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Palestinian NGO Terror Links
(Fathom-BICOM-UK) Gerald M. Steinberg - For at least 20 years, the 6 Palestinian NGOs designated by Israel as prohibited terrorist fronts have received core funding from foreign governments (primarily Western European, including the EU). More than ten years ago, my colleagues at NGO Monitor and I began to discern a pattern pointing to an organized network linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP). As of October 2021, we identified 74 PFLP officials who simultaneously held and continue to hold significant positions in 13 NGOs. The PFLP opposes any recognition of Israel and the Oslo framework - they are hard-core Palestinian rejectionists (further highlighting the contradictions inherent in the embrace of the NGO network by European governments). The 6 designated Palestinian "civil society" organizations do not involve isolated cases or a few "bad apples," as some have tried to claim. The systematic connections between the NGO network and the PFLP extend to diversion of major funding for terror. The writer, professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, heads the Institute for NGO Research in Jerusalem.