JERUSALEM, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- An Israeli legal rights group has urged the British-based charity Oxfam to cut ties with Palestinian organizations linked to terrorist groups.
Shurat Hadin, a group that fights terrorism by going after terrorists in court, said Oxfam could be held liable in future attacks if it does not cut ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Israeli broadcaster Arutz Sheva reported Sunday.
"It has been brought to our attention that Oxfam International, Oxfam Novib, and other Oxfam affiliates provide financial aid and additional forms of material support to the Union of Health Workers Committees (UHWC) and the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), instrumentalities of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority," Shurat Hadin's Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said.
"Oxfam readily acknowledges it works very closely with these two Palestinian groups and provides them financial support. Your organization has described them as your 'partners.' ... Indeed, last month you signed a new agreement with the UHWC to provide it with further financial support," she continued.
However, the PFLP, "is a notorious terrorist organization" and has been listed as a terrorist entity by the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, Darshan-Leitner said.
"Moreover, material support meant to promote peaceable, lawful conduct can be diverted to advance terrorism in multiple ways. The record shows that designated foreign terrorist organizations do not maintain organizational firewalls between funds raised for humanitarian activities and those used to carry out terrorist attacks," Darshan-Leitner said.
If Oxfam does not cut ties with the UHWC and UAWC, Shurat Hadin "will seek all available relief and remedies against Oxfam and its officers in all relevant jurisdictions," Darshan-Leitner said.
