporting. The UN reporting “often omits the ‘implementing partners’ that receive the funding to carry out the programs. This creates a situation in which millions of dollars in funding are unaccounted for,” Im Tirtzu asserted.
The report also highlighted the US’ “disproportionate role” in UN funding, noting that the US funds 22% of the UN’s core budget and 25% of its peacekeeping budget.
“Support for terrorism and BDS is directly opposed to the values and wishes of the United States,” the report states. “In July 2019, the US House of Representatives passed an anti-BDS resolution by an overwhelming majority and to date more than 30 states have passed anti-BDS legislation.”
The US provides the UN with more than $2 billion in annual funding, “making it an unwitting funder of this network of radical Palestinian NGOs whose raison d’être is to destroy Israel,” the report pointed out.
As a solution, Im Tirtzu is advocating increased transparency and the passing of a UN-equivalent Taylor Force Act.
The Taylor Force Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in March 2018, requires the US to halt its aid to the Palestinian Authority so long as it continues paying stipends to individuals or families of individuals who committed acts of terror.
“A similar law can be implemented in regards to the UN,” Im Tirtzu stated. The law “would stipulate that the US will halt its aid to the UN so long as it continues to fund propaganda organizations that have ties to terrorist groups, promote BDS, and lobby international bodies against Israel.”
“Such a law would require the UN to cut its funding of these organizations out of fear of losing funding from the US, its largest donor.”