CIA Report Finds No Proof for Israeli Claim That Palestinian NGOs Are ‘Terrorist’ Groups
A classified report from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was unable to find evidence supporting Israel’s move to designate six Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist organizations,” The Guardian reported Monday, citing two sources familiar with a study undertaken by the agency.
In October, Israel labeled Addameer, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees as terrorist groups.
As The Guardian reported Monday:
Earlier this year, Israel passed intelligence about the designation to the U.S., but a CIA intelligence assessment of the material did not find any evidence to support the claim, according to two sources familiar with the study.
The CIA report “doesn’t say that the groups are guilty of anything,” one source said. The assessment was highly classified, a second source said.
The apartheid regime’s brazen act, which has criminalized the crucial work being done by a half-dozen of Palestine’s leading NGOs, was widely condemned by civil society groups based in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere.
The Biden administration, by contrast, has not publicly rebuked its ally’s decision, though Secretary of State Antony Blinken has left the Palestinian groups off of the White House’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Last Thursday, in an escalation of its campaign to prevent Palestinian human rights organizations from pursuing their advocacy work, the Israeli military stormed the offices of seven NGOs in the occupied West Bank, stealing property, shuttering office access, and posting official notices declaring the groups illegal.
Following last week’s raids, state department spokesperson Ned Price acknowledged that the U.S. government had examined the evidence that Israel compiled in an attempt to justify its 10-month-long assault on the outlawed Palestinian groups—evidence that United Nations human rights experts and nine European Union governments have rejected as shoddy.
The CIA’s report, according to The Guardian‘s summary, appears to vindicate those who have denounced Israel’s unsubstantiated “terrorism” allegations. That includes Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and the 21 House Democrats who joined her last month in urging Blinken and national intelligence director Avril Haines to publicly oppose the punitive classification of groups opposed to Israel’s ongoing war crimes.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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