Palestinian Vision (PalVision, or "Ruya")

Activities

• Aims “to empower Palestinian youth through national awareness campaigns, leadership opportunities, and the establishment of national youth networks. The goal is to initiate youth-led sustainable development, social equity, and economic viability through volunteerism, social activism, entrepreneurship, lobbying and advocacy, both on a local and national level.”

Glorifying Terrorism

• Many of PalVision’s board members, officials, and employees have justified and glorified violence against Israeli civilians and praised individual terrorists and terrorist attacks
• Farid Al-Atrash
  • In March 2020, Al-Atrash,  a board member of PalVision, 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 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 attack¹ and the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre.²
  • 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.”
• Amer Daraghma
  • In February 2018, Daraghma, PalVision Project Coordinator, 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.
  • 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).
• Khalil Issa
  • In March 2018, Issa, PalVision Advocacy and lobbying Officer, 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.”
• Waad Qannam
  • In April 2017, Qannam, PalVision Secretary of the Board, 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.”

Political Advocacy

• Regularly accuses Israel of “Judaization”; refers to Israel as “1948 areas” or “Palestine 1948” and to cities in Israel as “1948 occupied cities”; labels the security barrier as the “Apartheid Wall.”
• Falsely claims that the Mamilla shopping center is “built over [an] Islamic cemetery” and that Givat Shaul “is a settlement that ate the lands and bodies of the Deir Yasin Martyrs.”
• Organizes a project, “Tajaawob,” in partnership with the British Council, Oxfam GB, and others, and funded by the UK, which seeks to “bridge the gap between the citizens and decision makers.” One aspect of this program is the “Officials on the Road” program, which exposes decision makers to “the daily problems faced by Palestinians…  These face-to-face encounters take place in marginalized villages, where officials are directly exposed to the difficulties faced by residents in terms of policies and provision of services.” According to its website, the decision makers are accompanied by “an informed citizen.”
  • Tajaawob’s interactive map of the region does not include Israel and refers to the Negev as “South Palestine” and the Galilee region as “North Palestine.”
• On December 26, 2019, PalVision Executive Director Naser Eddin vehemently opposed a new requirement in European Union grant contracts with Palestinian NGOs that prohibits grantees from working with and funding organizations and individuals designated on the EU’s terror lists. According to Eddin, “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.”
• In August 2019, PalVision board member Sofia Daibis authored a report 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).
• In February 2019, PalVision Secretary of the Board Waad Qannam spoke 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).
• In November 2018, PalVision held a conference on “Movement of Jerusalem,” focusing on “the concept of Palestinophobia and anti-Palestinianism, collective punishment as a component of the coercive environment, and local and international advocacy as a means of mobilizing support for Israeli racist policies.”
• In March 2018, on the occasion of Land Day, PalVision posted on Facebook a statement against normalization with Israel saying “By virtue of our zeal for Palestinian principles, the Palestinian Vision Organization emphasizes its rejection of the normalization initiatives and strongly condemns the normalization events that have gathered under various headings and calls on the people and families in Jerusalem to oppose normalization in any way…The organization commits to punitive measures against anyone found to have participated in the normalization process in accordance with anti-normalization standards adopted by the Palestinian National BDS Committee” (emphasis added).
• In 2016, organized a project funded by American Friends Service Committee titled “Palestinian Youth Exchanges – Tawasalo” meant to “foster and strengthen a united national identity by challenging the Israeli imposed separation and isolation policies, which led to the fragmentation and division of Palestinians, and the violation of their right to freedom of movement.”
• PalVision’s 2014 annual report stated that “We conclude another year full of activity and challenges, consolidating hope and belief that Jerusalem will always be an Arab bride- the bride of Palestine in the eyes of its youth, who believe in its role and are aware of their cause and values. We pay tribute to the city that has bestowed upon us a spirit of giving, work, and perseverance, and from it we embark on our journey through the whole of Palestine.” (emphasis added)
• Organizes a project titled “We Belong Here,” which takes youth on “field visits to Jerusalemite prisoners listening to their stories and experiences in the occupier jail to share the experience and the true story of the struggle we as Palestinians are living” presenting a biased and distorted view of the conflict, based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and sole Israeli aggression (emphasis added).

BDS Activities

• Promotes BDS (boycotts, divestments and sanctions).
• In 2018, PalVision published a policy paper calling to “Boycott Occupation in Various Fields.” According to the paper, “efforts should be exerted to compound diplomatic and popular efforts on the level of world nations and reach decision-makers to impact them to issue national laws that prevent import of products from the occupation state… This would make the occupation state feel isolated and sustain it severe economic damages.”
• In May 2016, PalVision created a video calling for the boycott of HP accusing it of “provid[ing] the Israeli occupation with its technology used to monitor and besiege the Palestinian people.”
• In 2015, PalVision’s project “Mit7arkeen,” implemented with Baladna, Al-Shabaka, and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), initiated a “HP boycott campaign” and held a workshop “in partnership with Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against Israel (BDS), targeting civil society organisations in the West Bank, to address the importance of boycott and sign the charter of honour to boycott HP with the participation of 100 people, where 68 organisations signed the charter of honour.”
• Tamara Tamimi, PalVision resource development officer, participated in American Friends Service Committee’s 2015 “Palestine Youth Organizers: National Speaking Tour” discussing “how Palestinian youth are building connections with groups in the US working on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), and especially the HP boycott movement.”
• Organized a 2014 “Jerusalemite Youth Summit,” which addressed topics including “the boycott of the Israeli products” and “the role youth have to play in the boycott, how to source Palestinian products, campaigning to improve the quality and availability of these products, and designing initiatives to promote Palestinian products in Jerusalem.”

Staff

• Board of Directors and staff include: Chairwoman Luna Eriqat, who has previously worked at the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Minas Rajabi and Alaa Saffouri, who worked at Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA).
  • WCLAC is highly active in BDS and lawfare campaigns against Israel and utilizes its membership in a number of Palestinian organizations and networks to lobby international forums and disseminate demonizing statements against Israel.
  • PASSIA refers to Israel as a “racist apartheid regime in the West Bank” and accuses it of “Israelization,” “Judaization,” and “systematically implement[ing] law in a discriminatory way” in East Jerusalem.