Denmark

Profile

Country/TerritoryDenmark

Activity

  • The Danish government funds numerous Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) directly through the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA), and indirectly through the United Nations, DanChurchAid, and aid organizations such as Oxfam Novib and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
  • According to DANIDA’s  Openaid website,  in 2021-2024, the Danish government is disbursing DKK 575 million ($83.1 million) for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • Many NGOs that receive Danish funding lead campaigns and political activities that are inconsistent with Danish government policies to promote peace and a two-state framework in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many Danish-funded NGOs are centrally involved in anti-Israel BDS and lawfare
  • On December 22, 2017, following a review of its support for Palestinian NGOs, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen announced that Denmark would tighten conditions for Danish assistance to Palestinian NGOs.
  • In October 2018, the Danish Foreign Minister announced a new policy regarding “Explanations about the conditions for Danish support for Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations” and stating that “The use of Danish funds for political purposes, including BDS activities, is unacceptable” and Denmark would no longer fund organizations “associating with a terrorist movement,” “violating human rights principles,” or “questioning Israel’s right to exist.”

Investigations into Problematic Danish Funding

  • In May 2017, a Secretariat-funded NGO, Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), inaugurated a youth center in the town of Burqa, near Nablus. The center is named after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who in 1978 murdered 37 civilians, including 12 children.
  • In response, the Danish Foreign Minister stated that he would investigate funding to NGOs stating, “if any of these organizations crossed a line… if a leader of one of these organizations for example publicly announced that they want to get rid of all Jews, or kill all Jews, anything like that, of course we will immediately close down the support… If you end up in a way where you have an aggressive rhetoric, wanting to kill people or do illegal things, then of course we will immediately close down the support…”
  • On June 2, 2017, after further investigation, the Danish Foreign Minister stated that he was “outraged that WATC, claiming to work for human rights, not just glorified a terrorist, but also abused the trust of a generous people like the Danish. It is totally unacceptable, and I cannot too strongly denounce it. Denmark and Danish tax money should under no circumstances be used for anything that in any way glorify or promote terrorism. Therefore, we now require of WACT that they pay Danish support back” (emphasis added).

Direct Funding via the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA)

DANIDA Funding to Palestinian NGOs

DANIDA Funding to Israeli NGOs

DANIDA Funding to NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Amounts in DKK)

NGO202320222021202020192018
Al-HaqN/AN/A925,433793,229661,024
B’TselemN/AN/A4,286,3894,183,611 1,525,000
Breaking the SilenceN/AN/A3,176,8752,770,6251,300,000
GishaN/AN/A2,510,876312,5001,000,000
Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI)N/AN/A1,464,6671,340,733
Women’s Affairs CenterN/AN/A1,816,0321,433,7081,530,9381,100,000
Women’s Studies CenterN/AN/A2,555,8431,936,934925,000
The Democracy and Workers Rights Center (DWRC)N/AN/A1,938,9931,047,575925,000
Independent Commission of Human Rights (ICHR)11,300,0006,300,0005,362,1075,121,5166,300,0006,443,523

Indirect Funding

DanChurchAid support for Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

  • Denmark provided DKK 15 million in 2021-2023 to NRC for “Resilience, Peace and Stability” in Gaza and the West Bank.
  • NRC leads massive and unprecedented political campaigns exploiting the Israeli legal system. In sharp contrast to NRC’s ostensibly humanitarian agenda, this massive program focuses on some of the most complex and sensitive political issues in the Arab-Israeli context. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “Flooding the Courts: The Norwegian Refugee Council’s European-Funded Proxy War.”)
  • One of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, “Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA),” exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks.
    • As part of the ICLA program, NRC provides “legal assistance, including paralegal services, accompaniment, follow up or court representation in order to ensure the best possible individual legal protection outcomes” in “collaboration, coordination and partnership both internally within NRC and externally with NGO sector… and with the PA with a view to address some of the barriers to participation of the hard to reach population in ICLA response.” Through its Palestinian and Israeli partner NGOs and private lawyers, the ICLA program submits between 500-800 new cases to Israeli courts per year.

Oxfam

DanWatch

  • In 2020-2022, Danida granted DKK 4 million to Danwatch for “independent journalistic coverage of rights violations and abuses in developing countries.”
  • DanWatch describes itself as an “independent media and research centre specialized in investigative journalism on global issues.” However, the organization leverages this allegedly “independent” position to politically attack Israel.
  • As part of the BDS campaign against Israel, DanWatch targets Israeli and European corporations, such as Ahava, G4S, Integrated Service Solutions (ISS), Israeli agricultural products, and tour operators under the guise of “business ethics.”
  • According to DanWatch, a “DanWatch-investigation” led to Danish pension fund, Sampension, to divest from four publicly traded Israeli companies.
  • In contrast to DanWatch’s claim of being an “independent media and research centre,” publications regarding Israel are commissioned by organizations with a history of anti-Israel activities (i.e. DanChurchAid – see above).
  • DanWatch’s “independent media and research” is based on unreliable, biased, and politicized NGOs including Who ProfitsIsraeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and Al-Haq, as well as “legal opinions” of Richard Falk, the highly controversial former United Nations Special Rapporteur.“

United Nations Funding

UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA)

UN-OCHA oPt Humanitarian Fund

  • In 2019-2020, Denmark provided DKK 15,000,000 to the UN-OCHA occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.
  • Several PFLP-linked NGOs, including UAWCUHWC, and PCHR are regular recipients of disbursements from the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.”

UNICEF

  • In 2023, Denmark provided DKK 30,000,000 to “UNICEF’s activities in Palestine responding to the humanitarian needs described in the UN flash appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt) 2023.”
  • UNICEF spearheads a campaign to have Israel included on a UN blacklist of “grave” violators of children’s rights, which appears as an annex to the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). This political agenda is a primary facet of UNICEF’s activities relating to Israel, completely inconsistent with its mandate of “child protection” and from its guidelines for neutrality and impartiality. (Read NGO Monitor’s report, “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group: Failing Children”)

DanChurch Funding to NGOs (amounts in Danish kroner (DKK) unless specified)

Information taken from DanChurchAid’s 2021 Project Overview. Amounts in NIS are based off information submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.

Implementing partnersFunding - TotalYear / s
EAPPI250,0002021-2023
Breaking the Silence450,0002019-2022
Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ)639,4612017-2019
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)450,0002019-2022
Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC)Undisclosed 2015
B’TselemNIS 110,9762023
438,0002019-2022
PalVision1,263,4682021-2022
Badil300,0002019-2022
Women’s Affairs Center1,250,0002019
Who ProfitsNIS 13,1992017
NIS 13,8392016
Ma’an Development Center14,378,3192021-2023
Norwegian Church Aid5,518,1582016-2020
ACT Alliance EU75,0002020-2021
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)300,0002019-2022
YMCA- East Jerusalem14,456,4422021-2023
Human Rights Defenders Fund450,0002019-2022
Ma’an Development Center and Culture and Free Thought Association3,749,0042021
Ma’an Development Center and Women’s Affairs Center1,307,4182021

Appendix 1

Screenshots from DANIDA OpenAid – May 30, 2018

 

Danish funding to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law IHL Secretariat

 

 

NIRAS (Secretariat) funding 2017

 

Danish funding to DanWatch

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