Israel’s allies spread lies about the Palestinian Return Centre
TheNew York Post has given Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, a public platform to continue the Israeli-led attack against the Palestinian Return Centre.
Referring to the PRC’s bid for special consultative status at the United Nations, Steinberg claimed on 16 July that, ‘Hamas is set to win a seat at the United Nations table,’ and pleaded for the European countries in ECOSOC to go against the PRC at the vote on Monday.
But as the recentreportpublished by Public Interest Investigations finds, Steinberg’s claim that the PRC is affiliated with Hamas is not evidentially based.Furthermore, the report shows that Steinberg’s organisation is connected to the Israeli government and receives funding from the pro-Israel and anti-Muslim right in the United States.
Steinberg contendsthatthe PRC is affiliated with Hamas based upon afraudulent report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center that does not reference primary sources and relies on hearsay. The authors of the Meir Amit report even admit that they are offering ‘large amounts of circumstantial evidence’ to argue their case.
In addition, the authors of the reportadmit that: ‘In the PRC’s many publications it is hard to find reliable information about its structure, activists, sources of funding and connections with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.’ Nevertheless, they argue that, ‘even if it cannot be proved,’ their assessment is that the PRC has indeed received funding from foundations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas.
Besides failing to prove their case, the authors of the Meir Amit report also focus much attention on several British citizens who are active in Palestine solidarity campaigns in theUK, Europe and the Middle East, and whom they claim are central to the PRC, but who are not presentlyworking with the NGO at all. Steinberg cites two such individuals.
The authors of the Public Interest Investigations report wrote a letter to the New York Post to refute Steinberg’s false allegations, but the tabloid’s editors did not respond.
by Panorama Daily Staff
