Activities

• UHWC activities include holding medical conferences and “Health Days,” and maintaining hospitals, medical center, and cultural centers throughout the Gaza Strip.
• UHWC itself is a PFLP-affiliated health committee active in Gaza, as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• Signed on the 2005 Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS and helped organize the First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel (BDS).
• UHWC has accused Israel of “Urbanicide,” “Genocide,” the “mass killing of civilians,” and called on its partners, including Oxfam, to condemn “Israel’s human rights violations against the Palestinian people.”
• Mona El-Farra, is a “health development consultant” for the Union of Health Work Committees, and according to American Friends Service Committee’s website, El-Farra also “heads the Rachel Corrie Children’s Center, which is also in Gaza. The center is a project of the Union of Health Work Committees.”
  • In 2015, El Farra was denied a visa by the Israeli authorities to travel to a conference on Palestine in Dublin for “security reasons.”
  • In May 2018, El-Farra participated in the “Palestinian Freedom Conference: Overcoming the Ongoing Nakba,” which discussed how “In late 1947, colonial Zionist paramilitary forces began the process of ethnically cleansing more than 750,000 Palestinians…70 years later…in Palestine a process of ongoing ethnic cleansing via occupation, colonisation, apartheid, and cruel siege continues apace, with no intervention from the international community.”
  • In an interview in 2004, El-Farra explained that UHWC refused USAID funding because it came with the condition that they promise “not [to] give any help or any aid whatsoever for the families of the militiamen, or their relatives, or anyone related to ‘terrorist attacks’” because “we consider it resistance.”

UHWC’s Ties to the PFLP

• UHWC is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate” and by a 1993 USAID-engaged audit as the “the PFLP’s health organization.”
• As academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, who also identifies UHWC as a “PFLP-affiliated health committee,” explains “Many-probably most-doctors who joined the UHWC had political leanings similar to the leftist PFLP. As health committees tied to other political factions also existed, it was common for doctors and staff to work with that health group which reflected their politics. Both the providers and, to a lesser degree, the recipients of these medical services were aware of the larger political agenda. The ability to translate medical-and other social-services into a particular political vision was the key to the struggle within the Palestinian community for ideological hegemony” (emphasis added).
• HWC’s Youth Development Program, “A community, cultural, and social development program that provide services to Jerusalemite youth through ‘Nidal Center,’” was shut down by Israeli authorities from 2009 to 2012 because, in the words of the Jerusalem District Court, it served as “a place of action of the [PFLP] organization.” According to the Jerusalem District Court, “following the closure of the [Center], the PFLP began operating under the guise of the non-profit the Union of Health Work Committees – Jerusalem…on June 9, 2015 at the request of the Minister of Defense the non-profit was an unlawful organization…”

UHWC Staff Ties to the PFLP

• Rabah Muhanna
  • Muhanna, one of UHWC’s founders and former head, served as a member of the PFLP political bureau.
  • On May 5, 2019, the PFLP issued a statement mourning Muhanna’s death and referring to him as a “warrior and a great national leader” and “one of the most prominent national leaders in the Gaza Strip.” During his funeral, Muhanna’s coffin was escorted by armed PFLP militants.
• Mohammed Abdel Qader Abu Samr, founder and former UHWC member, has been described by the PFLP as a “comrade fighter” in a 2016 statement mourning his death.
• Magdi Yaghi
  • Yaghi, UHWC treasurer and board member in 2016-2019, is referred to by the PFLP as a “member of the regional command” and a “comrade.”
  • In February 2019, Yaghi participated in a memorial service organized by the PFLP for Maher Yamani, a PFLP “founder” and a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders.”
  • In addition to UHWC, Yaghi is involved with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), another PFLP “affiliate.” In 2013, he served as a UAWC board member. He also participated in a 2019 UAWC event.
• Fares Nasser
  • In 2017, Nasser, UHWC Director of Administration and Human Resources, hosted an event at his house to commemorate the 50 Anniversary of the establishment of the PFLP.
• Suhail Al Tanani
  • Al Tanani was referred to as the “Direction of the Union’s Communication and Advocacy Department” in an October 2019 interview posted on UHWC’s website.
  • The PFLP refers to Al Tanani as a “comrade.”
  • In January 2019, Al Tanani spoke at a PFLP-organized graduation ceremony at the Al-Qader school.
• Fadi Al Ajrami, a member of UHWC’s Board of Directors, is also a “member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front” according to the PFLP.
• Dr. Tayser Al Sultan
  • According to a March 2019 US Embassy document, Al Sultan is the “director” of UHWC.
  • In 2015, Al Sultan attended a PFLP organized “graduation ceremony for the ‘Pioneers of Return’ camps in the Gaza Strip,” which featured armed PFLP activists performing military maneuvers.