[ad_1]
STORY — A A legal think tank is urging the Justice Department to investigate groups it says are “operators” for a US-designated terrorist organization, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Zachor Legal Institute, which focuses on antisemitism and discrimination, joined several organizations in 2018 to ask the Trump administration to investigate groups linked to foreign terror groups, including against Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Now, as attacks on Jews in the United States and abroad continue to increase, the DOJ must look into whether the seven groups working as weapons for the PFLP are violating federal law. , says Zachor in his October 25 letter.
In 2021, antisemitic incidents hit a record high, according to the Anti-Defamation League. There were 2,717 incidents, a 34% increase compared to 2020, including assault, harassment, and vandalism.
The seven groups that Zachor lists in his letter as “leaders” of the PFLP, a Marxist-Leninist group, have all been designated by Israel as terrorist organizations and controlled the world. This includes the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International — Palestine, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS CHOOSE BIDEN ADMIN’S REMOVAL OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT.
The seven have also been associated with Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions – a movement that calls Israel an “apartheid state” and has been criticized as antisemitic.
Zachor’s letter to the DOJ comes a year after Shin Bet, Israel’s FBI, released a report on the role of seven “instigators” in financial and PFLP and engaging in money laundering and wire fraud. Most of the workers work for PFLP dual-discipline “respondents” or are supporters of the PFLP, according to the report.
In August 2022, the Israeli government raided the offices of a number of groups it considered terror-affiliated as part of its investigations into their activities.
“We have also asked the Department of Justice to investigate foreign terrorist organizations that are receiving funding and other forms of support from front-line groups in the United States and abroad,” said Marc Greendorfer, an attorney who set up Zachor, said to the Washington Examiner. “For the security of the United States and the protection of those who choose to donate to humanitarian causes, it is imperative that the DOJ investigate the seven former PFLP organizations identified in our letter.”
Zachor says that PFLP “activists” in the US operate “with impunity” and participate in college campus events, organizing protests that have “descended into violence. ” Activists for Samidoun, who demand the release of Palestinian prisoners with many ties to the PFLP, attacked American Jews in May 2021 outside the Israeli Consulate in New York, Zachor said in his letter. .
The leaders of Samidoun prohibited by the Netherlands in October since joining the European Union. The party’s leaders, including Khaled Barakat, Mohammed Khatib, and Mustafa Awad, are two-time leaders of the PFLP, according to Zachor.
“Although some foreign governments and others have condemned the designation of the seven PFLP Proxies as terrorist organizations, and also protested against the Israeli attacks, the review of the information presented here shows Despite claims to be a civil society organization, the seven PFLP Proxies work to advance the goals of, and are controlled by, the PFLP,” said Zachor in his letter.
Addameer, who Zachor says will “act as the legal support arm of the PFLP,” will provide free legal aid to Palestinian prisoners and “work to end torture and other violations of prisoners’ rights through surveillance, legal procedures and solidarity programs,” according to its website.
Current and former employees of Addameer, including Khalida Jarrar and Abdul-Latif Ghaith, have been accused of being PFLP members, according to NGO Monitor.
Al-Haq, another party Zachor mentioned in his letter, also has strong ties to the PFLP. The group operates in Palestine and claims to write “passages” against the “Palestinians,” urging Israel to be “objective.”
Shawan Jabarin, the general manager of Al-Haq, was identified in 2008 by the Supreme Court of Israel as “among the main supporters of the former notorious terrorist organization.” In 1985, he was convicted in Israel of training and recruiting members of the PFLP.
Jabarin is a board member of Defense for Children International — Palestine, which Zachor says has “great ties to the leadership of the PFLP and the executive order.”
Click here to read more from the WASHINGTON Observer
Zachor is asking the DOJ to hold the diplomatic corps “responsible for their promotion and support of terrorism.”
“Further investigations by the DOJ are needed to investigate the activities of these terrorist organizations in the United States,” the group wrote in its letter.
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
[ad_2]
Source link
