Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint Arab List party, visited Palestinian terrorist Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in her home in Al-Bireh near Ramallah on Monday following her release from Israeli prison.

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Jarrar is a Palestinian lawmaker and a senior official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, whose members carried out an attack in Samaria in 2018, murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and seriously wounding her father and sibling.

Jarrar was released on Sunday after a two-year sentence she received as part of a plea bargain with the Military Prosecution, which had convicted her of having ties to a known terrorist group. The court, however, found insufficient evidence to press more serious charges against her.

She had been held in administrative detention since October 2019. Her sentence included time served.

Joint Arab List member Aida Touma-Sliman garnered harsh criticism Sunday for posting a congratulatory message on Facebook that included a photo with her and Jarrar embracing.

Odeh, who posted photos of himself with Jarrar from her home on Facebook, wrote: "The occupation accused her more than once of being a member of an illegal organization, that's why she was imprisoned more than once. What manner of affront is this?! The occupation determines legality?!

I visited her, together with the dear Bassam Al-Salehi, the General-Secretary of the Palestinian People's Party, to console her over the death of her daughter, Suha, who died while she was in prison. The occupation refused to let her out for a few hours to attend her daughter's funeral."

In his Facebook post, Odeh also referred to the Hamas terrorists killed by IDF forces in Jenin on Sunday as "young men" and condemned Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount.

"The issue is not just the warrior Khalida, an not just the killing of the five young men in Jenin [on Sunday]; not just the unprecedented disgrace with the Israeli flags at the al-Aqsa mosque [Sunday] morning; not just the roadblocks and not just the siege of Gaza; but that they are all the result of the criminal occupation," Odeh added.

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Joint Arab List member Aida Touma-Suleiman garnered harsh criticism Sunday for publicly expressing support for the newly released Khalida Jarrar who had been arrested for involvement in terrorist activity.

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Jarrar is a Palestinian lawmaker and a senior official at the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, whose members carried out an attack in Samaria in 2018, killing 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and seriously wounding her father and sibling.

Jarrar was released on Sunday after a two-year sentence she received as part of a plea bargain with the Military Prosecution.

Touma-Suleiman posted a congratulatory message on Facebook that included a photo with her and Jarrar embracing. In the background, one can see Ahmad Sa'adat, secretary-general of the Popular Front, who orchestrated the failed assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

Maor Tzemach, chairman of the Lach, Yerushalayim ("For You, Jerusalem") group, condemned Touma-Suleiman, saying, "It is a disgrace that Israel's parliament includes representatives of the Popular Front terrorist organization, such as MK Suleiman. Time has come to condemn all Knesset members who support terrorism."

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A radiologist at Phoenix Children's Hospital in Arizona is no longer affiliated with the center after posting antisemitic messages on social media and saying that Israel was a state based on "inhumanity" and even "cannibalism."

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On May 26, Dr. Fidaa Wishah wrote a post saying, "We will uncover your thirst to kill our Palestinian children. … We sense your fear. The fear of your collapse. A state-based on atrocity, inhumanity, racism and cannibalism never last[s] long! Hey #israel … your end is coming sooner than you think."

In a post she published on several networks earlier this week, Wishah wrote: "You will not censor us anymore. Bomb our media buildings, we have phones. Bribe the mainstream media, and we have our little social platforms. From our streets, from the windows, from the destruction, we will expose you to the world."

In another post, Wishah revealed she had been called in for a conversation with Human Resources and wrote: "I told my boss I would not stop writing posts or talking about Palestine. This is my life and this is my struggle. The false accusations against me and my labeling as antisemitic will not lead them anywhere."

She also posted a picture of herself crying and wrote: "It hurts to be accused of lying just because I dare to tell the truth. The Zionists have a large and influential lobby that supports them in the US and everything is based on money buying everything, even my silence."

The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday: "All children in the care of Phoenix Children's receive hope, healing and the best possible health care, regardless of race, color, disability, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or national origin. After a thorough review of the facts related to this matter, this individual [Wishah] is no longer providing care at Phoenix Children's."

Stopantisemitism.org acknowledged the hospital for its swift action, posting on Twitter: "Thank you Phoenix Children's for standing strongly against anti-Semitism and your quick handling of the matter!"

Breaking news - Dr. Fidaa Wishah is no longer employed at @PhxChildrens.

Thank you Phoenix Children's for standing strongly against antisemitism and your quick handling of the matter! https://t.co/xp5k5o3oZO pic.twitter.com/vEmUzeHHEV

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) June 23, 2021

Her comments were not immediately seen by pro-Israel or Jewish advocates.

Once discovered, concern grew about her ability to treat Jewish children under her care. That concern was heightened when a blogger at Israellycool.com identified Wishah's father as Jaber Wishah, who led the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – a US-designated terror group in the Gaza Strip – and who was convicted and sentenced by Israel to life in prison for attempting to kill a member of the Israel Defense Forces and planting a bomb. He was released in 1999 after serving 15 years.

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Before the hospital made its announcement, Wishah had taken to social media to complain that she had been placed on leave pending an investigation because of a hashtag campaign and Instagram posts from "Zionists and Israelis who have concerns about me treating their kids differently," and that she was being censored.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Israeli authorities charged Thursday Spanish woman Juana Ruiz Sanchez under the country's anti-terrorism laws, accusing her of funneling large sums of donations from European governments to a banned Palestinian terrorist organization.

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Sanchez's indictment was the culmination of a more than year-long investigation into financing for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The group is regarded by Israel, the United States, Canada, and European Union as a terrorist organization.

Sanchez, who is married to a Palestinian, has worked for Health Work Committees, a Palestinian organization that provides medical services in the territory.

She was indicted on Israeli terrorism-financing offenses and other charges. The HWC's senior accountant, former accountant and former purchasing department manager were expected to be charged with similar offenses in the coming days, according to the Shin Bet.

Sanchez, 62, had been held by Israeli authorities under administrative detention since her arrest at her home near Bethlehem on April 13.

Spain's Foreign Ministry, which has provided her with consular assistance, said it would continue talking to Israeli authorities to improve detention conditions for Sanchez. The ministry also said Spain has controls to prevent aid money from reaching military groups.

"We are open to examine any information that our partners want to share with us," it said.

Sanchez's hearing is scheduled for Monday. In the meantime, she remains in jail. She denies all the charges.

The Shin Bet began investigating the PFLP's finances following an August 2019 attack when terrorists detonated an explosive device and killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, and wounded her brother and father, an Israeli official said.

The investigation found at least seven Palestinian charities had funneled tens of millions of euros donated by European governments and organizations for humanitarian purposes to PFLP coffers.

The Israeli official said the probe found that the HWC, along with other aid organizations, including the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and Addameer, "act under PFLP leadership and in accordance with the organization's directives, as a cover for promoting the PFLP's activities and funding."

The Health Works Committees did not respond to requests for comment and PFLP representatives declined comment.

The Foreign Ministry has called on European governments to step up oversight of donations to Palestinian organizations to ensure they don't wind up funding groups outlawed by the EU.

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The "supporting organizations" listed on the letter include ones related to the anti-Israel BDS movement, including the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, American Muslims for Palestine, American Friends Service Committee, Churches for Middle East Peace and Defense for Children International-Palestine.

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The Defense for Children International-Palestine has been linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated a terror group by the United States and European Union.

The letter last month to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to condition or even cut off of US assistance to Israel if the Jewish state goes ahead with its plans to apply sovereignty to – or what they call annex – parts of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria.

In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, 12 other members of Congress signed the letter: Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (D-Ill.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

In the letter, the progressive members of Congress, citing unspecified "leading human rights experts," warn that "annexing parts of the West Bank will perpetuate and entrench human rights violations against Palestinians including limitations on freedom of movement, mass expropriation of privately-owned Palestinian land, further expansion of illegal settlements, continued demolitions of Palestinian homes, and a loss of Palestinian control over their natural resources."

The letter accuses Israel of "paving the path toward an apartheid system" since it won't grant citizenship to Palestinians living in annexed territory," despite the Palestinians being under the control of the Palestinian Authority, which has long been known for corruption, human rights abuses, and supporting terrorism against Israelis.

"The US should work to build a future in which all Palestinians and Israelis live under full equality by upholding a foreign policy that centers human rights and dignity for all people," states the letter. "We therefore call on you to use a combination of pressure and incentives to stop Israel's plans to illegally annex the West Bank, which would ensure a worsening of the situation for all Palestinians and Israelis."

The Congress members warn that if Israel were to go ahead with annexation, which the Israeli government has said it will do some time after July 1, "we will work to ensure non-recognition as well as pursue conditions on the $3.8 billion in US military funding to Israel, including human rights conditions and withholding funds for the off-shore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other pro-Israel groups have pushed back against the letter.

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AIPAC called it "one-sided," saying it "directly threatens the US-Israel relationship," "supports conditioning and cutting America's security assistance commitment to Israel" and "would damage American interests, risk the security of Israel and make a two-state solution less likely."

In response to the Democratic letter, a group of US House Republicans penned a letter this month to Pompeo in support of Israel possibly extending sovereignty to the West Bank.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The announcement on Wednesday by Israel's Shin Bet security agency that it has arrested some 50 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) capped off a monthslong targeting of the terror group for its role in the deadly terror attack on Aug. 23 that killed an Israeli teenager hiking with her father and brother.

Rina Shnerb, 17, died as a result of an explosion near the town of Dolev in Samaria; her brother, Dvir Shnerb, 19, was injured, along with their father, 46-year-old Rabbi Eitan Shnerb. According to Israeli reports, the explosive device included 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of explosive material, making it an "unusually powerful bomb."

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The arrests coincidentally provide evidence of further links between the PFLP and the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Among those arrested by the Shin Bet include Khalida Jarrar, 56, who the Israeli security service noted was the head of the terror group's operations in the West Bank. Until recently, Jarrar also served as the vice chairperson, director and board member of the BDS organization Addameer.

"With regard to Jarrar, this is really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the BDS/terror connection," said Marc Greendorfer, president of the Zachor Legal Institute and author of The New Anti-Semites: The Radicalization Mechanism of the BDS Movement and the Delegitimization Campaign Against Israel.

"Jarrar is simply one example of the extensive overlaps between terror organization leadership and BDS, going all the way to the top, where the organizing and operational leadership of BDS [the BDS National Committee, or BNC] includes a coalition of groups designated as foreign terror organizations by the United States and other countries," Greendorfer told JNS.

Last February, Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry released a report titled Terrorists in Suits that found that Hamas and PFLP activists had infiltrated organizations that call for boycotts on, divestment from, and sanctions on Israel.

The report, which examined 13 international BDS organizations, discovered that senior positions were held by 30 terror activists – 20 of whom who had actually spent time in prison for their crimes, including murder.

It also determined that global interconnections between BDS and terror organizations were vast, with more than 100 connections being identified.

Founded in 1992, Addameer claims to be an NGO that works to support Palestinian prisoners, yet evidence suggests that the organization is actually an affiliate of PFLP.

According to NGO Monitor, more than half of Addameer's current and former employees, as well as lawyers that work for it, have links to the PFLP; other employees have ties to Hamas.

Addameer is a member of the Palestinian NGO Network, which itself is a member of the BNC or BDS National Committee, that coordinates the global BDS movement.

'Affecting countries across the West'

"The BDS movement was funded by terrorists, and it is being led by terrorists across the world. There must be a wide recognition of these connections, and countries must wake up to that fact and take action," said Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum.

"This problem doesn't affect only Israel; it is also affecting countries across the West. They aim to entrench institutional and civilian support for terrorism, to effectively recruit manpower; to raise funds, as well as to radicalize the population and subvert democratic values. They are present on the streets, on college campuses and in parliaments hiding under the guise of legitimate human rights organizations," he explained.

Indeed, Addameer has a number of ties with US-based pro-Palestinian organizations, including US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, US Palestinian Community Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, Students for Justice in Palestine, Middle East Children's Alliance, and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Sahar Francis, the foreign affairs representatives of Addameer, has attended numerous events and conferences abroad, including in the United States. In 2017, she was at an event in Brooklyn, NY, organized jointly by Addameer, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Adalah NY and Black Youth Project 100.

Additionally, in 2013 and again in 2017, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) sponsored an Addameer US National Tour with Francis.

These tours included stops at the University of California, Irvine, and San Francisco State University, which were events co-sponsored by local SJP affiliates and Jewish Voice for Peace. She also attended events sponsored by the Palestinian Youth Movement, which included other sponsors such as the Arab Community of South California, Women's International Network, American Muslims for Palestine, and the Palestinian American Congress.

Both SJP and USCPR have shared Addameer's content on social media.

Moving forward, Greendorfer hopes that Jarrar's terror arrest and her role within Palestinian NGOs with ties to the BDS movement will spur further action by US authorities against BDS organizations.

"BDS and terror are two sides of the same coin, and Jarrar is the rule, rather than the exception, in this regard," he said.

"We've pointed out these connections and even listed those BDS leaders who are also terror group operatives in our scholarship and our court briefs, and hope that United States' law enforcement takes notice of this dangerous infiltration of terror groups into US social-justice campaigns."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The Judea and Samaria network operated under the leadership of senior PFLP members who directed the attacks that the various cells carried out.

Members of the PFLP are responsible for the terrorist bombing at the Danny Spring near Dolev that killed Rina Shnerb, 17, this past August, and left her father and brother seriously wounded.

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Members of the PFLP network arrested in the course of the operation include the head of the cell that perpetrated the attack that took Shnerb's life: Samer Arbid of Ramallah, who has already been in prison for terrorist activity on behalf of the organization. Arbid enlisted the other members of the cell, built, and set off the improvised bomb. Arbid was arrested along with Yazan Maghamas, 24, who was involved in several other attacks, and Qassem Shibli, 25, from the "terror village" of Kobar, who also carried out a number of shooting attacks.

When members of the Judea and Samaria network were interrogated, they revealed that it was behind a number of shooting attacks and was in the process of planning large-scale attacks for the near future. Israeli security personnel arrested some 50 members, including a senior official in the PFLP in Judea and Samaria, and seized a large stock of weapons that the terrorists had been holding.

The Shin Bet seized M16s and other types of assault rifles, handguns, silencers, and various types of fertilizer intended to be used in building bombs, as well as ammunition. Security personnel also found radios and batteries to be used to detonate explosives remotely. Much of the weapons had been stored in the home of a relative of Arbid.

The detainees provided the Shin Bet with information about the attacks that they had been planning and detailed the process of planning and executing the lethal Danny Spring attack. Cell members told investigators that they had begun collecting intelligence a few weeks before the attack and had visited the spring several times to scout the territory. Arbid reviewed and approved the final plan.

The interrogation also exposed additional acts of terrorism for which the PFLP in Judea and Samaria was responsible, including a shooting attack on an Israeli bus near the settlement of Ofra in December 2017 and a shooting attack on an Israeli car near Ariel in March of this year.

Many of the detainees have been indicted on serious charges, with more indictments expected to be filed.

A senior Shin Bet official said that the intelligence and investigative work had "thwarted terrorist attacks slated to be carried out in the near future."

According to the official, if the Shin Bet and the rest of the security forces had not managed to put their hands on the cell members, the planned attacks would have claimed numerous Israeli lives.

"The Shin Bet investigation exposed the real and present danger from Popular Front [terrorist] activity, as well as the security danger from the Popular Front's 'organizational' activity. The amount of weapons seized and the information we gained in the interrogation highlight how dangerous this network is and how prepared [they are] to carry out more, deadly terrorist attacks," he said.

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The incident occurred last Friday. Armed PFLP operatives shot down a drone that was spotted flying near their outpost in Khan Younis in the northern Gaza Strip.

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The organization rushed to announce it had shot down an Israeli drone and promised it would make public footage showing its "heroic action." But the celebrations didn't last for long.

On Sunday evening, Gaza-based media outlets reported that the drone had belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not Israel. Later, reports said that Hamas had collected the pieces of the downed drone and was asking that other terrorist organizations active in Gaza coordinate drone activity with Hamas.

The PFLP proceeded to delete the posts bragging about having successfully intercepted an Israeli drone.

Gazans took to Twitter to mock the error itself and the organization's response.

"God help us, it's lucky they didn't try to kidnap a soldier," one user wrote.

The PFLP rushed to remind the public that it was behind the hijacking of the Sabena aircraft in the 1960s, but even that remark was met with humor.

"Maybe they should go back to hijacking passenger aircraft, we'd be happy to get a flight to the Maldives," another user responded.

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