The Israeli army on Sunday signed a series of decrees making six Palestinian NGOs recently placed on its list of "terrorist groups" "illegal" as far as the occupied West Bank, a measure that should further complicate the work of these organizations. On October 22, the Defense Ministry announced that it had placed six Palestinian NGOs, including some working for the defense of human rights and prisoners, on its blacklist due to alleged links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP ), a Marxist group considered "terrorist" by the United States and the European Union.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many Israeli organizations immediately deplored this designation, which could result in drying up the funding of these NGOs, some of which receive European funds, and limiting the travel of their members.

NGOs have 14 days to appeal the decision

On Sunday, Commander Yehuda Fox, head of the Israeli army for the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, implemented this measure with decrees declaring these organizations "illegal" because "part" of the PFLP and "endangering the security of the State of Israel ”.

The six NGOs, who claim they did not have access to the evidence against them, have 14 days to appeal the decision, the decrees say.

Israel's internal secret service, Shin Beth, accused the organizations in May of embezzling funds from "several European countries" for the benefit of the PFLP, an Israeli source claiming that "tens of millions of dollars" had been transferred without "Let none of the governments know where the money was going."

The question of evidence debated

But a 74-page Shin Beth report on the affair - consulted this weekend by AFP and to which +972 magazine, an independent Palestinian media outlet, had first obtained access - offers little information. to underpin relations between the PFLP and NGOs. The case is based on interviews with Saïd Abedat, an "active member" of the PFLP dismissed for embezzlement by the "Health work committees", a Palestinian organization for which he worked and which is not one of the six NGOs qualified as "Terrorists".

In his statements to the Israeli police, Said Abedat asserts that the employees of these NGOs are mostly PFLP agents.

But the file does not offer any cross-verification of the testimony of this man and the three other people questioned.

“No one has provided even a shadow of evidence.

The dossier revealed by the +972 magazine is based on absolutely nothing that could, even remotely, justify designations for terrorism, commented to AFP Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer specializing in human rights and who advises in particular the NGO al-Haq, made illegal.

The six NGOs deny any link with the PFLP

Contacted by AFP on Sunday, a spokesperson for Shin Beth said he had no information to add on this issue.

All six NGOs have denied any connection to the PFLP.

And a leader of the PFLP told AFP that there was "no effective link" between these organizations and his movement, despite common positions such as opposition to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and support for BDS. , the campaign to boycott Israel.

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