Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC)

Activities

• In November 2022, TRC was a signatory on a letter to the ICC Prosecutor to “Urgently expedite his investigation into the Situation of Palestine, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” 
• In September 2022, TRC endorsed a campaign titled “Investigate and Dismantle Apartheid.” The campaign is a “global Palestinian-led anti-apartheid effort…directed towards activating UN mechanisms to investigate and dismantle Israel’s apartheid regime by mobilizing grassroot efforts.”
• In May 2022, TRC was a signatory on a petition titled “The Return Appeal,” calling on the United Nations to “take all necessary steps and measures for immediately holding the occupation’s state accountable for all the crimes, the latter has so far committed against the Palestinian people, within strict legal means that would not allow the occupation’s criminals to evade interrogation or possible trials.”
• In November 2021, TRC was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by Israel to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “The main task of our institutions and of Palestinian human rights defenders is to work towards an end to the occupation, the dismantling of the apartheid regime and towards the realization of our collective human rights to self-determination and the right of return…We further call on diplomatic missions, parliamentary representatives, and international organizations to reject and condemn the unlawful designation of the six Palestinian CSOs, to pressure the United States to condemn Israel’s designation and call for its rescission.”
• On May 15, 2019, TRC published an article titled “The Palestinian Nakba Anniversary 15/5/2019,” arguing that, “the Zionist movement and Israel think that the Palestinian people…will forget the tragedies experienced by their grandparents and fathers…and that this will enable them to develop their schemes of deportation, displacement…and present eradication solutions, but the Palestinian people’s resistance has proven that it will not forget its rights and continue to resist in all various methods…whatever policy Israel will try, whether it is international agreements, the so called peace agreements, or by laying material or moral siege on the people” (emphasis added).

Concerning Rhetoric

• On July 13, 2021, TRC published a statement calling for the release of Khalida Jarrar following the death of her daughter. In the statement, TRC called Jarrar a “Palestinian fighter” and argued she is being “persecuted due to her political activity and national role in defending the rights of her people.”
  • Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was sentenced on March 1, 2021, by the Judea Military Court to two years in prison for holding office in the PFLP. Previously, Jarrar was arrested several times for her activity in the PFLP.
• In March 2016, then TRC Community Outreach Specialist Mayada Sehwail participated in a solidarity event with Palestinian prisoners. During the event, Sehwail held an official PFLP poster. The event also featured posters of PFLP Secretary General Ahmad Sa’adat, Nael Barghouti, Karim Younis and other convicted Palestinian terrorists.
  • Nael Barghouti served over 30 years in Israeli prison for stabbing a bus driver  to death in 1978.
  • Karim Younis was sentenced to life for kidnapping and murdering an IDF soldier.

Staff

• Wasel Abu Yousef
  • TRC board member Abu Yousef has held the role of general coordinator of Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF), an umbrella organization of terror groups, including Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP.
  • On December 14, 2020, Al-Hadaf reported that Abu Yousef congratulated and hailed the PFLP on the anniversary of its establishment and referred to PFLP General Secretary Ahmed Sa’adat as “a national commander and a hero prisoner.”
  • In May 2019, Abu Yousef participated in an official PFLP event honoring the deceased PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna. The event featured multiple PFLP paraphernalia and hosted many PFLP senior members.
  • In February 2019, Abu Yousef participated in an event hosted by the PFLP in memory of “comrade fighter” Maher Al-Yamani. At the event, Abu Yousef said, “The loss of Yamani is a loss to all patriotic leaders, especially since he was one of pioneers of the fighting, political and struggle activities.” Abu Yousef added that, “He [Yamani] always led the ranks, and he had a vision which he implemented in reality, while being a courageous fighter in the PFLP’s ranks. He always defended the people’s rights and did his utmost in order to achieve his vision.”
    • Al-Yamani was a PFLP “founder” and a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders,” and “coordinated special operations…in particular the operation against an aircraft of the Israeli company El Al in July 1968 in Greece.”
• Safa Al-Abbasi
  • In May 2019, TRC psychologist and general assembly member Al-Abbasi changed her cover picture on Facebook to a picture of Leila Khaled with a rifle and a knife, and wrote, “I was not aware that this gentle young woman carried out bombing operations, a man with average courage cannot describe her – Ghassan Kanafani on the fighter Leila Khaled [heart emoji].”
    • Kanafani was the PFLP’s spokesperson and a member of its Political Bureau.
    • Khaled is a “prominent member of the PFLP,” and is responsible for hijacking multiple airplanes.

BDS Activities

• In September 2022, TRC was a signatory on a letter to the European Union to “review its decision to revive the Association Council Meeting, stop the recently signed gas deal and review its bilateral cooperation programmes.” According to the call, “Instead of allowing Israel to entrench its colonial enterprise and apartheid regime, rewarding it with further economic cooperation and trade of harmful military equipment and technologies, the EU and its Member States have an obligation, and interest, to hold Israel accountable and put an end to impunity.”
• In May 2021, Abu Yousef stated in an interview that “The international community must find all ways…to tighten the grip of the occupation’s authorities by boycotting it, criminalizing it and prosecuting it in the ICC for the war crimes and massacres which it has perpetrated and shall perpetrate against the Palestinian people.”
• In July 2020, TRC was a signatory on a statement calling for “Immediate targeted sanctions to stop Israel’s annexation and apartheid.” The statement further called for “A ban on arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel,” “Suspension of trade and cooperation agreements with Israel,” and “Investigation and prosecution of individuals and corporate actors responsible for war crimes/crimes against humanity in the context of Israel’s regime of illegal occupation and apartheid.”