Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation González Laya

Dear Secretary of State Moreno Bau,

Last week, Israeli authorities announced that four additional officials from the Palestinian NGO Health Work Committees (HWC), including a Spanish citizen (Juana Ruiz Sánchez), had been arrested for terror related activities including diverting European aid to the PFLP terror group.

These arrests are part of a larger operation that uncovered a finance network for PFLP orchestrated by PFLP-affiliated NGOs. According to Israeli authorities:

“Popular Front organizations (PFLP-affiliated NGOs) deceived assistance organizations in Europe using various methods – reporting fictitious projects, transferring false documents, forging and inflating invoices, diverting tenders, forging bank documents and signatures, reporting inflated salaries, etc. The considerable financing that was received was transferred – inter alia – to payments for the families of Popular Front ‘martyrs’, salaries for militants, recruiting new members, advancing and strengthening terrorist activity, funding Popular Front militants in Jerusalem and the dissemination of Popular Front messages and ideology” (emphasis added).

The question of potential abuse of European, including Spain government funds by terror linked organizations has been widely discussed in Europe over the last 18 months, in particular after five senior employees of European-funded Palestinian NGOs were charged in relation to the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in August 2019.

NGO Monitor’s research shows that in 2014-2021, Spain (AECID, autonomous communities, provincial deputations, and municipalities) provided at least €7 million for projects involving Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ties to EU-designated terrorist groups – including €1.65 million to projects involving HWC.

 Indeed, there is an undeniable connection between HWC and the PFLP. The Jerusalem branch of HWC was designated as a terrorist organization by the Israel High Court of Justice (HCJ 3923/15). Additionally, in October 2019, HWC’s “financial and administrative director,” Walid Hanatsheh, was arrested as an alleged leader of PFLP “military” operations in the West Bank; Hanatsheh is currently on trial for commanding a PFLP terror cell that carried out the aforementioned murder. (See NGO Monitor’s report “Health Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group” for more details.)

In accordance with our previous letter (August 3, 2020), we urge you to immediately freeze any funds that may be going to all terror-linked NGOs, launch an investigation, and implement robust vetting mechanisms to ensure that terror-linked NGOs do not receive taxpayer funds.

Sincerely,

Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg                                                      Olga Deutsch
President                                                                                 Vice President

CC: Ambassador Mr.  Manuel Gómez-Acebo, Spain Ambassador to Israel