Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)

Activities

• According to its website, Première Urgence Internationale’s (PIU) mission is to “defend basic human rights, such as those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and to provide aid to populations affected by natural disasters, economic crises and conflicts.”
• PUI includes “neutrality and impartiality” is principles of its mission. Contrary to this claim, PUI engages in several politically oriented activities in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
• Although PUI works in major crisis areas including Syria and Lebanon, it only accuses Israel of “violations of humanitarian law.”
• Patricia Grillo, PUI’s advocacy and communications coordinator, has accused Israel of “war crimes” and “forced displacement of the Palestinian population.”
• PUI has published several studies, which it states are to bring “to light recurring violations of international humanitarian law.”
• In May 2016, published a report with Médecins de Monde (MDM) titled “Violence des colons: Un bras armé de l’expansion des colonies dans le territoire palestinien occupé” (“Settler Violence: Armed Wing of the Settlements Expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”). The report cites Israeli politicized NGO Yesh Din as a source regarding the “annexation policy of the Israeli government (p23).” The report claims that there is a “troubling correlation between official plans of colonial expansion and violence against the villagers.”
• In clear contradiction to their guiding principles of neutrality and impartiality, PUI’s October 2013 paper “Tensions autour des colonies” (“Tensions around the Settlements”) relies solely on Palestinian sources, as well as UN-OCHA and Yesh Din. The paper claims that “many single women and men prefer to remain unemployed and stay at home because of their fear that their homes will be attacked by settlers if they go to work.” The paper accuses Israeli settlers of using chemical products in order to damage olive trees. The report goes on to recommend that the EU and French governments impose sanctions against “violent settlers” such as denying visas and installing systems to track settler violence.
• In 2015, PUI ran a project under which it established a “warning system” to alert Palestinians of “violent settlers.”

International Advocacy

• Claims to work to “rais[e] awareness with politicians and the public.” The organization affirms that “its advocacy actions [in Gaza and the West Bank] are aimed at denouncing policies and practices that violate international humanitarian law and human rights. It is aimed at political decision-makers to respect their obligations with regard to these violations.”
• In December 2015, PUI participated in an event titled “Daily life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” at the French Senate alongside Israeli political NGOs including Terrestrial Jerusalem, Breaking the Silence, and ICAHD. PUI Advocacy and Communications Coordinator Gaël Léopold suggested an alleged direct correlation between settler violence and the appropriation of new lands by the Israeli government.
• In November 2014, PUI addressed a group of French Parliamentarians on the “impact and the dramatic consequences of settler violence…” B’Tselem, Al-Haq, Yesh Din, EWASH, and Médecins du Monde were also participants.