Criticism over Israeli "terror" label for Palestinian groups

Israel's surprise "terrorist" designation of six Palestinian civil society groups has divided its ruling coalition and thrown a spotlight on Marxist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The move announced last Friday by Defence Minister Benny Gantz caused shock waves, including among European donors who support the targeted groups and from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Israeli non-government organisations, or NGOs, which partner with the implicated Palestinians also voiced astonishment.

So did some in the media, given the prominence of the groups involved – especially Al-Haq, a rights group founded in 1979 by writer Raja Shehadeh, a New Yorker magazine contributor.

Gantz has also taken fire from within Israel's government, an unwieldy eight-party alliance that includes left-wing politicians.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, leader of the dovish Meretz, warned that as an occupying military power Israel needed to be "very careful in imposing sanctions on Palestinian civil organisations because there are political, diplomatic and, more importantly, human rights consequences".

Transport Minister and Labor leader Merav Michaeli said the way the announcement was made "caused Israel great damage with our greatest and most important friends".

But Gantz's office has not wavered, insisting that a joint security establishment investigation had proved the six groups operated "as an organised network under the leadership of the PFLP", as the Marxist group is known.

The PFLP was founded in 1967 by George Habache – mixing Marxist-Leninism, Arab nationalism and virulent anti-Zionism – ultimately becoming the second most powerful Palestinian armed group after Yasser Arafat's Fatah.

It currently does not have firepower matching the arsenal of rockets held by Gaza's rulers Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but it is active in the international campaign to boycott Israel known as BDS, short for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.

The PFLP has been declared a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, and Israel says it is responsible for a 2019 bomb attack in the occupied West Bank that killed 17-year-old Israeli Rina Schnerb.

The European Union on Thursday said it would be "engaging Israeli authorities for more information regarding the basis" for the terrorism designation, pledging that it would seek to recover funds if "substantiated evidence" were provided.

But "past allegations of the misuse of EU funds" by Palestinian civil society partners were not substantiated, the EU added.

The PFLP leader in Israeli-blockaded Gaza told AFP the designated organisations have "no link" with his group beyond a shared ideology opposing the occupation.

"These NGOs work in complete independence," Jamil Mazher said.

The PFLP has been a prime target of the Israeli organisation NGO Monitor, which tracks funding and activities of non profit groups engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with specific focus on European donors.

Its president Gerald Steinberg told AFP the designations last week "appears to reflect the impact of NGO Monitor's ongoing research".  (AFP)