From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Shin Bet accuses PFLP of defrauding European aid groups
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJudah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The Shin Bet security services accuses the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group of conducting an illicit financing scheme to pilfer money from European aid organizations to fund its terrorist activities.
The Shin Bet has arrested a number of those suspected of being involved in recent weeks and says that indictments against them will be filed shortly, including against a woman with Spanish citizenship, Juani Rishmawi.
According to the security service, the PFLP used its health organization, the Health Work Committee, to defraud various European organizations and countries of millions of euros over the course of several years.
“PFLP institutions deceived aid organizations in Europe through a number of methods – reporting on fictitious projects, transferring false documents, forging and inflating invoices, diverting tenders, forging documents and bank signatures, reporting inflated salaries, and more,” the Shin Bet says.
According to the security service, the money was used to pay families of slain members of the terror group, to recruit new operatives, and to spread the group’s messaging throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The Times of Israel Community.