Press Releases

No to Israeli Gantz requires No to American Gantz and European Gantz too!
No to Israeli Gantz requires No to American Gantz and European Gantz too!

Statement issued by

Global Paletinian Refugee Network

 

The decision of Gantz, the Israeli Minister of War, announced on 22 October, to consider six Palestinian civil society organizations active in the field of defending Palestinian human rights as terrorist organizations, reveals the extent of the systematic Zionist-Israeli campaign that aims to liquidate and silence everything that is nationalistic in the Palestinian arena.

Undoubtedly, this decision would not have been possible without the systematic complicity of Western colonial countries, led by the United States of America and a number of European countries, and donor institutions. The Israeli Minister of War's adoption of this decision cannot be separated from the Israeli strategy of shrinking the space for Palestinian national civil action, of which the policy of imposing the so-called anti-terrorism conditions adopted by the European Union and some of its member states two years ago is one of its pillars. It is not difficult to see the link between the Israeli minister’s decision, which refers to six active Palestinian national organizations, and the European Union’s so-called anti-terrorism clause, which stipulates - among other things - that five Palestinian political factions are considered terrorist organizations: Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front General Command.

The European Union, like the United States, has gone too far in ignoring the unique Palestinian human right’s context and our right to resist the colonizer, thus giving Israel a wide space to practice its oppression and violations under the guise of the so-called fight against terrorism and, in turn, drying up the sources of funding for "terrorist" organizations and institutions.

We, the Global Palestinian Refugee Network (GPRN), previously warned against complying with the political condition – particularly those associated with security measures. Further, we do not expect any favors from Gantz, nor do we call on the European Union and countries to pressure Israel to change its position. Rather, we demand that the EU and its member states not endorse and/or adopt the position of the Israeli colonial regime, at the very least. We believe that the "no" directed at Israel's Gantz requires directing a "no" with the same effort and force at the American and European Gantz, who are paving the way and supporting Israeli oppression by continuing to impose their conditions and policies that classify our people's legitimate resistance as terrorism. Accordingly, every party that adopts the position of the Israeli colonial regime must know that the members of the GPRN will not deal with it as a supporter of the Palestinian people, not even as a neutral party, and that the members of the GPRN affirm our support in all forms for the organizations targeted in the decision of the Israeli Minister of War, and:

  1. We reject the policy of classifying any of the political factions, or civil society organizations, and the Palestinian struggle movement according to the colonial American, European and Zionist notions and their so-called anti-terrorism criteria.
  2. We renew our boycott of all international parties such as the European Union and some of its members’ state representative offices, international donor institutions such as Sida, the American Open Society Foundation, DanChurchAid (DCA) & Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), the French Agency for Development (AFD), and those intermediary Palestinian institutions and others, which impose the conditions of the so-called fight against terrorism.
  3. We will boycott every international organization, regardless of whether it provides financial support or not, that recognizes or adopts the decision of the Israeli Minister of War as a standard for dealing with our Palestinian people or institutions.
  4. We call on the Palestinian organizations that have fallen into the politically conditional funding trap to immediately withdraw and announce their withdrawal from all projects and contracts.
  5. We call on the political factions and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to hold a national conference to declare the rejection and boycott of politically conditional funding, and to renounce those involved in its implementation and promotion, and to put in place national mechanisms to enhance the steadfastness of our people and liberate national institutions, including the civil ones, from conditional funding.