“The UN has gone too far,” declared World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder after a United Nations Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations voted to grant NGO status to the Palestinian Return Center (PRC), a group with apparent ties to the terrorist organization Hamas.
Lauder said of the vote, which grants the PRC access to many UN bodies: “Recognizing the PRC as an NGO is another step down the slippery slope towards legitimizing Hamas, a ruthless terrorist organization. This vote is a victory for terror and a setback for peace in the Middle East and beyond.”
In 2010, the Israeli government determined that the PRC had ties to Hamas and banned the organization. Its report noted that the PRC is an organizational and coordinating arm of Hamas in Europe and claimed that its members are senior Hamas officials – who maintain direct contact with Hamas’ senior leadership in Gaza and elsewhere – operating to promote the terrorist group’s agenda in Europe.
Israel’s then-Minister of Defense Ehud Barak reported that the PRC’s guidelines “include the denial of Israel’s right to exist.” The group actively supports Palestinian refugees’ right to return to Israeli territory, and insists that the establishment of the State of Israel is harmful to that “right of return.” The report also claims that, according to Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center research, the PRC is also involved in transferring funds to Hamas.
The concern, according to Israel’s report, is that NGO status “enables organizations to strengthen their global influence and to widely spread their activities.
