Six Palestinian organizations affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and allegedly working for human rights have been declared terrorist organizations by Defense Minister Bnei Gantz, and the numbers prove the move was desirable.
A study we conducted at the NGO Monitor Institute showed that in the years 2021-2014, a dozen European governments transferred about $ 150 million to projects in which organizations related to the Popular Front participated.
The exposure of the security system showed that European money went to at least six of them, and through them - to terrorist organizations.
Two senior members of one of these organizations, who managed the funds, were directly involved in the murder of the late girl Rene Shenrav in 2019, while in another organization the director general was responsible for all the secret activities of the Popular Front in Ramallah and recruited other activists.
And these are just the visible things.
The disturbing thing is that over the years there have been many warning signs.
From 2016 onwards, the research institute documented from open sources connections of these organizations and others to the popular front: incidents in which senior members of organizations that are also members of the terrorist organization took part - some sat on their actions in Israeli prisons, and some went in and out of administrative detention over the years. , And more.
Even in December 2019, when the security forces arrested about 50 activists from the Popular Front terrorist organization, including those senior officials, the various European governments continued to fund these organizations.
The Europeans also gave organizations a boost and even funded biased reports they published against Israel. These and other organizations fed the UN and European establishment systems with countless false data and reports, often used as a basis on which diplomats, European and UN decision-makers rely, journalists , Public figures and the like.
The support that these organizations receive from the human rights community in Israel and around the world, and from some Knesset members, is not surprising.
They are part of an extensive international network of organizations that cooperate with each other in the de-legitimization campaign, and use the language of "rights" and "international law" to isolate Israel and undermine its very right to exist through boycotts and defamation.
Examples are not lacking: the BDS campaign;
The UN "blacklist" includes businesses and corporations across the Green Line; promoting an investigation against Israel in The Hague; accusations against the IDF of war crimes and more.
Along with all this, it was not the anti-Israel activity that led to Gantz's declaration, but the clear connection to the terrorist infrastructure.
Human rights are at the heart of democracy, but there are extremist political organizations that take advantage of this fact.
They speak the "language of rights" and can with disturbing ease be mistaken for human rights organizations without meeting any accepted standard and without any supervision or criticism by one body or another.
Their exposure as part of a terrorist organization must bring about a fundamental change in policy.
It is not possible for European governments, committed to human rights, to be impressed by an empty messiah of rights that is nothing but a cover for other activities, and not to examine in depth the organizations to which they contribute.