ZAKA turned down by UN committee that recognized Hamas-linked group

A UN committee on non-governmental organizations that granted official consultative status Monday to a Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas has rejected a similar request by ZAKA, Israel’s voluntary emergency response and rescue service, to join the body.

The organization is staffed by mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews and operates out of Israel’s various police district. ZAKA volunteers are often on the scene of terror attacks and deadly road accidents, collecting body parts and blood for Jewish burials according to Jewish law. The group also provides first aid and search and rescue services.

This is the third consecutive year ZAKA has been turned down by the UN body, according to a Ynet report. The request will once again by brought to a vote in January 2016, according to the report.

Consultative status, as granted to the UK-based Palestinian Return Center, would provide access to UN facilities worldwide and the ability to participate in various events and debates.

Twelve of the 19-member committee voted in favor of the motion to approve the center, including Turkey, Iran, Sudan, China and Pakistan. Three countries voted against — Israel, the US and Uruguay. India, Russia and Greece abstained and one country, Burundi, did not attend.

Israel’s mission to the UN condemned the committee’s decision to approve the PRC, calling it “a coordinated organizational branch of Hamas in Europe.”

Following the decision, Israel’s UN ambassador Ron Prosor castigated what he called “the height of the ‘theater of the absurd’ at the United Nations.

“Until today, the U.N. has given Hamas discounts and let it strengthen its activities,” Prosor said in a statement. “Now, the UN went one step further, and gave Hamas a welcoming celebration at its main entrance, allowing it to be a full participant.”

“On the very same day, it one again rejected ZAKA, an organization that does sacred work. It’s an organization that deals with the same death and destruction wrought by the terror groups that world countries cannot or will not decry,” he was quoted by Ynet as saying.

While it officially denies any Hamas links, the PRC was banned by Israel in 2010 for its “deep entanglement with top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization based in Gaza and abroad,” UNWatch reported last month.

According to a February report in the UK’s Telegraph, the PRC “regularly” hosted top Hamas officials, including Ismail Haniyeh, at the organization’s annual conferences.

Both the US and EU have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center also detailed PRC’s Hamas links in a 2011 report.

“Senior PRC figures send flotillas and convoys to the Gaza Strip and transfer funds to Hamas,” the center said. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also addressed the PRC’s annual European conference on several occasions, it said.

JTA contributed to this report.