The End of an Anti-Israel Propaganda NGO – More to Come?

In April, an NGO called Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) announced its closure after 35 years of operation. While posing as a protector of Palestinian children, DCI-P was a leader in anti-Israel demonization through the fabrication of alleged war crimes. It was also reportedly closely linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terror group in the US, the EU and elsewhere.

The propaganda churned out by DCI-P was eagerly embraced and amplified by the UN’s leaders in maligning Israel, including UNICEF, among other NGOs with similar agendas, such as Human Rights Watch and Save the Children, as well as allied journalists. Together, they advanced a very cynical strategy, lobbying intensely to include Israel – alongside heinous groups like ISIS and Boko Haram – in a UN sanctions mechanism originally designed to protect children in armed conflicts. While promoting falsehoods to slander Israel, DCI-P ignored real and extensive abuse of children for terrorism (child soldiers) by the PFLP, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.

NGO Monitor research has identified approximately 90 Palestinian minors killed in 2018-2023 alone while engaging in violence against Israelis, including shootings, stabbings, throwing explosives, Molotov cocktails, and stones, and other violent acts. These include at least 39 teens affiliated with designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas and PFLP. DCI-P consistently fabricated the circumstances surrounding these events, erasing the violent attacks that precipitated their deaths.

Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely to support this agenda, the EU and a number of individual governments including the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland were the main funders of DCI-P for many years. As I documented in a 2021 research report, these governments paid salaries and other DCI-P expenses, under facades of supporting human rights and civil society, in contrast to official declarations of careful vetting of grant recipients and claims to “fund projects, not organizations.” As of 2021, European governments provided approximately €35 million in annual grants to a small and largely unchanging list of anti-Israel political NGOs, including DCI-P.

Beyond DCI-P’s leading role in exploiting children for propaganda, European officials also ignored and then denied evidence of the NGO’s extensive ties to the PFLP terror group. For a number of years, Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq (another NGO designated by Israel), sat on DCI-P’s Board of Directors. Jabarin has had a number of documented links to the PFLP; a June 2007 decision by the Israeli Supreme Court called him a “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” a human rights campaigner by day and a terrorist by night.

Senior DCI-P official Hashem Abu Maria was hailed by the PFLP as a “leader” and “true revolutionary comrade” upon his death for his role in the “national liberation struggle.” Central DCI-P figure Riyad Arar appeared in 2014 at a PFLP memorial event where children were visibly present in PFLP military garb, thus committing a grave crime under international law: the mobilization of minors in conflict, i.e. the use of child soldiers. The participation of a major NGO official charged with protecting children in such an event reflects the moral inversion that was at the heart of DCI-P’s work.

When Israel designated six NGOs including DCI-P as terror fronts in 2022 citing the PFLP links, the Foreign Ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands contended that the move was unsubstantiated. Shortly after the designation, Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told me he thought Israel’s evidence was inconclusive or fabricated.

Clearly, DCI-P’s demonization and terror ties were apparent to anyone who cared to look. But for the European government officials, such advocacy NGOs are both allies and political subcontractors in a feedback loop that demonizes Israel through false reports echoed in major media platforms and cited in United Nations documents.

DCI-P played a central role in this ecosystem by shaping an emotionally charged narrative: the image of a Palestinian minor as the victim of Israeli war crimes. In reality, the war crimes consisted of Hamas’ and the PFLP’s ongoing recruitment, indoctrination and deployment of minors. For years, DCI-P’s propaganda campaigns diverted attention from these grotesque activities.

Despite their initial rejections, the evidence of DCI-P’s terror ties eventually became too blatant to ignore. Governments could no longer justify continued funding for the NGO, and it closed. Perhaps this also signals a belated reckoning for other false-flag NGOs claiming to promote human rights. The damage from terror-supporting propaganda will take many years to reverse, but at least further abuse can finally be prevented.

Gerald M. Steinberg is founder and president of the NGO Monitor research institute and emeritus professor of politics at Bar Ilan University.