France: We’ll continue backing outlawed Palestinian NGOs due to lack of evidence by ‘Israel’

Paris (QNN)- France will continue to support the six Palestinian NGOs that were outlawed by ‘Israel’ in 2021 due to the “absence of evidence” by ‘Israel’ in demonstrating that the groups actually support “terror”, a French official said on Wednesday.

The Frensh representative tells the UN Security Council during the monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Feb. 23, “In this context, France, together with its European partners, will continue to support Palestinian civil society and to work for the consolidation of the rule of law.”

“In this respect, we are concerned by the designation of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organisations by Israel. In the absence of evidence, France will continue to support these organisations.”

On 19 October 2021, Israeli War Minister, Benny Gantz, designated six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as “terrorist organizations” under Israel’s domestic Counter-Terrorism (Anti-Terror) Law (2016).

The Israeli War Minister office claimed that the six groups were “part of a network of organisations operating undercover in the international arena” on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist Palestinian resistance group, which was listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 1997 by the US State Department.

The six groups are: Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC).

The Israeli military commander also outlawed the six groups under the 1945 Emergency (Defense) Regulations, declaring them “unlawful associations”.

Several UN human rights experts, civil society and development organizations, academics and more from around the world have condemned, over the past months, Israel’s designation, standing in solidarity with the six Palestinian groups and increasing their support for the Palestinian cause.

Under Israeli law, membership in terror organizations is punishable by five to seven years in jail, while aiding them is punishable by five years, and praising or promoting them can result in a three-year-long jail sentence.

The Israeli law also permits authorities to confiscate any “terror organization’s” assets and limit its use of space.

The occupation state has targeted civil society dissenters for decades. In the early 2000s however, a series of right-wing organizations, funders and politicians sought to support the Israeli government’s brutal repression of Palestinians by accelerating the attack on civil society dissenters as Israel’s abuses mounted.