Platform of French NGOs for Palestine (Plateforme des ONG Françaises pour la Palestine)

Activities

• The Platform is a network composed of 40 French NGOs that are active in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
• The Platform’s mission includes:
  1. “Raising awareness and informing the public about the rights of Palestinians, and advocating on their behalf to institutions and elected officials.
  2. Being a forum for the exchange of information, meetings, and collaboration between French Palestinian-solidarity NGOs and Palestinians organizations. Being a resource hub through its creation of tools for use by members and partners.
  3. Improving the capabilities of activists working on issues related to the rights of the Palestinians and the development of Palestine.”

Lobbying

• According to PFP President Claude Léostic, PFP is active in “lobbying our elected officials and the government: our approach is very often to bring in Palestinian and sometimes Israeli partners so that they can speak directly to our executives.”
• The AFD funded project (2014-2017; €225,000) “Mieux agir pour le respect du droit en Palestine” (Improved Action for the Respect of Rights in Palestine) describes its “target groups” of the project as the “French general public,” emphasizing youth as being particularly important targets, as well as “the media” and “elected officials.” The project indicates that the “impact indicators” of the project are the “increase in the number of questions to the government on the situation in Palestine” and the “increase in the number of journalists calling on the Platform to receive information” (emphasis added).
• The 2015-2016 project “Pour le développement des échanges entre la société civile à Jérusalem et en Ile-De-France”(for the development of exchanges between the civil society in Jerusalem and in Ile-De-France), mainly funded by Ile-De-France Region (€30,000 out of €60,000; AFD provided €5,000), and implemented by PFP and its Palestinian partner the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), indicates that one of the plan’s advocacy axes is to “organize a colloquium in the Senate or the National Assembly, meetings with elected officials – From Ile-de-France – and civil society.”
  • According to the description, the project aimed “to shed special light on the specific situation of Palestinians in Jerusalem, which has slowly deteriorated over the years (impediments to movement and access, house demolitions, loss of permanent resident status, etc.). This deterioration, highlighted by the events that occurred since the summer of 2014, did not however provoke a reaction from the international community. The project is therefore to mobilize civil society around the rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem.”
• PFP lists on its website in the section “Palestine our elected officials …,” “an initiative of the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine”, elected officials who intervene on the Palestinian issue through written questions to the government, proposals for resolution, of positions, calls ect. PFP indicates that “several mobilization campaigns were launched by the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine and / or solidarity associations with Palestine, to which the French parliamentarians responded.”

BDS

• Active in BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, despite the fact that anti-Israel boycotts are prohibited in France.
  • In January 2018, the Quai d’Orsay [France Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs] reaffirmed that France “prohibits the boycott of Israel as any discrimination against a person or a group of people because of their origin or their belonging to a particular country.”
• Although PFP claims that its “campaigns are not part of the BDS movement,“ according to President Claude Léostic, “of course we support it, and we believe that it is a popular, a peaceful way, of expressing an opinion.”
• Together with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) coordinates the “Made in Illegality” campaign in France, which calls upon France to end its economic relations with Israeli settlements. The campaign’s demands include banning French import of all “settlement products,” discouraging French companies “from investing in settlements,” and preparing information for travelers “to ensure that they avoid supporting companies and tourist sites that are located in the settlements.”
• In June 2018, PFP, alongside Al-Haq, Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), and Ligue des droits de l’Hommes (LdH), published a report, “The Jerusalem light-rail and how French companies contribute to the settlement of Occupied Palestinian Territory,” despite French court rulings that building the Jerusalem Light Rail is not illegal. The report calls for  French companies Systra, Egis, and Alstom  to “terminate their contracts with the Israeli authorities” and urged the French State “to take all the measures needed to ensure that the three public operators, SNCF, RATP and CDC, terminate the contracts signed in the context of the implementation of the Jerusalem tramway, by the companies they control, SYSTRA and Egis; and to take all the measure needed to prevent any participation or investment by French companies that would contribute to Israeli settlement.”
  • Following the report, PFP published a press release “salut[ing]” the announcement by the CEO of SNCF that “Systra is withdrawing from the red and purple line of the Jerusalem light-rail” and referring to it as “a first victory on a just path.”
• In March 2018, PFP promoted an event by BDS France to learn about “The importance of cultural and university boycotts.”
• In 2017, PFP published “12 misconceptions about BDS” which claimed to “present the most common misconceptions about BDS, and elements of explanation to fight against these false claims.” This document refers to the list of deputies and senators so that the reader can question his political representatives on this subject.
• In April 2017, PFP campaigned to have Israeli soccer clubs based in West Bank settlements expelled from FIFA.
• Called for the suspension of the European Union-Israel Association Agreement.
• In a questionnaire sent to candidates for the 2017 presidential election, PFP asked “the next French government to repeal a circular [circular making the boycott and call for boycott illegal in France].”

Training Sessions for the Public and Activists

• PFP regularly organizes an “Educational Workshop” titled “Living Palestine,” which “offers an interactive teaching tool to understand the daily lives of Palestinians.” The workshop, based on controversial sources that it considers “internationally recognized,” including highly biased and politicized NGOs BADIL, B’Tselem, Who Profits, and Al-Haq, “gives the opportunity to the participants … to be confronted with the situations of waiting, the administrative dependency and the arbitrary, which ‘punctuate’ the lives of the Palestinians.” (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis in French “A pro-Palestinian association organizes a partial role play at the expense of the taxpayer.”)
  • The workshop was funded through the support of AFD, the Île de France Region, Fondation de France, and Secours Catholique-Caritas France.
    

    

    https://plateforme-palestine.org/Evenement-de-lancement-Vivre-la-Palestine-le-22-novembre

    

    https://plateforme-palestine/org/Vivre-la-Palestine-l-animation-pedagogique

    
    
• PFP regularly organizes training sessions for its members to “reinforce the skills of those working to further the cause of Palestinian rights and the development of Palestine.” Topics of trainings have included: “lobbying European representatives on questions regarding human rights of Palestinians,” “the International Criminal Court and Palestine,” and “defending free speech and lobbying for Palestine.”
• In September 2017, PFP published the booklet “Palestine / Israel – Instruments to argue” with the support of AFD. This one-sided booklet claimed to provide the necessary tools to “anyone who is concerned about respect of the law and is interested in Palestine,” and in particular to those confronted “with this type of affirmations”:
  • “The Wall is a security barrier, since its construction, the attacks have greatly decreased;” “the Palestinian inhabitants of East Jerusalem enjoy the same rights and benefits as the Israeli inhabitants of West Jerusalem;” “other conflicts exist in the world, far more deadly than the situation in Palestine;” “Israel is considered the ideal villain.” (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis in French “AFD funds militant material to an anti-Israeli organization.”)
• In August 2018, PFP published a documentary, “Without laughs, games under surveillance,” produced in 2010 with AFD support. The documentary omits the context of Israeli security concerns, including Palestinian violence and terrorism. The film further demonizes Israel while exploiting Palestinian children for political gains (See NGO Monitor’s report, “A propaganda documentary funded by the Quai d’Orsay and AFD exploits young Palestinians.”)
• In July 2018, with the support of AFD and the Fondation de France, PFP published a pamphlet, “Palestine: Nakba’s permanent displacement,” that promotes a Palestinian “right of return.”
  • The pamphlet contained many historical and factual errors, such as the claim that the UN’s 1947 Palestine-sharing plan was “rejected by Arabs and Jews,”¹ or that “the use of the word ‘Nakba’ is still prohibited in Israeli textbooks.”²
  • The pamphlet falsely accused Israel of forcibly displacing Palestinians, claiming that “the Nakba is an ongoing process” (emphasis added).
  • The pamphlet also supported a Palestinian right of return, accused Israel of forced displacements, and called for Israeli officials to be brought before the ICC.

Dissemination and Promotion of PFP’s members and their Activities

As part of its coordinating role between its members, PFP promotes politicized information, events and projects and sometimes controversial. Examples:

• In February 2018, PFP promoted a conference by Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) titled “70 years after the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948: ethnic cleansing still relevant.”
• In November 2017, PFP publicized a round table event titled “Palestine after Balfour, 100 years of colonialism / 100 years of resistance.” The description of the event denounced the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, which “represents for the West the mark of its colonial work in the Arab region and for the Palestinian people the first stage of its dispossession.” The organizers of this event claimed to “denounce the centenary of an unjust colonial Declaration at the origin of a bloody century that ripped Palestine from the Arab world in the context of cutting the Middle East.”
• In September 2017, PFP promoted a video by the Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP) titled “10 Jewish words against racism” in which UJFP activists accused France of practicing a “state racism.”
• In September 2017, PFP published a video, “How to Fight against Israeli Apartheid?” in which Richard Falk, “former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine,” accused Israel of “apartheid” and claimed that “the best instrument” to increase the pressure on Israel, “is the BDS campaign … It is not violent and has already had several successes, here in France against Véolia and Orange who had links with colonization projects.”
• PFP was a signatory to a 2017 statement calling for “the suspension of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel” and on the international community “to cease all complicity with continued settlement activity and the myriad of ways that Israel violates international law.” The statement condemns the 1947 UN partition plan, claiming it “resulted in the 1948 Nakba, the demolition of more than 530 Palestinian villages and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, and is thus a process of ethnic cleansing”; and claims that European countries “made Palestine carry the consequences of the monstrous genocide of the European Jews by the Nazis; and subsequently they did nothing to require that Israel respect UN resolutions.”

François Leroux

• Since the beginning of 2019, Leroux has served as the president of PFP. Leroux has been a member of Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) “since its creation in 2001.” Leroux was the “AFPS national leader for the BDS campaign” and is a member (at least until January 2019) of the Palestine Solidarité editorial board, the “quarterly edited by the Association France Palestine Solidarité” (AFPS).

Claude Léostic

• Claude Léostic was the president of PFP in 2011-2018 and currently serves as the organization’s “honorary president.” She is also a national council member of AFPS. She frequently expresses sympathy to terrorists, and makes highly offensive and controversial remarks (For more details, see “Les dérives radicales de la Présidente d’une association française” (“The radical slides of the President of a French organization”).
  
• In 2018, Léostic coordinated the “Right to a Just Future” flotilla in France. She was on one of the boats of the Flotilla (see video) which was prevented from docking in Paris by the French police. PFP, which is a member of the “Freedom Flotilla” coalition, stated that “this flotilla for justice in Palestine is of a solidarity, political and non-humanitarian character.”
• In June 2018, Léostic, alongside nine “activists for the liberation of Salah Hamouri,” co-signed a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister stating that they are “ready to offer themselves as hostages” in exchange for the release of Salah Hamouri, who was arrested in August 2017. Hamouri was previously arrested for “attempting to assassinate Ovadia Yosef…and for his involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” Until his arrest, he worked for the Palestinian NGO Addameer, an organization that is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate.”
• In 2002, she barricaded herself as a “human shield” alongside Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. According to Léostic, “It didn’t seem acceptable to let the Israeli government go on with their crimes and their plan to eliminate the Palestinian leadership.”

Selected Platform Members

• Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS): Uses Holocaust rhetoric, referring to the Gaza Strip as an “Extermination Camp” due to the “criminal Israeli government – and all those who support it…the small ‘angels of death’ who are sheltered there to continue their experiments and envision the ‘final solution.’” AFPS is also active in BDS campaigns against Israel and uses other inflammatory rhetoric such as statements of ethnic cleansing, apartheid state, and “Stop hunting Palestinian children!”
• Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement – Terre Solidaire (CCFD): Partners with politicized Israeli and Palestinian NGOs, such as Zochrot, a promoter of a “one state solution,” and HaMoked, which makes inflammatory and inaccurate allegations of Israeli “apartheid,” deportations,” “torture,” and forcible transfers.” Since 2014, CCFD -Terre Solidaire has funded the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, which publishes unverified and unsubstantiated accusations against Israeli soldiers.
• Pax Christi France: Compares the situation in the Palestinian territories to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany during World War II and to apartheid South Africa.
• Union Juive Francaise pour la Paix (UJFP): Accuses the State of Israel of being an “apartheid state” and of “ethnic cleansing.” Supports BDS campaigns against Israel. In 2013, UJFP funded the Alternative Information Center (AIC), a Palestinian NGO with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group.
• La Cimade: Presented its 2015 report titled “The Occupation is Walling Up the Future: Survey on the Threats of the Colonization System and the Resistance of the Civil Societies” to the French Senate. The report recommends that France recognize the legitimacy of BDS campaigns against Israel, accuses Israel of “ethno-nationalist policies,” and recommends that the European Union “suspend all economic aid or cooperation agreements between the EU and the State of Israel contributing directly or indirectly to the maintenance or development of settlements in the occupied territories and in Jerusalem.” La Cimande acknowledges the Platform for its “logistical support” in the report. The NGO also thanks Michel Warschawski, AIC’s co-director, and UAWC – two NGOs with ties to the PFLP terror group.
• Secours Catholique- Caritas France (SCCF): Supports BDS campaigns against Israel, such as the “Made in Illegality” campaign (mentioned above) that demands that France “stop import of goods from the occupied Palestinian territories.” SCCF also supports a project in cooperation with the politicized Israeli NGO Sadaka Reut.