Hamas-affiliated "Palestinian Return Center" seeks UN NGO accreditation

On January 21, 2014, the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations opened its 2014 regular session at UN Headquarters in New York. The UN NGO accreditation body includes countries notorious for NGO harassment and intimidation such as China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Venezuela. The Committee is currently chaired by Turkey. The Committee's membership matters.

The New York State Bar Association is currently applying to become an officially accredited UN NGO, but its application was deferred on January 22, 2014 after Cuba questioned "information on Cuba on its website."

Another NGO seeking UN accreditation at this session is the Palestinian Return Center, documented as one of the central institutions through which Hamas operates in the United Kingdom. In 2012 the Center co-organized a UN "Human Rights" Council side-event in Geneva where its representative said

"In 1947, 1948 and 1949 the Palestinian refugees were ethnically cleansed by the Israeli gangs.... Some Arab armies came to Palestine to fight the Zionist project, which came from all over Europe to take over Palestine and to make it as a national home for the Jews, although it was always the national home for the Palestinians for thousands and thousands of years."

Various publications of the Palestinian Return Center were also distributed during this UN Geneva event, including a handout entitled "Apartheid against Palestinians," which analogized Israelis to Nazis: "The Israeli regime is based on... race and religious supremacy... Modern nation states formed through these corrosive ideals scarred the 20th century, including in Germany and the South African apartheid regime."

At the NGO Committee meeting on January 22, 2014 the Palestine Return Center was asked by the Israeli member of the UN NGO Committee "whether it respected Israel's territorial integrity." The question attempted to determine whether the NGO satisfied the number one requirement for accreditation, namely, respect for and adherence to the UN Charter. The Center representative replied: "it was not the Center's place or right to recognize or not recognize Israel." That would be the UN member state of Israel. Obviously, this response and this NGO's previous activities should disqualify it from membership. Equally obvious, despite the fact that its application was deferred for the moment, is that sooner or later it will be accredited.