Jerusalem – The guidelines issued by the European Union to ban EU funding and cooperation with Israeli institutions beyond the 1949 Armistice Line reflects a policy dictated by political NGOs which are involved in the delegitimization campaign against Israel. The complex issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict are not aided by harmful steps such as boycotts which undermine a peace process based on negotiations and mutual respect. The EU guidelines are an attempt to predetermine the outcome of negotiations before the Palestinians even agree to sit at the negotiating table.

NGO Monitor’s president, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, pointed out, “The new EU guidelines are evidence of the influence of political NGOs – some funded by the EU – on the EU’s policies. On occasion we have seen the EU rely on political NGOs’ reports without checking their veracity. The practical results,” Prof. Steinberg continued, “are worrisome and reflect a faulty and one-sided agenda.”

The NGO Monitor report issued last year, EU Documents Repeat False NGO Claims, showed the direct connections between the NGOs secretly funded by the EU and EU policy recommendations based on their distorted and one-sided reports. Many of the falsehoods focused on Jerusalem and “Area C” in the West Bank, precisely the issues dealt with in the EU’s new guidelines.