A part of the Sequence
Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation
As Donald Trump seems for brand new strategies to crush the Palestine solidarity motion some teams allied along with his trigger are suggesting potential targets. A coalition of 45 pro-Israel organizations, led by the Zachor Authorized Institute, have sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Division, asking that it sanction six Palestinian nonprofits that they allege both straight or not directly help the Fashionable Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian leftist motion with each political and armed wings.
The letter follows the U.S.’s designation of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Community as a sponsor of terrorism on October 15, 2024. For years, pro-Israel lobbyists had requested the U.S. to comply with Israel’s line and shut down Samidoun’s fundraising within the U.S.
Samidoun, which the Israeli authorities and its allies have claimed is an unofficial entrance of the PFLP, with none credible proof, has lengthy labored beside Addameer, Al-Haq, Protection for Kids Worldwide – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Middle for Analysis and Growth, and the Union of Palestinian Girls Committees, the nonprofits named within the letter. The nonprofits doc Israel’s violations of worldwide regulation within the West Financial institution and likewise present direct help to Palestinians residing below Israel’s army occupation.
The U.S. State Division has listed the PFLP as a “overseas terrorist group” since 1997, when it first created the designation. The PFLP is among the two largest factions within the Palestine Liberation Group, which is acknowledged by the United Nations Normal Meeting because the authentic consultant of the Palestinian folks.
Zachor, “which payments itself as preventing the “delegitimization of Israel,” and the opposite signees requested that the Trump administration act expeditiously to make use of the total weight of the federal authorities to hamper the work of the six Palestinian nonprofits. They write within the letter, “Whereas these organizations are much less acknowledged in the US, there may be sturdy proof indicating that they’re integral to the community supporting Palestinian terrorism and warrant the identical SDN designations as Samidoun.” SDN refers to Specifically Designated Nationals, a listing administered by the Treasury Division of sanctioned people and entities.
This isn’t the primary time since Trump’s election that pro-Palestine nonprofits have come below assault. HR 9495, referred to as the “nonprofit killer invoice,” would enable the Treasury Secretary and by proxy, the president, to designate nonprofits as “terrorist supporting organizations,” and to strip them of their tax-exempt standing, a practical loss of life blow. The invoice handed within the Home over the last Congressional session with help from Republicans and a few Democrats however stalled within the Senate; if reintroduced, civil liberties advocates fear it might move extra simply due to the Senate’s new Republican majority.
“The anti-Palestinian teams that despatched this letter to the Treasury Division apparently have as little respect for Palestinian human rights as they do for the First Modification of the U.S. Structure.”
Israel has lengthy focused all elements of Palestinian civil society, together with human rights nonprofits who’re working to doc its violations of worldwide regulation within the West Financial institution. In 2021, Israel baselessly designated the six Palestinian nonprofits listed in Zachor letter as “terrorist entities,” sparking an international outcry. Israeli forces raided their Ramallah workplaces, confiscated tools and barred them from working within the West Financial institution. Amnesty International condemned the 2021 designation as a “marketing campaign of repression towards Palestinian civil society.”
A labeled report from the Central Intelligence Company, revealed by The Guardian in 2022, stated that the U.S. had no proof that any of the six organizations had direct or oblique ties to the PFLP. Regardless of this, Israel held the designation, and the U.S. didn’t concern a rebuttal.
Al-Haq, one of many six organizations, was concerned within the Worldwide Felony Court docket’s (ICC) inquiry into Israel’s unlawful occupation of the West Financial institution and equipped proof for the proceedings. Native Name and The Guardian later revealed that Israeli intelligence had spied on and attempted to intimidate officers at Al-Haq and different Palestinian nonprofits who had been aiding ICC officers of their investigation. Israel, between 2020 and 2021, additionally infiltrated the devices of six Palestinian human rights defenders with the highly effective Pegasus spy ware, developed by the Israeli NSO group. Ubai Aboudi, the chief director at Bisan Middle, was one of many targets; all six labored at nonprofits who had been designated “terrorist entities” by Israel.
With worldwide watchdogs barred from coming into Gaza after October 7, the duty for documenting Israeli forces’ incitement to genocide and genocidal conduct has fallen on Palestinian journalists and nonprofits. The identical could be stated within the West Financial institution, the place Israel has stepped up its army operations within the wake of the ceasefire settlement, which it has labeled, “Operation Iron Wall.” According to UN statistics, at the very least 40,000 Palestinians have been internally displaced on account of Israeli forces’ operations in Palestinian territory since October 7.
Israel has been extensively accused of arbitrary and unlawful dwelling demolitions, destruction of civilian infrastructure, blanket sieges on civilian areas and utilizing Palestinians as human shields throughout its ongoing operation. For this reason Aboudi says the coalition’s letter and marketing campaign are so harmful. “This is a sign of how politicized the terrorism designation is. A political push making an attempt to silence Palestinian human rights organizations at a time of elevated violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation and worldwide regulation towards Palestinian civilians,” he informed Truthout.
Zachor despatched an earlier model of the letter with the identical calls for to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on October 23, 2024. Nevertheless, Marc A. Greendorfer, president of Zachor Authorized Institute, acknowledges within the later model of the letter despatched on February 12, 2025, that they “are actually submitting this request, hopeful that the brand new administration’s concentrate on combating terrorism will guarantee immediate consideration and motion.”
The letter comes because the Trump administration escalates assaults on free speech on college campuses. Within the weeks after it was despatched, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who lately graduated from Columbia, threatening him with deportation for his legally protected pro-Palestine activism. In response to Edward Ahmed Mitchell, nationwide deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the letter ought to be seen within the context of this broader assault.
“The anti-Palestinian teams that despatched this letter to the Treasury Division apparently have as little respect for Palestinian human rights as they do for the First Modification of the U.S. Structure. Demanding that the Treasury Division designate human rights organizations in Israel and Palestine as terrorist teams is successfully a requirement for the federal government to ignore federal regulation for the advantage of a overseas authorities, interact in apartheid and genocide,” he stated.
Whereas Israel hasn’t shied away from attacking Palestinian nonprofits straight, the U.S., besides in choose circumstances as with the Holy Land Basis, has beforehand shunned straight sanctioning them. As a substitute, it has stood by as Israel chooses how you can cope with civil society within the West Financial institution. Nevertheless, if the Trump administration chooses to impose sanctions straight on the six nonprofits, it’s going to signify a major escalation within the U.S.’s engagement with Israel’s unlawful occupation of the West Financial institution, because it straight aids and abets Israel’s assaults on civil society organizations working to doc violations of Palestinians’ human rights.
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