Complaint: UK Aid to Palestinians Used to Promote Anti-Semitism

Yet another instance of aid misused to promote terrorism and anti-Semitism has been exposed.   

By: United with Israel Staff

A group of lawyers in the United Kingdom has filed a complaint with the Charity Commission for England charging that the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) organization has a record of promoting anti-Semitism, and is connected to a Palestinian terrorist group.

The Lawfare Project together with UK Lawyers for Israel on Wednesday filed a complaint against MAP with the Charity Commission for England and Wales which outlines ways in which some of MAP’s annual income of £5.4 million may have been spent for political propaganda rather than for its stated purpose of providing medical care to the Palestinians.

The complaint details MAP’s links with and funding of NGOs linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the UK, US, EU, Canada, Israel, and others

The complaint also shows that content on MAP’s website promotes anti-Israel bias and includes material promoting racist hatred and false claims regarding the medical situation facing the Palestinian Arabs

The petition also exposes MAP’s involvement in the dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda, including a video by former KKK leader David Duke by MAP’s founder and patron, Dr. Swee Ang.

MAP’s promotion of the anti-Semitic play, “Seven Jewish Children,” is also highlighted in the complaint.

While MAP is advertised as a charity that is involved in the provision of health care, it is also “involved with NGOs linked to a terrorist organization, the PFLP, designated as such by the UK government among others,” stated Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of The Lawfare Project.

“The complaint asks the Charity Commission to take appropriate steps to conduct a review of the organization and ensure its work is limited to lawful activities for the public benefit,” she stated.

The Lawfare Project is a legal think tank and litigation fund that supports cases against anti-Semitic discrimination around the world

Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, a volunteer organization of lawyers who support Israel, noted that MAP “partners with NGOs that have links with a terrorist organization whose aim is the destruction of Israel. Its charitable objects are the relief of poverty, the prevention and relief of sickness, and the advancement of education. They do not include political propaganda.”

Palestinian Abuse of Aid for Terrorism

Palestinian terror organizations have a long history of misusing aid to promote terrorism and anti-Semitism, and there is ample evidence of Palestinian terror operatives infiltrating aid groups and diverting funds and other resources for terror purposes.

In 2016, Mohammed El-Halabi, World Vision’s manager of operations in Gaza was arrested for funneling approximately $50 million (60 percent of WV’s funds), to Hamas to construct terror tunnels and military installations and to carry out other terrorist activities.

Shortly after this, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) arrested a “humanitarian aid worker” from the Gaza Strip for exploiting his position at a United Nations agency to provide assistance to Hamas. Similarly, in an April 2018 US court settlement, the NGO Norwegian People’s Aid admitted to working with Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza.

Most recently, Yasser Murtaja, a purported journalist who was killed in April on the border with Israel, who was revealed to be a Hamas intelligence officer who was set to become a Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) contractor.

The NRC, which describes itself as “an independent humanitarian organization helping people forced to flee,” stated that Murtaja “had agreed to document for NRC the bitter prolonged struggle faced by Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The work was planned to start the day after he was killed.”