Associazione Comunit Papa Giovanni XXIII (Italy)
Profile
| Country/Territory | Italy |
|---|---|
| Website | www.apg23.org (English) |
| Founded | 1973 |
| In their own words | Founded by Don Oreste Benzi with the religious vision "to bring his life to Jesus, poor, servant, suffering that atones the sins of the world." |
Funding
- APG3 does not include any financial data, donor information, or sources of funding on its website, reflecting a complete lack of transparency and accountability.
- In 2018-2021, Italy granted €1.8 million to APG3 in partnership with Al-Haq and the Italian NGO Cooperazione i Paesi Emergenti Onlus (COSPE).
- On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Al-Haq a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”Al-Haq’s General Director Shawan Jabarin has been linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
Activities
- APG23 claims to perform humanitarian work and non-violent interventions “in the vast environment of marginalization and poverty,” especially in conflict zones.
- Operation Dove (Colomba) is its main program in “Palestine and Israel.” Aims to “live with the people most affected by the violence of the conflict (the poor, children, elderly, women)…the victims of the conflict” and “share the lives of those…forced to suffer the violence of conflict.”
- Blog entries by Operation Dove participants demonize Israel and adopt the Palestinian narrative by referring to “the colonists” and [Israeli] “massacre[s],” and making claims of “ghettoising” and “apartheid.”
- In November 2021, APG23 was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “it is known that these six organizations for decades have been engaged at the highest levels in the promotion of human rights and whose reputation and esteem is proven by numerous international awards.”
- In September 2021, APG23 held an event featuring UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories Michael Lynk.Lynk has a long history of involvement in overtly anti-Israel events, including speaking at events with BDS activists and highly political organizations and NGOs that are part of the campaign to delegitimize Israel.
- In May 2021, APG23 published an article referring to Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem as “liv[ing] inside Israel in highly discriminated conditions, in a sort of apartheid.”
- In November 2020, APG23 participated in a conference for “the recognition of the State of Palestine.” According to the conference, “the entire Palestinian people is subjected to the regime of colonization and military occupation in the West Bank.”
- Conscientious objection, “not as mere subjective right of the individual, but as an instrument of social and civil complaint,” is one of APG23’s focuses. Its “Go’el” project works in partnership with Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve as reservists in the IDF (APG23 publication, “So Close, So Far, Nonviolence in the South Hebron Hills, pg. 19).
- APG23’s website uses the term “annexation wall,” removing the context of security for Israelis.
- Signatory to 2005 Italian call for BDS.
Partners
- APG3 lists the BDS Movement as a “campaign we join.”
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