JERUSALEM (RNS) — Two pro-Israel evangelical Christian organizations are suing the United Nations’ human rights monitor for Palestinian affairs, saying she defamed them by “knowingly spreading malicious lies” about the nonprofits and accusing them of contributing to a wide range of alleged crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas.
The nonprofits — Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and Christians for Israel — filed the joint lawsuit in federal court in Colorado, where CFIC is based, on Monday (Sept. 8) in response to what they called “threatening letters” sent to the two nongovernmental organizations by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, in April. Many other nonprofit organizations and corporations received similar letters, alleging that their ties to Israel are enabling illegal activity and punishable by law.
Those accusations have sullied the organizations’ reputations, the NGOs’ leaders told RNS, and harmed fundraising efforts, in addition to subjecting them to abuse from pro-Palestinian activists.
Willem Griffioen, chairman of Christians for Israel International and Christians for Israel USA, said, “They have put a target on our organization, our leaders and our donors,” particularly churches that support the nonprofit. He called any claims that Christians for Israel is engaging in illegal activity “utterly baseless and ridiculous.”
Albanese accused Christians for Israel of financially supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank; funding organizations that train settlers in how to use firearms; financially supporting immigration to Israel, “including in the West Bank”; and launching an emergency fund for Israelis immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
Griffioen said that his organization offers humanitarian aid to prospective immigrants and new immigrants to Israel, elderly Holocaust survivors and people in need, and that any claims of military assistance are untrue. “We support a number of Arab Christians in the Bethlehem area,” he said. “We send food parcels to Ukraine. We educate Christians about Israel.”
The Christian Friends of Israeli Communities supports projects for Israeli children, disabled Israelis and elderly Israelis who live in the West Bank (what the organization calls “Judea and Samaria,” the ancient Hebrew names for the region).
Albanese’s letter accused the group of providing “project-based assistance to illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank” and contributing to the “construction and expansion” of West Bank settlements. She also accused the nonprofit of funding “military and security equipment for illegal Jewish-only settlements and the Israeli military operating in the West Bank,” which the organization denies.
The organization faces “a serious risk of being implicated in international crimes” that may result in “criminality liability,” Albanese warned.
Albanese called out the two organizations in a report titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” released at a June session at the United Nations General Assembly. It urged member states to “promptly cease all business activities and terminate relationships directly linked with, contributing to and causing human rights violations and international crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Kimberly Troup, director of the U.S. office of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, said the organization co-initiated the lawsuit because “we needed to make a stand, instead of letting evil win and allowing others to spread lies about us. We are doing humanitarian work in the Land of Israel because we support Jewish communities.”
