PFLP Terrorists Now Bilks Countries For Funds Intended for Palestinians

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

    "Israel's Shin Bet security agency named three Palestinian HWC staffers who, it said, had with Juana Rishmawi, a fundraiser,  "duped" European donors using financial records doctored to hide cash diversions to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). (1)

They stole millions from European aid donors.  Security service says PFLP counterfeited documents, invented projects to pilfer funds for its military activities; Israel calls on countries to not donate to PFLP-linked groups.(4)

Juana Ruiz Rishmawi, a 62-year-old fundraiser for the Health Work Committees (HWC), a Palestinian aid group, was indicted in an Israeli military court on charges that included activity in a proscribed organization, illicit money transfers and fraud.  Rishmawi is a Spanish resident of the occupied West Bank.  Israel accused him on Thursday of being part of a network of NGOs that it suspects of diverting sums "in the eight figures" from European donations to a Palestinian faction that is on the EU's terrorism blacklist." (1)  

According to the security service, the PFLP used its health organization, the Health Work Committee, to defraud various Europe organizations and countries of millions of euros over the course of several years.(4)                                                         

                         Suicide bomber attacks in Tel Aviv bus station, 2006

"The PFLP  (Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine) is a terror group founded  in 1967 and led by George Habash from 1971 to 2009 and Ahmad Sadat from 2001 to 2010  in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.  They were major players of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, but PFLP and related groups were small and considered minor players by 2010.  

This terror group follows Marxist/Leninist ideology and stir up revolutionary nationalism through armed insurrection.  They have refused to recognize Israel and broke with the PLO in 1974 for its "Stages Strategy", meaning the liberating of Palestine in stages rather than in a single war, but later rejoined the PLO.                                                          

    Palestinian suicide bomb explodes on Israeli bus, March 5, 2003, and 17 people              were murdered;  53 injured.   

Their operations in the 1970s imitated showcase, media-oriented attacks such as plane hijackings; shootings, bombings and suicide attacks.  They assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavan Ze'evi on October 2001, and were responsible for 8 suicide bombings from 2000 to 2005."(2)  

"From its foundation the PFLP sought both superpower and regional patrons, early on developing ties with the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union and, at various times, with regional powers such as Syria, South Yemen, Libya and Iraq, as well as with left-wing groups around the world, including the PKK, FARC and the Japanese Red Army. 

When that support diminished or stopped, in the late 1980s and 1990s, the PFLP sought new allies and developed contacts with Islamist groups linked to Iran, despite the PFLP's strong adherence to secularism and anti-clericalism. The relationship between the PFLP and the Islamic Republic of Iran has fluctuated – it strengthened as a result of Hamas moving away from Iran due to differing positions on the Syrian Civil War. Iran rewarded the PFLP for its pro-Assad stance with an increase in financial and military assistance." (3)

Resource:

1. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-palestinian-ngos-funnelled-european-donor-cash-militants-2021-05-06/

2. ISRAEL 101, magazine produced by StandWithUs-2010 edition, page 27

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine 

4. https://www.timesofisrael.com/shin-bet-palestinian-terror-group-stole-millions-from-european-aid-donors/, picture