Canadian Non-Profit Joins PFLP and Hezbollah-Linked Groups to Seek Arrest of Former Israeli Leaders
A Canadian charity partnered with the Hezbollah-linked Hind Rajab Foundation and PFLP-linked Palestinian Centre for Human Rights to file an RCMP complaint against Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni
On December 3, 2025, the Hezbollah-linked Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), and the PFLP-linked Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), jointly filed a criminal complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the Department of Justice.
The groups urged Canadian authorities to investigate former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for alleged war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza during 2008-2009, and to issue warrants for their arrest.
The complaint came hours before both former Israeli leaders appeared at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Munk Debates series.
HRF’s Alleged Ties to Hezbollah
The Hind Rajab Foundation, founded in Belgium in September 2024, was established by Dyab Abou Jahjah and Karim Hassoun. Founded in late 2024, HRF operates without financial transparency, disclosing no donor information or funding sources.
Jahjah described himself in a 2003 New York Times profile as a “very proud” former member of the Hezbollah terrorist group who “had some military training.” He was arrested by Belgian authorities in 2002 for inciting Arab riots in Antwerp and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to Hezbollah and Hamas on social media. In 2024, he wrote that he met with former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2001.
According to a watchdog report published by the International Legal Forum and National Jewish Advocacy Center, Abou Jahjah is linked through his brother to Soafrimex, a Lebanese-Belgian trading company raided by Belgian authorities in 2003 over money laundering and tax fraud. The United States subsequently designated Soafrimex owner Kassim Tajideen an “important financial contributor to Hezbollah.” The report further alleges that Abou Jahjah co-owns a Lebanese real estate company with Saleem Sleem, a lawyer whose firms have been sanctioned by the U.S. for Hezbollah affiliation.
Israeli security sources allege that Abou Jahjah maintains numerous family and business ties to Hezbollah’s financing network. The watchdog report identifies HRF as “part of Hezbollah’s extensive business networks tied to families and local diaspora connections across Europe, Latin America, and Africa,” supporting operations through “used car exports, counterfeit goods, and commodity trades.”
PCHR’s Alleged PFLP Ties and U.S. Sanctions
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights faces allegations regarding organizational ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
PCHR operates under founder and director Raji Sourani, who served three years in Israeli prison (1979-1982) for PFLP membership. In a telling 2014 ceremony organized by the PFLP, Sourani stated: “I was in the ranks of the Popular Front... We don’t apologize and don’t regret our past, we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks.”
Sourani also has ties with Hamas leadership, including meetings with Hamas Political Bureau officials Musa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashal in 2011 to discuss forming a “national unity government” in Gaza. In 2014, Sourani led a “human rights delegation” meeting with former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
In May 2023, as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) bombarded Israel with rockets, PCHR published a statement affirming “the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” The text was later amended after the organization faced international pressure.
In September 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated three Palestinian NGOs—including PCHR, along with Al Haq and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights—pursuant to Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” In his statement announcing the sanctions, Rubio said these entities “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
PCHR’s Documented Staff Connections to the PFLP
NGO Monitor’s research reveals that multiple PCHR staff members have documented ties to the PFLP. Jaber Wishah, who served as PCHR’s Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2017, was identified in Israeli media as “the head of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza” in 1985. He was convicted of holding a leading position in a terrorist organization and spent 15 years in Israeli prison from 1985-1999.
Other PCHR staff members with documented PFLP connections include Bassam al-Aqraa, former head of PCHR’s Training Unit, who was referred to as a “companion of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” in PFLP publications following his death in 2018.
Broader Pattern of Lawfare and Questions About Canadian Partnership
The complaint against Olmert and Livni represents part of a broader pattern by HRF, which has filed over 1,000 complaints against Israeli soldiers and veterans at the International Criminal Court and filed numerous complaints against Israeli officials in various European jurisdictions. The organization previously filed a complaint against Olmert in Germany in November 2024.
The involvement of CLAIHR — a Canadian registered charity that has operated for over three decades — in this joint complaint raises serious questions about due diligence and organizational partnerships.