The non-governmental organization Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) has ceased operations after 35 years, allegedly due to Israel’s red tape around human rights groups.
Defense for Children International (DCI) has been a global movement headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, since 1979. Its stated mandate is to ensure effective implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the local, national, and international level.
The Palestine branch of DCI was established in 1991, but was first registered in 1996 by the Israeli Interior Ministry. It then registered under the Palestinian Authority jurisdiction as an independent Palestinian non-governmental organization (RA-2282-SS) in 2003, focusing in particular on defending children arrested, detained, and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system, as well as human rights abuses involving Palestinian children.
However, on 7 April, DCIP’s General Director Khaled Quzmar announced its closure, saying the NGO has been unable to “overcome operational challenges resulting from Israel’s targeted criminalization of Palestinian human rights organizations.”
“Palestinian children are living through genocide, apartheid, military occupation, and the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. They are imprisoned in Israel’s torture dungeons, buried under the rubble, and adapting to lifelong disabilities. They deserve protection and the fulfillment of all their human rights,” he wrote, adding that “DCIP has worked relentlessly to protect Palestinian children against all odds.”
DCIP said all recurring donations have been canceled, and once DCIP dissolves, any unspent funds will be transferred to another “independent Palestinian organization with a child-centered mandate.”
'Operational challenges' caused by Israel's pressure on international organizations
The ‘operational challenges’ in question are likely the fact that, in December 2025, Israel ordered 37 international organizations, including medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council, to halt work in Gaza and the West Bank within 60 days unless they agreed to the new rules.
According to Israel’s foreign ministry, the organizations were notified of new registration requirements in March 2025 and were given nearly 10 months to complete the process. A temporary extension allowed continued interim operations, but groups that did not comply were informed that their authorization would end on Thursday and that an orderly withdrawal was required by March 1, 2026.
The ministry said the registration requirement is intended to prevent the involvement of terrorist elements and to protect the integrity of humanitarian activity, citing past cases.
It is worth noting that DCIP was already designated as a terrorist organization by Israel in October 2021, along with five other Palestinian NGOs: Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.
Israel’s General Security Service (GSS) and the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) concluded all six to be arms of the terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
“They constitute a network of organizations active undercover on the international front on behalf of the ‘Popular Front,' to support its activity and further its goals,” the GSS and NBCTF said at the time. The PFLP is designated by the UK and other countries, including the US, EU, and Canada.
Under the DCIP file (Designation No.372), NBCTF says “the Organization declares an activity for furthering the protection of children’s rights; however, in practice it serves as an arm of the 'Popular Front' and acts to promote the goals of the terror organization, including the armed struggle and destruction of Israel.”
The NBCTF claimed that DCIP obtained substantial financing from several European countries and international organizations in order to promote PFLP activity.
It went on to clarify that the DCIP was designated as an “inseparable arm” of the PFLP and not because of its civil activities.
The watchdog NGO Monitor delved deeper into DCIP’s ties to the PFLP. It found that several of DCIP’s board members are also PFLP members.
An example is Mahmoud Jiddah, who was elected to the DCIP board in May 2012, but was imprisoned by Israel for 17 years for carrying out grenade attacks against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem in 1968.
Another was Hassan Abed Aljawad, board member up to 2018, who has represented the PFLP at public events.
Shawan Jabarin, who was convicted in 1985 for recruiting members for the PFLP and arranging PFLP training outside Israel, was on the DCI-P’s board of directors from 2007 to 2014.
The former coordinator of DCI-P’s community mobilization unit, Hashem Abu Mari, was killed during a violent confrontation in Beit Ummar in 2014. Following his death, he was hailed by the PFLP as a “leader,” which issued an official mourning announcement. The PFLP announcement praised his work for DCI-P, stating “he was in the ranks of the national liberation struggle and the PFLP from an early age.”
In June 2018, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) succeeded in preventing DCIP from receiving foreign-currency donations via bank transfers from Citibank and Arab Bank PLC. It wrote to Citibank and to Arab Bank in May 2018, highlighting DCIP’s links to the PFLP, and requested that Citibank and Arab Bank withdraw their banking services.
Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI, said at the time that she was “extremely pleased that we are succeeding in shutting down the transfer of donations to this terror-linked NGO”.
Following the announcement of DCIP’s closure, NGO Monitor released a statement saying, “For decades, DCI-P defended terrorists under the guise of protecting children, and played a central role in systematically promoting heinous false accusations against Israel by portraying teens involved in terror attacks – child soldiers – as innocent victims.”
“The damage from DCI-P’s false allegations will take many years to undo,” it concluded.