Groups accuse PFLP-affiliated UK NGO of being antisemitic
“Medical Aid for Palestinians is advertised as a charity involved in the provision of health care but is also injecting antisemitic poison into British public life."
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: JUNE 13, 2018 18:49A demonstrator wears a Benjamin Netanyahu mask with a message written on it during a protest outside Downing Street in London, Britain September 9, 2015(photo credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE)
The UK organization Medical Aid for Palestinians spreads antisemitic messages and funds NGOs linked to the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, two pro-Israel legal groups complained to Britain’s Charity Commission.The Lawfare Project and UK Lawyers for Israel filed the complaint last week, saying that Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) used some of its annual income of £5.4 million (NIS 25.8 m.) on political propaganda, deviating from its stated charitable purpose of providing medical aid.“Medical Aid for Palestinians is advertised as a charity involved in the provision of health care but is also injecting antisemitic poison into British public life. British donors should know that as well as healthcare, MAP is involved with NGOs linked to a terrorist organization, the PFLP, designated as such by the UK government among others,” said Brooke Goldstein, Director of the Lawfare Project, a legal think tank and litigation fund that supports cases against antisemitic discrimination around the world.Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, called MAP out for providing “misleading” information, saying that visitors to its website “would no doubt be surprised to hear that life-expectancy in Gaza in fact compares favorably with Glasgow.”Rather than providing medical aid, MAP “is abusing its position as a charity to spread false information about Israel… Our report shows how MAP uses the halo of its status as a charity to disguise its promotion of racial hatred of Israelis and Jews,” Turner added.The legal organizations’ report ties MAP to the PFLP through several Palestinian organizations, such as Addameer, whose vice-chairwoman Khalida Jarrar was convicted of incitement after a 2015 call to kidnap Israeli soldiers so they can be used as bargaining chips; Al-Haq, whose general director Shawan Jabarin was convicted of recruiting and training for the PFLP; and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a leading anti-Israel lawfare organization.The report also points to MAP’s founder, Dr. Swee Ang, who circulated a link to an antisemitic video by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in 2014, which labeled the Federal Reserve Bank as “the Zio Club,” Brian Williams of NBC News “a good Shabbes goy Zioscript reader,” US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan a “Zio tribalist,” and argued that “Zios invaded and took over Walt Disney Corp. just as they invaded and took over Palestine.”According to the report, when asked about the video, Ang said in 2017 that she doesn’t “think it’s entirely anti-Jewish.”Among the claims made on MAP’s website is that Israel is to blame for breast cancer in Palestinian women, which the legal organizations said was made “in a manner keeping with medieval blood libel.” In addition, the report points to cases in which MAP claimed that Palestinians who died carrying out acts of violence were civilians.The report also refers to MAP promoting the play “Seven Jewish Children – A Play for Gaza,” which was widely condemned as antisemitic, including by the UK Jewish organization the Community Security Trust, which said the play was an updated version of the blood libel.
Medical Aid for Palestinians said in response: “Medical Aid for Palestinians is deeply concerned that misleading allegations and misinformation, posing a serious risk to our reputation, have been made public without us being given an adequate chance to comment."We refute these allegations absolutely and note that the majority of them are historical. We are careful to ensure that we operate within the terms of our mandate and that everything we do is lawful and consistent with Charity Commission guidelines. We abhor all forms of prejudice, including antisemitism, and state so publicly. We are currently in the midst of an emergency response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and it is difficult to divert our focus from our charitable objects at such a critical time. However, we take these allegations extremely seriously and we have contacted the Charity Commission about them."We invite readers to familiarize themselves with MAP’s programs so as to appreciate the professionalism and integrity with which we work.”
