LONDON - A lobby group which campaigns for the right of return of Palestinian refugees is battling Thomson Reuters in the High Court, amid claims that the company erroneously labelled it as having links to terrorism.
The London-based Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), which is recognised by the United Nationsand lobbies for the rights of Palestinians who were expelled or fled from Israel in 1948, says that its bank accounts were closed and its future put in jeopardy after World-Check, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, listed it in a confidential database of firms and individuals with links to terrorism.
World-Check's subscription-only database is used by banks and major financial institutions around the world to help them decide who to take on, or to retain, as clients. It is also used by subscribers to blacklist firms and individuals who are involved in financing terrorism or money laundering.
The powerful role played by World-Check was first exposed by Middle East Eye columnist Peter Oborne in 2015 when, in a BBC documentary report, he revealed that international banking giant HSBC had suddenly closed the bank accounts of several prominent British Muslims and mainstream NGOs after they were erroneously listed on the database.
However, it was only in February last year after another legal case, that PRC and its chairman Majed al-Zeer discovered that they were labelled as linked to terror on World-Check. This expains, the body says, why a string of bank accounts with HSBC, Metro Bank and Barclays were frozen after PRC was first listed by World-Check in January 2014.
'Spread of false information'
"It's been disastrous for us," Zeer told MEE. "We have lost financial resources, we have lost members of staff who had been with us many years and our reputation has suffered because World-Check spread this false information."
Zeer added that PRC and its staff condemn terrorism and only work "within the law" to support the rights of Palestinian refugees. He added that this week's libel claim lodged at the High Court is a legal test case for Muslim organisations falsely accused of supporting terrorism.
"Like many organisations we were trapped between challenging these false claims and bringing more attention to them and risking our reputation further," he added.
Furthermore, lawyers acting for PRC say the World-Check listing is based on "politically motivated" allegations and comes after then Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, banned the organisation, alleging close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and accusing it of promoting "anti-Israel propaganda in Europe".
Israeli officials have also pointed to the fact that PRC hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at a conference via video call in 2009. They also claimed that members of Hamas, which is banned in the US and EU, held senior positions within PRC.
These claims have been repeated in the British tabloid press, where the PRC has become a bete noire of right-wing think tanks and pro-Israel activists. The PRC says Haniyeh was an elected official at the time he addressed its conference, and pointed to a string of Independent Press Standards Organisation and House of Lords adjudications in its favour.
The PRC also denies any link to Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood. Its lawyers said Israel's claims were "without foundation", and had directly contributed to the group's controversial listing on the World-Check database.
"The defendant is publishing serious allegations about [PRC] on the basis of lies that have been propagated for political purposes," PRC's legal team will argue, according to court documents seen by MEE.
Farooq Bajwa, a solicitor representing PRC, told Middle East Eye: "The sole reason our client is listed on the database is because of an Israeli government decision to list PRC as a terrorist organisation.
"No other country in the world has this view, as PRC is a peaceful organisation that condemns terrorism in the strongest terms… PRC's only objective is to speak for Palestinians living in refugee camps around the world who wish to return to their ancestral homes."
'A landmark legal appeal'
Bajwa added that the legal claim had the potential to become a "landmark test case" as it would see a British court decide on the legitimacy of a terrorism designation made by the Israeli government.
He said in previous cases that British judges had struck down terrorist designations made by the Tunisian and Egyptian government, citing concerns over judicial independence and the rule of law.
Staff at PRC were shocked to discover they had been listed as linked to terrorism, particularly because the organisation was granted consultant status at the United Nations in 2015.
The lobby group started operating in Europe since 1996, and has also held dozens of events in Westminster with British politicians, including Labour's Ben Bradshaw, Conservative Party rising star James Cleverly and Desmond Swayne, a former minister at the Department for International Development.
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