Terror-honoring Palestinian NGO funded by UNRWA, UNDP, foreign governments
Tree planting ceremony honoring murderers
held by Palestinian NGO
funded by UNRWA, UNDP,
the governments of Australia, Spain,
Netherlands, and Japan
Nan Jacques Zilberdik
On Friday, a Palestinian NGO, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, held a tree planting ceremony honoring 209 "Martyrs of the popular uprising." Among these "Martyrs" are numerous Palestinian terrorists and murderers, who have murdered and attempted to murder Israelis during the wave of terror attacks that since September 2015 has included numerous stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks, killing 34 and wounding over 400 Israelis.
Several foreign governments and international organizations, including UNRWA, UNDP, the governments of Australia, Spain, Netherlands and Japan, as well as numerous NGOs are listed as donors of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. (See full list below) [UAWC website, list of "doners" (misspelled), accessed April 4, 2016]
Their funding of the UAWC implicates all these institutions and organizations in the act of honoring murderers of Israelis.
Yesterday, Palestinian Media Watch exposed a similar case of UN bodies and European governments honoring murderers by way of the organizations they support. UNDP, UNFPA, FAO, the Spanish government, the Dutch government and European NGOs all support the Palestinian NGO Rural Women's Development Society that organized a chain of readers in honor of terrorist Baha Alyan, who murdered 3.
Among the "Martyrs" honored with an olive tree, and specifically mentioned in the report in the official Palestinian Authority daily, were murderer Muhannad Halabi, who stabbed 2 Israeli civilians to death and wounded the wife and 2-year-old baby of one of them in the Old City of Jerusalem in October 2015, and Fadi Alloun who stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old Israeli.
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| Photo caption: "Muhannad Halabi's (i.e., murderer of 2) mother standing next to a tree that was planted yesterday, on Land Day, in the city of El-Bireh." Text on right sign: "Muhammad Halabi" (i.e., murderer of 2) Text on left sign: "Fadi Alloun" (i.e., stabbed 1) [Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2016] |
A representative of the UAWC stated that the event was held to "convey the message that we will hold on to the land, and that we will not forget the Martyrs who sacrificed [their lives].'"
In addition to the UN institutions and foreign governments, numerous international NGOs are listed as supporting the UAWC. Some of them have featured in PMW exposures in the past:
- NDC - NGO Development Center - PMW exposed their funding of a PA TV programs for youth, which featured terror glorification and demonization of Israelis.
- World Vision - Australian Christian charity - funded a youth center named after a terrorist.
- Norwegian People's Aid - funded exhibit erasing Israel from maps.
The following is a longer excerpt of the report on the tree planting ceremony honoring murderers:
Headline: "El-Bireh: Planting olive trees bearing the names of the popular uprising's Martyrs in lands in danger of [expropriation]"
"Yesterday [March 31, 2016], a number of families of Martyrs (Shahids) of the popular uprising (the wave of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis since September 2015 - continuing -Ed.) planted olive trees bearing the names of their sons and the dates of their Martyrdom in lands in danger of expropriation next to the [Jewish] settlement of Psagot, which is located on lands of the city of El-Bireh. The mother of Martyr Iyad Sajadiyeh (i.e., killed in confrontations with the Israeli army) from the Qalandiya refugee camp north of occupied Jerusalem planted an olive tree sapling during an event organized by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (an organization supported by international donors, see below -Ed.) in Ramallah to mark the 40th anniversary of Land Day, and said: 'My son loved the land and died as a Martyr in order to protect it. I see Iyad in this tree, and I will nurture it as I nurtured Iyad.' ... The Union of Agricultural Work Committees organized a procession which set out from the center of Ramallah toward the lands of the city of El-Bireh, in honor of Land Day.
The procession was organized under the slogan 'Loyalty to the Martyrs of the Land and its Prisoners - End the Destructive Rift [between Fatah and Hamas]' and was held with the participation of the Martyrs' families and dozens of citizens.
Coordinator of the Public Activity Department in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees Aghsan Barghouti... explained that 209 olive saplings were brought corresponding to the number of the Martyrs of the popular uprising, in addition to six saplings bearing the names of the Martyrs who died on Land Day in 1976, and an additional 30 saplings for the prisoners in the occupation's prisons who were arrested before Oslo (i.e., the Oslo Accords, 1993).
Barghouti added: 'Through this event, we want convey the message that we will hold on to the land, and that we will not forget the Martyrs who sacrificed [their lives].'"
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 1, 2016]
Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) - Palestinian NGO funded by several international governments and organizations, including UNRWA, UNDP, the Japanese, Australian, Spanish, and Dutch governments, as well as numerous international NGOs.
[UAWC website list of "doners" (misspelled), accessed April 4, 2016
http://uawc-pal.org/caten.aspx?g=Doners ]
Donors of UAWC in order of appearance as listed on UAWC's website, accessed April 4, 2016:
Grassroots International, The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Local Councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, SCP, The Social Promotion of the Culture Foundation - FPSC, International Orthodox Christian Charities - IOCC, Centro Regionale d' Intervento Per la Cooperazione - CRIC, Japanese Government, Young Men's Christian Association - YMCA, UNRWA, Australian Government's Oversees Aid Program - AUSAID, Australian Government, World Vision, Welfare Association, NGO Development Center (NDC), Action Against Hunger (ACF), Italian Association for Solidarity Among People - AISPO, UCODEP Italy, Catholic Relief Services - CRS, Italian Cooperation, Mundobat, Solidaridad Internacional - SI, Fundacion Desarrollo Sostenido - Fundeso, Norwegian People's Aid - NPA, Spanish Cooperation Office - AECID, United Nations Development Program - UNDP, Gruppo di Volontariato Civil - GVC, The Representative Office of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Palestinian Authority, Oxfam Solidarite - Belgium, Islamic Bank
Muhannad Halabi - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who killed 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett's wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Following the attack, he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces. Prior to his attack, in a post to his private Facebook page, the terrorist referred to recent terror attacks as part of a "third Intifada," and said that it was a response to Israel's actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Palestinian people would not "succumb to humiliation." This is a reference to the PA libel that Israel is plotting to take over and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to the PA's portrayal of Jews praying on the Temple Mount as "an invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Fadi Alloun - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and injured Israeli citizen Moshe Malka (15) near the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Alloun fled and was shot and killed by Israeli police. Before his attack, Alloun had written on his Facebook page: "Oh Allah, my goal is Martyrdom-death (Shahada) or victory for Allah... Allah is great."
Iyad Sajadiyeh - Palestinian killed in Qalandiya, on February 29, 2016, during confrontations with Israeli soldiers.
Land Day - an annual commemoration of the general strike and demonstrations organized by Israeli Arab residents of the Galilee on March 30, 1976, to protest the Israeli government's decision to expropriate land in the Galilee for security and settlement purposes, which it later implemented. During the protests, demonstrators burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and firebombs. Six demonstrators were shot and killed by the Israeli army and police. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians consider Land Day a national day.