PayPal shut down the account of a German NGO which has links to the terror group the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Benjamin Weinthal reported Thursday in The Jerusalem Post.
The United States-based online payment service closed the account of International Alliance (Internationalistisches Bündnis), an alliance of related organizations. The PayPal account of the International Alliance now has a message, “This recipient is currently unable to receive money.”
In an August article published at a German news website, journalist Stefan Laurin wrote that the International Alliance “is an association of different organizations: In addition to the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany and the Maoist youth organization Young Struggle, the sympathizers of the PFLP belong to this alliance.”
Weinthal observed that while German banks have previously shut down accounts of organizations affiliated with the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, this is the first time that PayPal has closed online accounts of a pro-BDS group with links to the PFLP.
PayPal has shut down accounts of at least five French pro-BDS organizations since January. France’s highest court ruled in 2015 that BDS was an illegal form of hate speech.
Laurin reported that the members of the International Alliance protested in front of Stefanie Carp, the director of the Ruhrtriennale arts and music festival, and promoted a boycott of Israel. The festival, in fact, disinvited the Scottish band, Young Fathers, for supporting the anti-Israel BDS campaign.
A statement on the International Alliance website says, “We are in favor of canceling the PFLP from the politically instrumentalized terror list… We see it as our democratic obligation to condemn the Israeli occupation policies of the brutal massacre in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military in May of this year.” The PFLP is considered a terrorist group by both the United States and European Union.
Many BDS leaders have publicly opposed the two-state solution and affirmed that the movement seeks Israel’s destruction. Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the movement, said in 2014 that Palestinians have a right to “resistance by any means, including armed resistance.” Leading activist As’ad Abu Khalil wrote in 2012 that “Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel.”
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