Founded in 1999, PalVision “arose as a response to an urgent need for Palestinian youth to have an outlet through which to express themselves and their desire to build a strong and healthy Palestinian society.”

PalVision’s board members, officials, and employees have justified and glorified violence against Israeli civilians and praised individual terrorists and terrorist attacks.  Additionally, they have employed antisemitic and “anti-normalization” rhetoric in their public statements.

Funding

PalVision receives generous funding from foreign governments, including the EU, despite praise for violence and the explicit rejection of anti-terror guidelines by its executive director.

According to its 2019 annual report, PalVision is also supported by, Germany (GiZ), Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung (Germany), HEKS-EPER (Switzerland), Ta’awon, UNICEF, UNDP, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), DanChurch Aid, (Denmark), Diakonia (Sweden), and the Islamic Development Bank.

In 2019, the EU provided PalVision and the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) with approximately €1.2 million “to contribute to preserving the Palestinian character and cultural heritage of East Jerusalem (EJ).”  The primary strategic objective designated by the EU is “To protect Islamic and Christian Waqf religious and cultural heritage properties against Israeli violations and threats” (emphasis added). Contrived claims of Jewish and Israeli threats to the Al-Aqsa complex have long served to incite violence, including in recent years. Certain PalVision members themselves have repeated and insinuated this and similar positions.

Glorification of violence and terrorists

Farid Al-Atrash, board member¹

• On March 6, 2020, Al-Atrash uploaded a Facebook post glorifying Basel Al-A’raj, the leader of a terror cell killed by Israel police forces on March 6, 2017, when he opened fire as they sought to apprehend him near Ramallah. Al-Atrash wrote: “On the commemoration of the fall of the intellectual fighter martyr, Basil Al-A’raj, may his soul rest in peace. Is there a greater deed than the martyr’s?”
  • On March 17, 2017, Al-Atrash posted a photo from Al-A’raj’s funeral, referring to him as “the heroic martyr Basel Al-Araj, the intellectual, the fighter.”
• On February 14, 2020, Al-Atrash uploaded to his Facebook account a poster of Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) with the title “Words of our leaders,” alongside a quote denouncing “the enemy’s feeling of grandeur over you.”
  • Abu Jihad was responsible for the murder of dozens of Israeli civilians in numerous terror attacks, among them the 1975 Savoy Hotel attack² and the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre.³
• On December 13, 2019, Al-Atrash uploaded a Facebook post describing a memorial event for his brother Mo’ein Al-Atrash, noting the participation of “comrades from the PFLP.”
  • Mo’ein, a Fatah member, was injured on March 22, 2004 during clashes with Israeli forces near Bethlehem, and died in 2013.
• On April 26, 2019, Al-Atrash attended celebrations marking the release of PFLP member Khaled Al-Farraj from administrative detention. According to the PFLP-affiliated NGO Addameer, Farraj was placed in administrative detention on February 7, 2018 for his “prohibited activities against the security of the region” as part of the PFLP.

Pictures from the celebrations on the release of PFLP activist Khaled Al-Farraj, attended by Al-Atrash. (Source: Al-Atrash’s Facebook profile.)

• On August 10, 2017, following Israel’s arrest of PFLP member Badran Jaber, Al-Atrash called for his release, saying: “Freedom for the free comrade Badran Jaber… from the pillars of the PFLP, this free[dom] fighter.”
  • Jaber joined the terror group in 1967. According to his statement to Al-Hadaf News, he participated in the establishment and training of PFLP terror cells in Jordan.
• On November 1, 2015, Al-Atrash uploaded a Facebook post praising Palestinian terrorist organizations: “From the inspirations of the intifada: A friend from the Palestinian People’s Party, his wife is from Fatah, he has a son from PFLP and another is from Hamas. My joy.”

Al-Atrash has also praised specific attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers:

• On October 16, 2015, following a terrorist attack in which a Palestinian stabbed IDF soldiers while wearing a “Press” vest, Al-Atrash responded, “With my great respect to this hero who carried out the Hebron attack, we must not wear any press or medical uniforms in violation of international humanitarian law.”
• On November 4, 2014, following a car ramming attack that killed an Israeli Border Police officer, Al-Atrash published a Facebook post praising the terrorist: “The martyr of the heroic ramming attack wanted to say to the occupation and the settlers, get out of our land. There is no place for you among us. Stop breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque” (emphasis added).

Amer Daraghma, Project Coordinator⁴

• On March 27, 2019, Daraghma uploaded a picture of Sajed Mazhar, a PFLP member who was killed in clashes with Israeli forces near Bethlehem.

PFLP’s obituary on Mazhar’s death, taken from the website of the Hadaf online newspaper.

• On February 27, 2018, Daraghma posted a picture of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades suicide bomber, Muhammad Daraghma, calling him a “hero suicide bomber.” On the same date, Daraghma posted a call from Fatah to join a demonstration honoring the bomber.
  • According to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades’ website, Muhammad Daraghma carried out the March 3, 2002 bombing in Jerusalem’s Beit Israel neighborhood, murdering 10 Israeli civilians, including 5 children and infants.
  • On March 1, 2017, Daraghma uploaded a similar poster, adding “Mohamed Daraghma… 2/3/2002, the fifteenth anniversary of your passing will pass and your pure body is still being held by the Occupation. You are [both] the martyr and the prisoner.”

A poster of suicide bomber Muhammad Daraghma, uploaded by PalVision project manager Amer Daraghma.

• On August 18, 2013, Daraghma glorified “armed resistance,” saying, “We have learned in the schools of Palestine to remain loyal to the honor of arms… Our will: to continue the march of construction and struggle until the last drop of blood for the establishment of our Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” (emphasis added).
• On February 27, 2013, Daraghma shared an announcement by Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, taking responsibility for a shooting attack directed against Israeli soldiers near Beit Lid, and calling upon “our brethren in all the Palestinian factions to retaliate against this Nazi enemy” (emphasis added). Daraghma added: “We are proud of you, oh great [people]… There is no fear for you, my country, because some honorable people still exist.”

Waad Qannam, Secretary of the Board⁵

• On February 9, 2019, Ma’an News published a video of Qannam speaking at a conference, where he praised “all forms of resistance” and promoted BDS, saying: “The idea of an economic boycott of the occupation products should be promoted as a daily culture for the Palestinian people. We must be… part of the boycott process, the political and economic isolation of the occupying power” (55:30).
• On April 15, 2017, Qannam posted a picture in solidarity with Marwan Barghouti, convicted in 2004 for the murder of five Israelis. Qannam added: “Victory to leader Marwan Barghouti and all the heroes of our prisoner movement.”

A picture posted by Secretary of the Board, Waad Qannam in solidarity with Marwan Barghouti, convicted in 2004 for the murder of five Israelis, saying: “Victory to leader Marwan Barghouti and all the heroes of our prisoner movement.”

• On November 18, 2016, Qannam uploaded a picture of Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad.

A picture of Abu Jihad and Yasser Arafat, uploaded by Qannam.

Omar Daraghma, board member⁶

• On January 31, 2016, Daraghma uploaded a Facebook post supporting Palestinian terrorist Amjad Sakari, a member of the Palestinian police who shot and injured three Israeli soldiers near Beit El that same day. In his post, Daraghma wrote: “Amjad Sakari blows security coordination [with Israel] with a knockout, and skillfully dodges tempting military ranks. A high-ranking military officer who… decides in the midst of all these material temptations from the leadership to side with the people’s choice and implement what makes him a popular hero.”

Muntaha Abu Dayyeh, board member⁷

• On January 26, 2015, Abu Dayyeh uploaded a Facebook post mourning PFLP founder George Habash.
  • On July 24, 2014, Abu Dayyeh uploaded another poster glorifying Habash, captioned: “Peace be upon you, 1926-2008, the wise man of the revolution and its conscience, Dr. George Habash.”
• On October 3, 2014, Abu Dayyeh uploaded a poster glorifying prominent PFLP leader and writer, Ghassan Kanafani.

A poster glorifying PFLP founder George Habash, uploaded by PalVision board member, Muntaha Abu Dayyeh.

Khalil Issa, Advocacy and Lobbying officer⁸

• On March 12, 2018, Issa uploaded a picture of PFLP terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi, who carried out a 1978 attack murdering 38 Israeli civilians. Issa added, “May Allah have mercy on you, Dalal” adding a quote by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, saying: “On the eleventh day of March, 1978, twelve men and a woman managed to establish a Republic for Palestine inside a bus, and their republic lasted four hours. It does not matter how long this republic remained, what is important is that it was founded.”

A picture of PFLP terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, uploaded by PalVision “advocacy and lobbying officer,” Khalil Issa.

• On July 6, 2017, Issa posted a video to his Facebook page titled “After [a] moment of silence for Holocaust victims, Cuba calls [sic] moment of silence for Palestinians,” adding the hashtag “The Holocaust is not relevant for me.”
• On October 13, 2015, Issa uploaded a picture of Bahaa’ Aliyan, one of the perpetrators of an attack on a Jerusalem bus that morning, murdering three Israeli civilians. The picture was captioned, “The hero Bahaa’ Aliyan.”

A picture of terrorist Bahaa’ Aliyan who murdered three Israeli civilians on a Jerusalem bus, as uploaded by Issa with the title “The hero Bahaa’ Aliyan.”

• On May 21, 2008, Issa uploaded an antisemitic post to a Facebook group named for late PFLP member Khalil abu Khadija. Issa’s post referred to the “barbaric creed” of the Talmud and the “barbaric [Jewish] nation,” as well as fabricated sayings allegedly found in the Talmud, concerning an obligation to kill heretics, adding “the Jew must kill whomever he can, and if he doesn’t do that – he is breaking the law” (emphasis added).

Minas Rajabi, PR and fundraising director⁹

• On October 13, 2015, Rajabi shared a Facebook post from “Quds Press” praising Bahaa’ Aliyan as “One of the perpetrators of the heroic operation on a settler bus in occupied Jerusalem.”

Basem Banishamsa, Education Program director¹⁰

• On July 27, 2015, Banishamsa shared a Facebook post mourning the death of Muhammad Abu Latifa, including a quote “May Allah keep Hamas and Fatah and the PLO” (emphasis added). Abu Latifa was wanted for arms trafficking and planning a terror attack.

Shireen Nammari, Project manager¹¹

• On January 11, 2016, Nammari uploaded a Facebook post concerning house demolitions, in which she shared a letter written by the family of Bahaa’ Aliyan, referring to him as a “martyr.”

Rejection of European anti-terror regulations, antisemitism and support for BDS

Rami Naser Eddin, Executive Director¹²

• On December 26, 2019, Naser Eddin told “Quds Press” that he rejects the EU terror clause, “which prevents working with four different Palestinian party organizations.” He added that “The organization [PalVision] stands with Palestinian legitimacy, and its position is always consistent with the decisions of the Palestinian civil society and the Palestinian National Authority,” and that “their full objection to the terms was presented.”
• On March 13, 2015, Eddin uploaded a PalVision poster to his Facebook page which called to boycott Israel. The poster said: “Hey boy and girl, our boycott against the Occupation’s manufacturing is a national responsibility.”
• On July 25, 2014, Eddin shared a PalVision post on his Facebook page mourning the death of PFLP member Hashem Abu Maria, who was also an employee of the PFLP-linked NGO Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P).

Sofia Daibis, board member¹³

Daibis also works as a third secretary at the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.¹⁴

• Daibis is one of the authors of an August 7, 2019 PA publication alleging that Israel attempts to “blur the traces of successive ancient civilizations on the land of Palestine.” According to Daibis and her colleagues, Israeli archeological activity is “a weak and desperate attempt to prove a false existence that expresses a distorted history in the region… All archaeological excavations carried out by foreign and Palestinian missions, especially in the recent period, confirm the absence of any trace that confirms the claims of the historical Jewish presence” (emphasis added).

Dia Hamdan, board member¹⁵

• On November 28, 2013, Hamdan shared an antisemitic post on his Facebook page, which claimed that Lawrence of Arabia was a Jew sent by Britain to Cairo in order to help bring down the Ottoman Empire after its refusal to accept the foundation of a Zionist state. According to the post, this was done as a prelude to the Balfour Declaration, which aimed to “settle the Zionists in Jerusalem with the consent of the Sharif Hussein of Hijaz and along with the Donme Jews.”