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[Excerpt:]

"According to NGO Monitor, among the groups that receive or have received EU funding in recent years are Yesh Din, Peace Now, Ir Amim, B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Machsom Watch. Standley said that the criteria used to fund the NGOs "are global, universal criteria. And I think that in that sense one can feel comfortable with the kind of support provided here, because it is in the context of a global commitment to universal values and human rights that these actions are being funded." Asked about funding for organizations such as Peace Now, Standley said "the funding is not provided for a political agenda, but rather in support of a universal objective such as human rights." He further stressed that these types of projects are funded not only in Israel, "but all over the planet." Asked if this type of EU involvement does not constitute meddling in Israeli politics, the EU envoy said the "funding is not provided at all with that objective. It is not meddling in terms of influencing the policies of the government. As I said, and I’ll repeat it because it is absolutely the case, our support is for universal objectives in terms of enjoyment of rights in accordance with all the international declarations that guide us all." But Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, said the fundamental problem with European funding of these organizations was it’s lack of transparency. "If EU officials like the ambassador believe that the funding is based on global principles, and Israel is not being treated differently, why is Israel not provided documentation to verify this? It is all done in secret," Steinberg said, referring to a 1999 protocol that showed an Israeli NGO was funded in order to convince Shas voters to vote for the left wing. When Steinberg was reminded that this happened 10 years ago, he replied that the problem was that the protocols and minutes of meetings where these types of decisions are made were not made public. "The ambassador, like other EU officials, makes broad claims about the basis of the funding, but the evidence we have, which is limited, doesn’t support that the criteria are global. We don’t know how the process works, it is all done in secret, and no evaluations are published [as to] why certain groups get funded year after year," Steinberg said."