Palestinian terror group lashes out at 'Post' exposés, Israeli parties
After articles on the PFLP's attempts to run for seats in the German parliament, the group has put out a statement condemning Israeli media and political parties.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 00:46Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) take part in a military show in Gaza City September 2, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS)
The PFLP, designated by the US and EU as a terrorist organization, issued an angry, rambling statement on Saturday denouncing Israeli media, Israeli parties and German lawmakers for urging Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to outlaw the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah in the federal republic.The PFLP response appears to be related to a series of late August articles in The Jerusalem Post on the PFLPjoining forces with the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) in a campaign to secure entry into the Bundestag in the September 24 federal election. The PFLP statement referenced Israeli media in its statement on its website, saying the Israeli press is “working overtime in an attempt to spread falsehoods and fear on an international level” about the PFLP.The PFLP has over the years launched scores of terrorist attacks against Israelis, resulting in large numbers of deaths.The PFLP said: ”Political parties in Israel attacking the Palestinian and Arab community in Germany are attempting to spread fear in the community, as well as attacking German progressive forces, particularly the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany, under the auspices of a complete deception and a big lie...”Five Knesset lawmakers along with six of their counterparts from various parties in the Bundestag sent a pressing letter in early August to German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière urging him to ban the Lebanese organization Hezbollah and the PFLP because they are terrorist entities. The Israeli MKs who signed the letter were from Likud, Yesh Atid, Zionist Union, and Kulanu.Hezbollah has 950 active operatives in Germany, according to the country’s most recent 2016 national intelligence report.The PFLP continued: “This campaign has been carried out under the pretext of ‘banning the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.’ We see this as a racist campaign that attempts to suppress the Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab communities from participation in public life, politics and integration by pushing new immigrants into ‘ghettoization,’ which is harmful on political, social and economic levels to the entire German society.”Volker Beck, a Green Party MP and head of the German-Israel parliamentary group, told the Post on Sunday “the PFLP affirmed its will to destroy Israel” in its statement. He added, the “PFLP is afraid that the sleeping German interior minister will now wake up – and issue a ban” of the PFLP.According to the PFLP statement, “we [the PFLP] trust that the German security institutions know very well the peaceful intentions of our communities and their organizations in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany and that our community stands against all forms of racism, hatred, violence and oppression that harm German society.”The PFLP denied it is campaigning with the MLPD. “It is a well-established fact that the PFLP does not run in any elections anywhere in the world, nor does it seek to participate in any such elections,” wrote the PFLP. However, campaign literature and screenshots from the MLPD website show that the PFLP is on the alliance list with the MLPD.The PFLP added: ”We salute the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany and the Internationalist List for demanding the removal of the PFLP from ‘terror lists.’ Such a listing is an example of injustice that can never help in achieving peace and justice in the region and the world.”According the Hamburger Abendblatt paper, the PFLP received 0.1% of the votes in the 2013 election. However, the PFLP has a large pool of money for its current campaign. The paper wrote the MLDP has €4.17 million available for its campaign.Germany’s intelligence agency monitors the MLPD, which has 1,800 members. The MLDP claims it has posted 160,000 election campaign posters in Germany – four times as many posters as during the 2013 election.Beck, who has led the political campaign to uncover the PFLP’s efforts to enter the parliament, told the Post the MLPD is “in panic over its party privileges and party assets” due to the media coverage.The PFLP has over the years organized rallies in Berlin with Doris Ghannam, a leader of the BDS campaign in Germany. The DAB Bank – a subsidiary of the French banking giant BNP Paribas – terminated the BDS campaign’s account last year after a Post investigation.When asked by the Post last week why the German Interior Ministry declined to ban the PFLP and Hezbollah, a spokeswoman for the ministry said it “does not, in general, comment on bans.”The PFLP’s terrorism against Israelis has continued unabated. In 2014, two PFLP terrorists are believed to have murdered five Israelis in a synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem.European governments permitted the convicted PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled to tour EU countries, including Germany, to promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Jewish state and secure support for the PFLP. The Spanish city council of Barcelona paid an NGO to host Khaled in May at a literary festival.She was involved in the hijacking of Israeli and American planes in 1969 and 1970.The Japanese Red Army terrorist group, working together with the PFLP, murdered 26 people and wounded 80 other people, in a May terror attack in 1972 at Ben-Gurion Airport.The PFLP also asserted that “the Israeli state is not a representative of the victims of the Holocaustt [sic].”The MKs and the German parliamentarians wrote in their August letter to Germany’s interior minister that “Hezbollah and the PFLP have no place in a society that cherishes freedom, democracy and human rights.” The writers pointed out that both Germans and Israelis have suffered at the hands of terrorism in recent years and said: “The ideology of hatred for our way of life has been the same, and, tragically, the results have been the same.”“These two organizations have no place in the civilized world. Germany and Israel stand united in the fight against terrorism and as parliamentarians from both countries we stand united in the call to do everything in our power to eradicate their presence from within our nations,” the lawmakers said.A spokeswoman for the German Interior Ministry told the Post last week that she could not comment on the letter.
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