Ard el Insan

Activities

• Ard El Insan (AEI) is a Gaza-based health organization that claims to deal with malnutrition, anemia, and other conditions.
• Ard El Insan was founded by the Swiss organization Terre des Hommes (TDH) in 1984 and became an independent organization in 1997. In 2012, TDH announced that it needed to “concentrate on other issues,” but that AEI would continue to work “through the financial support of a Japanese organization,” Japan International Volunteer Center.
  • Terre des Hommes is a member of UNICEF’s “Working Group on Grave Violations against Children” aimed at undertaking “consolidated efforts to monitor and report on grave violations against children in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).” (Read NGO Monitor’s Report “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group: Failing Children.)

Alleged Ties to Terrorism

• According to the Canada Revenue Agency, from September 2006 to April 2007, International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy -Canada (IRFAN) transferred $418,785 to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology – West Bank (the Ministry was under the control and direction of Hamas from March 2006 to June 2007) through its major partner organization in Gaza, Ard El Insan (AEI).
  • In 2014, IRFAN was labeled a terrorist entity by the Canadian government. This decision was based on findings that money was transferred from IRFAN to various organizations that then funneled funds or cooperated with Hamas.
  • The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) found that IRFAN funded AEI, which provided food packages and aid (valued at $181,868) to the Palestinian Ministry of Health under the Hamas government.
    • The report from the Canadian government states, “Our audit findings also note that, in May 2008, IRFAN-Canada sent a letter directly to the Minister of Health affirming its support for the Hamas Ministry. Ard El Insan is carbon-copied on the letter.”
    • The Minister of Health at the time, Dr. Basem Na’im, is a long-time Hamas member.
• Ard El Insan has continued to maintain a partnership with the Ministry of Health in Gaza under Hamas control.
  • In February 2018, Adnan Al-Wahaidi, Executive Director of Ard El Insan, authored a paper titled “The Adolescent’s Quality of Life in the Gaza Strip: Nutritional and Psychological Risk Factors.” According to the paper, “Coordination was done with the School health directorate in the ministry of health to distribute these reports among the schools.”
  • In 2012, the Palestinian Ministry of Health participated in a research study funded by Ard El Insan.
• Ard El Insan has partnered with the Union of Health Work Committees, a Palestinian NGO identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate” and by a 1993 USAID-engaged audit as the “the PFLP’s health organization.” For more information on UHWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Health Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • Academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, who also identifies UHWC as a “PFLP-affiliated health committee,” explains “Many-probably most-doctors who joined the UHWC had political leanings similar to the leftist PFLP. As health committees tied to other political factions also existed, it was common for doctors and staff to work with that health group which reflected their politics. Both the providers and, to a lesser degree, the recipients of these medical services were aware of the larger political agenda. The ability to translate medical-and other social-services into a particular political vision was the key to the struggle within the Palestinian community for ideological hegemony” (emphasis added).
  • Magdi Yaghi, UHWC treasurer and board member in 2016-2019, is referred to by the PFLP as a “member of the regional command” and a “comrade.” In February 2019, Yaghi participated in a memorial service organized by the PFLP for Maher Yamani, a PFLP “founder” and a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders.”
• According to Meir Amit institute, Ard El Insan is one of the “Da’wah organizations which were particularly active during Ramadan.” According to Meir Amit, the goal of these NGOs is to “distribution of aid to the population which collaborated with the Hamas administration.”