Elite U.S. law schools encourage students to work for Israeli-designated terror groups
Law library at the University of Michigan (Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash)
By Robert Schmad
Daily Caller News Foundation
Three American law schools maintain web pages encouraging their students to work for organizations designated as terror groups by the Israeli government.
The University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center promote Al-Haq, which was designated as a terrorist organization by Israel in 2021, as a potential employment option for their graduates. The Northeastern University School of Law promotes both Al-Haq and Addameer, another Israeli-designated terrorist organization, as part of its signature “Cooperative Legal Education Program.”
Georgetown Law includes Al-Haq among a list of “human rights organizations” for “those thinking about summer or post-graduate employment” in the field, according to the school’s website. The Israeli-designated terrorist group is listed alongside organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
UCLA’s law school includes Al-Haq on a list for students that “can be used as a starting point to identify organizations working in your interest area” in the “Public International Law and Human Rights Careers Guide” posted on its website.
The Northeastern University School of Law lists Al-Haq and Addameer on its website as part of its “Cooperative Legal Education Program” program. Students at Northeastern Law are required to do legal work every year after their first year of instruction through the college’s co-op program.
Addameer and Al-Haq, which Israel has designated as terrorist groups, are among the approved organizations students can work for to complete this requirement.
Addameer advocated on behalf of prisoners held in Israeli prisons, including members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S. and Israel-designated terrorist group. Al-Haq claims to “promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” by engaging in activities like supporting the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions Movement and submitting anti-Israel reports to places like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
All three universities released statements condemning Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel while maintaining resources that encourage their students to work for organizations designated by the Israeli government as terrorist groups.
Israel’s then-Minister of Defense Benny Gantz designated Addameer and Al-Haq as terror organizations on Oct. 19, 2021, with the Israeli government alleging the groups had ties to the PFLP.
“Following its establishment, the Al Haq Organization became an arm of the ‘Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’ terror organization and has since then operated on its behalf and upon its instructions as part of the terror organization’s struggle against Israel,” the defense ministry’s terror designation of Al-Haq reads.
Addameer “focuses on assisting prisoners convicted of security offenses and terror activity against Israel, emphasizing the ‘Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’ prisoners and their families,” its terror designation reads. The organization also “constitutes an inseparable arm of the ‘Popular Front’ terror organization,” according to the Israeli government.
The PFPL has hijacked commercial airplanes, fired munitions at Israel from the Gaza Strip and used suicide bombing tactics, according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Al-Haq denies links to the PFLP, and two coalitions of Palestinian civil society groups to which Addameer belongs characterized the Israeli government’s terror group designations as “arbitrary” and a “sinister, unprecedented and blanket attack” on Palestinian civil society groups.
Al-Haq and Addameer both released statements blaming Israel for the Hamas terrorist attacks that have, so far, killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians and 25 Americans. Hamas raped women, kidnapped civilians and reportedly killed babies during their assault on Israel, according to President Biden.
Addameer’s statement claimed that the Israeli blockade of Gaza “has left Palestinians in Gaza struggling with dire circumstances, fueling their determination to seek justice,” and said the “root causes [sic]” of the recent violence is “the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel.”
Al-Haq’s statement, meanwhile, described the terrorist attacks as “an operation in response to escalating Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
NEW STATEMENT from Al-Haq, @AlMezanCenter @pchrgaza: For decades, our organizations have warned against the status quo & the deliberate failure & unwillingness of the int. community to address the root causes of the current situation in #Palestinehttps://t.co/4cyj4PT4Gy
— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) October 8, 2023
Aseel Al Bajeh, a legal researcher and advocacy officer at Al-Haq, tweeted a quote from Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas political leader, the day Israel was attacked. Ahmed Abofoul, who also works as a legal researcher and advocacy officer at Al-Haq, said on Twitter that the United Nations secretary-general’s call for Hamas to stop killing civilians and release hostages was “morally abhorrent,” claiming that “Palestinian resistance” is “permitted by international law.”
NGO Monitor, an Israeli watchdog group, has alleged that Al-Haq and Addameer’s staff members have ties to the PFLP.
Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s General Director, was convicted in 1985 of recruiting for the PFLP and arranging trainings for the terrorist organization, according to the Daily Beast. Jabarin also represented the PFLP at a conference attended by groups like Hamas and Fatah in 2011, according to NGO Monitor.
The Israeli High Court of Justice reviewed evidence regarding Jabarin’s alleged ties to the PFLP in July 2008 and found that he was “among the senior activists of the Popular Front terrorist organization,” according to court documents.
Adbdul-Latif Ghaith, one of Addameer’s founders and its former chairperson, was described in a 2009 Arabic-language article as a member of the PFLP’s “political bureau,” according to NGO Monitor. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Ghaith was still “an activist in the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] organization and a person who has connections to the organization’s activists abroad” in 2017, according to an NGO Monitor translation.
Al-Haq, Addameer, the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, the Georgetown University Law Center and the Northeastern University School of Law did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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