• The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has been providing substantial aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since 2000. In 2008, these areas received SEK 455 million (~$59 million, over 70% of the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] budget).
  • Many NGOs receive significant Swedish support from multiple sources: directly from SIDA, via NDC (Ramallah), and from Swedish “framework” NGOs. Some groups also receive funding from the EU’s European Commission.
  • SIDA provided SEK 5,283,000 ($744,021) between 2008 and 2010 to pro-BDS group Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) of Sweden. SEK 2,038,000 ($287,018) was allocated to PSM’s lobbying projects, which, among other goals, attempt to “influenc[e] Swedish foreign policy.”
  • Swedish Minister of Development Aid Gunilla Carlsson criticized a PSM booklet entitled “Colonialism and Apartheid - Israel's Occupation of Palestine”: “one side [of the conflict] is demonized and they [PSM] clearly side with one party and are lobbying. But this is not what tax-payer money should be used for.”
  • Sweden funds Diakonia’s International Humanitarian Law project, which promotes Palestinian political goals through a distorted and misleading interpretation of international law.
  • Sweden also funded Sabeel’s Nakba Memory program in 2008 “to commemorate the Nakba [Catastrophe] of 1948, examine the current struggles for freedom, equality, and identity, and confront the continuing problems of the 1948 refugees.”
  • Sweden is a main supporter of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) - a leader in the NGO “lawfare” strategy of exploiting the universal jurisdiction to bring cases against Israeli officials alleging “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.”
  • The Palme Center, a “framework” organization, falsely accuses Israel of “provok[ing] the al-Aqsa rising and the ‘Second Intifada,’” and “disproportionate violence against civilians, unlawful executions and torture.” The fighting in Gaza is also blamed on “the provocative Israeli occupation.”
  • Other SIDA grantees – including the Alternative Information Center (AIC), Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), and Jerusalem Center for Women (JWC) – demonize Israel with the rhetoric of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “massacres.”

Sweden Essentials: