United Nations plans to fund two terrorist entities

United Nations has been championing in taking controversial decisions particularly it is a case related to radical Islamic terrorism. According to media reports, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for 2022, which includes planned donations to two organizations that have been defined as terror organizations by Israel.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan sent an urgent letter to the UN Secretary-General following the publication of this controversial work plan.

According to Israel National News (Arutz Sheva), Ambassador Erdan wrote in his letter, “It has come to my attention that OCHA, in its Humanitarian Response Plan for 2022, has proposed to partner with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)1 on Food Security, and the Union of Health Work Committees on matters related to Health and Nutrition.2 Both of these organizations have been designated as terrorist organizations under Israeli law. The former – as you are aware – is one of the six entities that was designated on 22 October 2021 for serving as the long arm of the internationally designated PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] terrorist organization, as detailed in my attached letter, while the latter was designated already back in July 2015 under the Emergency Defense Regulations (1945) for its serving as a front for the PFLP as well”.

“It is outrageous that an organization with a mission to ensure international peace and security would partner with organizations that directly and materially support terrorism and provide the PFLP — a designated terrorist organization worldwide, including in Israel, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan — with its financial lifeline”.

“I call on you to take urgent and deliberate action to ensure that OCHA does not collaborate with or give an active hand to the malign activities of these ostensible civilian institutions that serve as the backbone of the PFLP money laundering and financing network. It would be both unfortunate and ironic if it was the UN and its bodies that gave these organizations the guise of legitimacy that they need in order to continue to materially support terrorist activities”.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

From its foundation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) sought both superpower and regional patrons, early on developing ties with the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, North Korea 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 including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah. Iran rewarded the PFLP for its pro-Assad stance with an increase in financial and military assistance.

The PFLP grew out of the Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab, or Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), founded in 1953 by George Habash, a Palestinian Christian, from Lydda. In 1948, 19-year-old Habash, a medical student, went to his hometown of Lydda during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War to help his family. While he was there, the Israel Defense Forces attacked the city and as a result, most of its civilian population was forced to leave. They marched for three days without food or water until they reached the Arab armies’ front lines. Habash finished his medical education in Lebanon at the American University in Beirut, graduating in 1951.