Activities

• Sadaka is an “independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation.” However it is active in lobbying the Irish government and the European Union “in support of the national, democratic and human rights of the Palestinian people.”
• According to its website, Sadaka states that it is “committed to…the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state… the right of return’ of all Palestinian refugees… [and] The release of all Palestinian political prisoners.”
• Sadaka Ireland is highly active in promoting BDS campaigns and utilizing highly inflammatory rhetoric.

Political Advocacy

• Sadaka’s rhetoric includes accusations of “apartheid,” ethnic cleansing,” “war crimes,” and “collective punishment,” as well as supporting a Palestinian “right of return.”
• Sadaka runs a campaign against the “Israeli authorities…protracted war of oppression, brutality and submission on Palestinian children.” In the campaign, Sadaka relies on a highly inaccurate March 2013 UNICEF report that falsely alleged “widespread, systematic and institutionalized” ill-treatment of children within the Israeli military justice system. Copied almost entirely from publications from PFLP-linked NGOs, the UNICEF report contains numerous factual and legal errors. UNICEF was forced to issue a correction in 2015.
• Sadaka has supported the Kairos Palestine document, which promotes BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions); denies the Jewish historical connections to Israel in theological terms; and rationalizes, justifies, and trivializes terrorism, calling it “legal resistance.”
• In November 2017, Sadaka hosted a conference titled “50 Years of Occupation: the Roadblocks to Justice for Palestinians” discussing the “critical role of the international community in bringing about an end to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.” The conference called for Ireland “to compel Israel to cease and reverse its illegal activities rather than merely calling for peace negotiations between both sides to resume.” Speakers included Mustafa Barghouti, Hugh Lovatt, Daniel Levy, and Rima Hunaidi.
  • Mustafa Barghouti, president of Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), takes part in BDS activities, stating, “We are now in the early stages of a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions directed at this Israeli government for its refusal to abide by international law. Such action successfully overturned Jim Crow laws in the American South and apartheid in South Africa, and we are slowly applying it to Israeli occupation and apartheid.”
  • Hugh Lovatt, the European Council on Foreign Relations Programme Coordinator for Israel/Palestine, has proposed a policy of “differentiation,” which masks a BDS agenda under the guise of pursuing a consistent EU policy. The “differentiation” policy also advocates sanctions against individuals.
  • Daniel Levy is the co-founder of EuMEP, a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, co-founder of J Street, and former member of the board of directors of Molad-The Center for the Renewal of Democracy and the New Israel Fund (NIF). Levy has referred to BDS as “a legitimate and non-violent form of protest against an illegal and inhumane policy of occupation,” adding that the proposition “that Israel will only respond to disincentives, that the occupation cease to be cost-free” is “worth testing.”
  • Rima Hunaidi, former head of the United Nations’ West Asia commission, resigned from the United Nations in March 2017 following being forced to withdraw a report that accused Israel of being “guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid.”
• In February 2015, Sadaka launched a billboard campaign calling for the Irish government to “recognise the State of Palestine and to draw attention to the devastating consequences of Israel’s policies of colonisation on Palestine and its people.”
• During the 2014 Gaza war, Sadaka organized a petition to the Irish government calling to “stop Israel’s slaughter in Gaza.”
• In 2013, Sadaka and the Curriculum Development Unit ‘Education for Reconciliation’ Initiative launched a curriculum titled “Palestine & Israel – How will there be a Just Peace?” to teach students throughout Ireland about the “Palestinian Israeli situation within the context of Human Rights and International Law.” The curriculum was funded by the European Union.
  • One of the lessons titled “Being Active for Human Rights and for Peace” includes case studies of organizations that are “working to promote human rights, to overcome the barriers.”  These highly politicized and biased NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict include Addameer, Breaking the Silence, Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, and The Parents Circle.
    • Addameer is a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate.” The PFLP is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
  • Another lesson focuses on fictitious personal stories of “Why People Had to Move” which focus solely on the Palestinian narrative. One claim by a girl named “Nina” states that “when war broke out between the Jews and the Palestinians, we had to flee from our home because Zionists threatened to detonate a 1 ton car bomb in our street.” Other stories include “Zionists attack[ing] the village,” and “massacre[s] by Jewish forces.”

BDS Activities

• Sadaka “endorses the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until such time as Israel complies with international law and ends its illegal occupation of Palestine. One of Sadaka’s key organisational aims is to promote and gain mainstream support throughout all sections of Irish society for the BDS campaign.”
• Sadaka’s website hosts a database titled “Mapping support for Palestine,” which includes “National and local government sanctions and divestment against Israel and Israeli companies complicit in the Occupation.”
• In 2018, Sadaka “developed” the “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied territories)” bill which would make it illegal for Irish citizens and residents to import or sell “settlement goods” or to provide or attempt to provide “settlement services.” The Old City and Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, are considered “settlements” under the bill.
• In May 2016, Sadaka published a briefing titled “50 years of Israeli occupation: The roadblock to peace” stating that “Israel’s 50-year project of settling its own citizens in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has involved the commission of war crimes by Israel on a massive scale.” Sadaka called for “serious and sustained sanctions” furthering that “Without sanctions against Israel, today’s Palestinian children will still be living under Israeli occupation when they are grandparents.”
• Sadaka ran a campaign in advance of the February 2016 elections, lobbying candidates to sign a pledge demanding that “the Irish Government [] use all institutional mechanisms at its disposal… seek an EU ban on trade and investment with Israeli colonies/settlements…[and] to suspend military export licenses to Israel and suspend Department of Defence public procurement from Israeli arms companies.”
  • According to a Call for Proposals from December 2015, “partnership funding” for pre-election lobbying was provided by Trócaire.
• During the 2014 Gaza war, Sadaka called for people to “Join the Nobel Laureates who are calling for an arms embargo,” “Demand that our government and the EU impose trade sanctions against Israel,” and to “Tell the US to stop providing arms to Israel.”

Board Members

• Many of Sadaka’s Board members have travelled to Israel and the West Bank as part of the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
  • Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) sends volunteers for political indoctrination, including to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
• Marie Crawley
  • Crawley, co-founder of Sadaka, was previously the Chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).
    • IPSC engages in anti-Israeli propaganda to promote BDS campaigns, the delegitimization and demonization of Israel, and the Nakba narrative.
    • IPSC’s BDS campaigns include a cultural boycott of Israeli academics and artists.
  • Gerry Liston
    • Liston was formerly a research intern at BADIL.
    • In 2016, Liston drafted the Occupied Territories Bill and worked with Senator Frances Black to prepare the legislation.
  • Val Roche
    • Roche was formerly a Project Officer for Trocaire.
  • Hilary Minch
    • Minch was formerly the Regional Liaison Officer Middle East for Trocaire.
    • Minch also participated in EAPPI, “spending 5 months in Palestine in 2011 where she witnessed Israel’s War Crimes on a daily basis.”