Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA)
Profile
Country/Territory | Palestinian Authority |
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Website | www.pyalara.org |
Founded | 1999, located inAl-Beireh (near Ramallah), branches in Gaza and Nablus |
In their own words | “One of our main objectives is to prevent young Palestinians from becoming thoroughly frustrated as a result of the harsh conditions under which they are forced to live.” |
Funding
- The Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA) does not publish any financial date on its website, reflecting a complete lack of transparency and accountability.
- In 2017-2020, PYALARA received €1,196,322 from the European Union for “Promoting Democratic Culture Through Rural Cultural Tourism Clusters.”
- PYALARA participated in “CRG-Palestine,” a project (2015-2018) funded by Norway (NOK 4.5 million) and implemented along with six other partners including Al-Mezan and Defense for Children International (DCI-P).
- Numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel, have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P. For more information on DCI-P’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
- A number of Al-Mezan officials and employees are members of the PFLP and Hamas, For more information on Al-Mezan’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Al Mezan Center For Human Rights’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
Activities
- Produces a youth newspaper and television program, conducts seminars and training sessions, and operates a peer counseling hotline. The paper is distributed at Palestinian government and UNRWA schools.
- According to a PYALARA official, Palestinian youths’ “sexual problems, fights with their parents and all sorts of difficulties that appear to be unrelated to the occupation … can be attributed to the present situation.”
- According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), PYALARA-produced TV programs “glorify terrorists,” including suicide bombers.
- In January 2014, PYALARA referred to Jews as “crows” and “rats.”
- In December 2013, PYALARA accused Jews of killing Jesus and endangering Islam and Christianity, stating “Who will save the New Testament? Who will save the Quran? Who will save Jesus from those who killed Jesus?”
- In June 2012, referring to 91 terrorists who were reinterred in the Palestinian Authority, the host of a PYALARA program stated, “[The terrorists are] more honored than all of us… They are the greatest role models for us.”
- In May 2012, PYALARA interviewed family members of Palestinian prisoners serving multiple life sentences for planning bombings, who praised and celebrated the terrorists.
- In May 2021, PYALARA was a signatory on a joint statement referring to home demolitions as “part of the Israeli policy of apartheid, persecution, and seizure of others’ property by force,” and called on the United Nations to “condemn the Israeli fueling of the conflict and its apartheid policies in the region and to take practical and genuine action for accountability and to stop the allowance of impunity.”
- In August 2020, PYALARA Deputy Director Salah Abdel Ati published an article titled “Ways to Resist Normalization” where he called for “recruiting the Arab peoples to pressure regimes to stop rushing towards normalization…[and] exposing the occupation’s crimes against Palestinians and Arabs and putting forward legislation that outlaws normalization.”
- Refers to the security barrier as the “apartheid wall.”
- Director Hania Bitar signed a July 2006 letter demanding “the cessation of the irresponsible and totally unacceptable policy of deprivation and collective punishment” in Gaza.
- After NGO Monitor published a 2003 report on PYALARA’s praise for the head of the PFLP terror group and its implied justification of suicide bombing, PYALARA removed the related material from its website.
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