Belgium

Profile

Country/TerritoryBelgium

Activity

  • The Belgian government, through the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGD, a branch of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), provides millions of euros to highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote anti-Israel narratives, lawfare, and discriminatory BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns. Some of these organizations have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a designated terrorist organization by the EUUSCanada, and Israel. (See Belgium’s Support of PFLP Linked NGOs for more details.)
    • On July 14, 2021, MP Kathleen Depoorter announced that Belgium Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir refused to open an independent investigation into the alleged diversion of Belgian development funds to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
    • In June, Minister Kitir announced that Belgium was conducting an internal investigation into its funding to NGOs, following an announcement by the Israeli authorities that European aid transferred to Palestinian NGOs was diverted to the PFLP. Kitir claimed that the information provided by the Israeli authority “contains no concrete material evidence for possible fraud at the partner organizations” and that on the basis of the investigation conducted by her administration, Kitir saw “no reason today to freeze funds, nor to have additional external investigations carried out” (emphases added).
  • The Belgian government does not provide direct funding to Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. However, “recognised [Belgian] NGOs” provide funding to local Israeli and Palestinian NGOs through “co-financing…programmes” co-funded by DGD, with DGD providing up to 85% of the total grant.
  • The 2017-2021 Joint Strategic Framework (JSF) for Belgian aid to Palestinians, a document formulated jointly by Belgian “recognised NGOs” and approved by the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation, outlines the NGOs’ common strategy for delivering aid. The 2017-2021 JSF committed its signatories to promoting anti-Israel campaigns through advocacy and lobbying in Belgium and the EU, including “Mitigating the influence of pro-Israel voices.” Manifesting a severe decrease in transparency, the Belgian government has refused to publish the 2022-2026 JSF on “Palestine,” whereas JSFs for other countries are accessible online. Consequently, details on funding to Palestinian NGOs for 2022-2026 are unavailable.   
  • In January 2024, during the war that followed the Hamas October 7 massacre, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib and Development Cooperation Minister Caroline Gennez accused Israel of bombing the offices of Belgium’s federal government development agency (Enabel) and summoned Israel’s ambassador in Belgium to “express our strong condemnation.”
  • Numerous employees of this Ministry – responsible for reviewing, approving, and distributing international aid – have previously expressed support for acts of violence and praised Palestinian terror on their social media accounts. Several of these government employees’ posts include violent and antisemitic imagery. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “Support for Terror by Belgian Ministry of Development Cooperation Employees.”)

DGD Funding

Broederlijk Delen

NGO2022-20262017-2021
Adalah€175,000€197,500
Breaking the Silence€200,000€205,500
DCI-P€150,000€170,800
Gisha€225,000€229,085
Theatre Day Productions€300,000€296,000
WCLAC €200,000€212,000
Ofek€150,000

Viva Salud

NGO2022-20262017-2021
Al Awda Health and Community Association (formerly UHWC)€245,000€192,823
HWC€340,000€297,925
Bisan€540,000€337,892
Al Marsad€75,980

Solidarité Socialiste (SolSoc)

  • In 2022-2026, Solsoc is receiving €1.7 million for “Strengthening and support for the structuring of actors of social change in Palestine” (translated from the original French).
  • In 2017-2021, SolSoc received €1.4 million from DGD for the project: “PROG 2017-2021_Outcome_OS Palestine SDZ17.”
  • SolSoc’s partners include Ma’an Development Center and Popular Art Centre (PAC). According to the 2017-2021 funding framework, the Ma’an Development Center and PAC will be provided €986,954 and €379,569
    • In May 2019, “MA’AN’s Director General,” Sami Khader attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP that centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs, including UHWC, UAWC, and Addameer. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.
    • In May 2018, Ma’an Development Center employee Ahmad Abdallah Aladini was killed in the violence on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “comrade” of the PFLP terror group.
    • On April 6-7, 2017, PAC was one of the organizers of a children’s festival on the topic of “the 30 year Palestinian uprising.” One dance routine publicized by PAC was titled “Songs of the Intifada.” Another was captioned “Brother, point the gun” (NGO Monitor translation).
      • In February 2016, PAC organized a ceremony in honor of “Palestinian martyrs” whose homes were demolished, featuring the “father of the martyr Baha Eleyan” as a speaker (NGO Monitor translation). Eleyan was one of two terrorists to board a bus in Jerusalem in October 2015 armed with a gun and a knife, murdering three and injuring seven. The same ceremony featured a musical performance captioned “no to laying down guns” (NGO Monitor translation).
  • SolSoc supports the “Made in Illegality” campaign, a settlement boycott campaign based in Belgium and France, and promotes the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
  • Solidarité Socialiste accuses Israel of “systematically [seeking] to exercise control over Palestine, sporadically occupying its territories and regulating the circulation of its residents and goods.” Solidarité Socialiste describes the Palestinian economy as “an economy of occupation” and states that “the wall had the effect to paralyze the economy of the Palestinian territories.”
NGO2022-20262017-2021
Ma'an Development CenterN/A€986,954
Popular Art Centre (PAC)N/A€379,569

Oxfam-Solidarité

Projects funded by DGD

  • In 2022-2026, DGD will provide Oxfam Solidarité with €2.9 million for a project titled “Women, youth and other SSPs increase benefits in the fresh vegetables value chain as change agents.” Local NGO partners include Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), Rural Women Development Society (RWDS), and Palestinian Farmers’ Union (PFU). According to data published by Oxfam Novib’satlas” website, in 2022-2026, DGD will provide PARC, RWDS and PFU with €628,295, €579,377, and €263,827.
  • Oxfam Solidarité ran a DGD-funded program “Cash-for-work” implemented in partnership with the Union of Agricultural Works Committee (UAWC). The program aims at supporting the “fishermen in Gaza, who face many obstacles,” including the “limitations of the fishing zones imposed by the Israelis.” It is unclear if the project is ongoing.
    • The Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC) is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the USEUCanada, and Israel. On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UAWC a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” (For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”)

Federal Government Funding via International Organizations

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

  • In 2023-2024, NRC received €1.3 million from DGD for the “Prevention of the forcible transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, through humanitarian assistance and evidence-based advocacy.”
  • Norwegian Refugee Council engages in lawfare and international delegitimization campaigns against Israel.
  • One of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, “Information, counseling, and legal assistance (ICLA),” exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks.
    • ICLA’s interventions in Israeli courts and other venues “beneficiary targets” include: “3628 opened and continuing cases for legal assistance in the West Bank (West Bank 612 new and 3016 continuing), 40 advocacy briefings given on specific HLP and residency issues (verbal or written), 10 of instances information is submitted to other UN mechanisms, and 75 public interest cases challenging unjust HLP issues.”

Belgium Local Governmental Bodies Funding to NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P)

  • Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI), “the agency responsible for the international relations of Wallonia and Brussels,” is funding the project “Justice for Palestinian Children in Conflict with the Law” (2019-2023; amount unknown) implemented by DCI-Belgium in partnership with DCI-P. The project includes an advocacy component, in which, “based on the ‘No Way to Treat a Child’ campaign, project partners are calling for an end to the Israeli military detention of Palestinian children.”
  • Within this program, in November 2022, DCI-P, alongside Broederlijk Delen and DCI-Belgium, hosted a controversial photo exhibit in the Belgium Chamber of Representatives titled “Military detention is no way to treat a child.” According to the event materials, the exhibit received the support of WBI.
  • Numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the USEUCanada, and Israel, have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P. On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared DCI-P a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” (For more information on DCI-P’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”)

Association Belgo-Palestinienne

  • Association Belgo-Palestinienne (ABP) is a Belgium-based organization that has received direct Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles since 2005, including €121,389 in 2022.
  • ABP is active in discriminatory BDS campaigns against Israel.
  • Pierre Galand, ABP’s director and a former Belgian senator, is also the President of ECCP (a Brussels-based association of NGOs working with the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People). Galand was the general coordinator of the Russell Tribunal (a court that uses a legal façade to create an image of neutrality and credibility, and to accuse Israel of “apartheid,” “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” and “genocide”) and the former head of Oxfam-Belgium.

Intal Globalize Solidarity vzw

  • Intal Globalize Solidarity vzw (intal) is a Belgium-based organization that has received direct Belgian local government funding (Région Bruxelloise, Région Flamande, Maribel Social) including €98,810 in 2019.
  • Intal calls for “the end of Zionism as the State of Israel’s ideology,” a “right of return for all Palestinian refugees,” and “the end of Israel as a state in which Jews must at all price be the majority and where non-Jewish populations are discriminated against.”
  • Intal is active in discriminatory BDS campaigns against Israel.

Indirect Funding via UN Frameworks

Funding to the UN-OCHA oPt Humanitarian Fund

  • In 2024, Belgium provided the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund” with €4.3 million.
    • Several PFLP-linked NGOs, including UAWC, UHWC, and PCHR are regular recipients of disbursements from the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.”

Funding to UN-OCHA

  • In 2019, Belgium provided the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) with $722,222 for “Strengthening Humanitarian Coordination and Advocacy in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
  • OCHA oversees and facilitates government funding to highly biased and politicized NGOs, including a number that are highly active in promoting BDS and lawfare campaigns, and some even engage in blatantly antisemitic activities. Some of the NGOs also have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the USEUCanada, and Israel.

Funding to UNICEF

  • In 2019, Belgium provided United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with $448,525 for the project “Integrated psychosocial support and child protection services for the most affected boys and girls in Gaza, especially those impacted by ‘the Great March of Return.’” Additionally, Belgium provided UNICEF with $5,183 for “Protection and prevention services to the most vulnerable children (boys and girls) in the West Bank, and documentation of protection incidents in Israel/ State of Palestine.”
  • In 2018, Belgium provided UNICEF with $161,451 for the project “Protection and prevention services to the most vulnerable children (boys and girls) in the West Bank, and documentation of protection incidents in Israel/ State of Palestine.” Additionally, Belgium provided $69,055 for the project “Integrated psychosocial support and child protection services for the most affected boys and girls in Gaza, especially those impacted by ‘the Great March of Return.’”
  • UNICEF spearheads a campaign to have Israel included on a UN blacklist of “grave” violators of children’s rights. The list 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”)

Funding to the Food & Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme 

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