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PA calls for UN to brand 2 settler orgs as ‘terrorists’

January 25, 2017 at 11:06 am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) called for the UN Security Council to brand two Israeli Jewish settler organisations as “terrorist groups,” Quds Press reported yesterday.

In a statement, the PA’s information ministry said that the Hebrew Shepherd group works on “gathering failed students and those who dropped out of schools to work in the Israeli settlements that swallow up Palestinian land.”

The ministry said that the Israeli education ministry, headed by hardliner Naftali Bennett, offers official funds for this organisation and cooperates with it regarding the implementation of its programmes. “This reinforces settlement and confiscation of [Palestinian] land,” the statement said.

The coordinator for public relations in the Palestinian information ministry, Nidaa Younis, noted that her ministry had been working to expose officially-funded Israeli groups.

“The ministry follows up these organisations to prosecute them in light of the fact that Israeli officials target Palestinian organisations and accuse them of sponsoring terrorism and incitement,” she said, indicating that the same standards ought to be applied to extremist Jewish organisations.

She reiterated the importance of UNESCO carrying out its role in putting pressure on the Israeli education ministry to stop cooperating with these organisations.