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Palestinian terrorist group running international student exchange program

Front organization for the PFLP – the terrorist group which murdered Rina Shnerb – is working with schools in the UK and France as part of a student exchange program, watchdog group reveals.

By World Israel News Staff

A Palestinian-Arab terrorist group is using a front organization to participate in student exchange programs with academic institutions in Britain and France, an exposé by a watchdog group revealed on Monday.

According to a report by the Intelligence Division of the Regavim Movement, which monitors the activities of the Palestinian Authority and foreign organizations in Area C of Judea and Samaria, a front organization for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group is running a “student exchange program for Palestinian students” in cooperation with schools in France and the UK.

Notably, the PFLP’s front organization, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, has also been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, under the instructions of then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz (National Unity) in 2021.

Israel declared the UAWC a terrorist organization over its close ties with the PFLP following the deadly PFLP bombing attack in the summer of 2019, in which an Israeli teenager, Rina Shnerb, was killed and her father and brother injured.

In its decision to blacklist the UAWC, the Israeli Defense Ministry highlighted the PFLP’s use of the UAWC to direct the flow of millions of Euros, donated by European governments and NGOs.

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The international student exchange program run by UAWC in conjunction with schools in France and Britain claims to “strengthen young people in relation to agricultural and environmental activities.”

As part of the upcoming summer program, participants will be taken to Marseille, Berlin and Hebron.

Organizers emphasized in the terms of admission that priority will be given to Arab residents of Area C – the portion of Judea and Samaria under full Israeli control, and heavily targeted by groups like the UAWC.

Last week, the Regavim Movement lobbied Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) and the Israeli military to shut down the student exchange program, and to take greater action against the UAWC.

MK Sharren Haskel (National Unity) penned a letter to Defense Minister Gallant inquiring why as a recognized terrorist group, the UAWC is still permitted to operate freely.

“The designation of a terrorist organization must not remain merely a declaration,” said Avraham Binyamin, director of Regavim’s Policy and Parliamentary Affairs Division.

“We were surprised to discover, in the course of ongoing intelligence research, that the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a designated terrorist organization, continues its operations openly among Palestinian students and in cooperation with foreign countries.”

“The Israeli government’s failure to act against the activities of this terrorist organization constitutes abandonment of territory under Israeli jurisdiction. Israel must act immediately to block the UAWC’s ability to operate on the local and international stage to spread its terrorist agenda, and to cut off the UAWC’s ability to maintain international contacts that funnel European money to the PFLP.

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“We demand that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summon the ambassadors of France and Germany and condemn their cooperation with the UAWC in particular and their involvement in illegal activity in areas C in general.”