RAMALLAH – A Spanish-Palestinian woman pleaded guilty in an Israeli military court on Wednesday to raising funds for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a Marxist organization that has killed Israelis and is considered by Israel and the West to be a terror organization.
Juani Rishmawi is a Spanish citizen who lives with her Palestinian husband in the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria. For years, she worked for Health Work Committee, a Palestinian non-profit that provides medical services in the West Bank.
Under her plea deal, Rishmawi admitted to raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organization in Europe, some of which was diverted to the PFLP.
“According to the facts that she admitted, for years the accused worked to raise money, amounting to millions of shekels from countries in Europe, for the Health Work Committee, which worked on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” Israel’s military said.
Prosecutors said the money was embezzled by forging documents and defrauding donors “to fund the activities of the Popular Front.”
Israel’s Shin Bet security service said the money was used to recruit new PFLP members, pay the families of slain operatives, and spread the group’s message in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem.
Rishmawi said she was unaware that some of the money she raised for the Health Work Committee was being sent to the PFLP.
“This whole time I thought that I was working for a health, medical organization,” she was quoted as telling the court. “I am very sorry, I simply erred and I want you to take into account that I never wanted to do any injustice to anyone.”
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Israel’s military claims that Rishmawi suspected the money was going toward the PFLP after “she learned that the organization’s money manager had funded terror attacks against the State of Israel during his tenure.”
“In doing so, the defendant worked for the organization and thus performed a service for the PFLP,” prosecutors said.
Rishmawi’s lawyer, prominent Israeli defense attorney Avigdor Feldman, called the government’s case “very weak.” He said his client, who is in her 60s, admitted to watered-down charges in order to go free.
“That was our main reason to come to the plea bargain,” he said. The initial charges, he said, were “very grave” and could have resulted in years in prison.
“In the end, they are charging her only that she should have known that the Popular Front was working behind the organization. That’s it,” he said.
In exchange for admitting guilt, Rishmawi will receive a reduced sentence of 13 months in prison and a $16,000 fine. She will be sentenced on Nov. 17.
Israeli officials praised the conviction, seeing it as justification for their decision last month to designate six Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorist groups with links to the PFLP. The organization Rishmawi worked for was not among the six Palestinian groups Israel named last month, but Israel sees her case as an example of the PFLP using charities as fronts to fund terrorism.
“The cynical use of human rights organizations as a cover is a ‘double sin’ – it fuels terror, and also hurts organizations that do real, important work for civil society. We will continue to respect human rights and the activities of human rights organizations. [At the same time] we will continue to operate against terrorism in all its forms, anywhere it takes place,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Israel has provided little public evidence to support the terrorist designation and the move has sparked international backlash. Israel insists the decision “was made on a factual and legal basis.” The six accused Palestinian groups deny the allegations of terrorism and claim Israel is trying to silence them.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called on the international community to “work with Israel to prevent terrorist organizations from operating in civilian frameworks and to prevent aid funds from reaching terrorist organizations whose goal is to murder Jews, Christians, Muslims and others.”
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