Activity

• The French government funds numerous Israeli, Palestinian, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) directly through L’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem (CGF), and French local authorities, and indirectly through French and foreign aid organizations such as CCFD- Terre Solidaire and Association France Palestine Solidarité.
• Since 2017, France funds a humanitarian consortium led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
• Many of the NGOs receiving French direct and indirect funds support boycott campaigns against Israel and/or call for the boycott of the State. Such advocacy is illegal under French law. (See NGO Monitor’s report: French Funding to NGOs Involved in Boycott Campaigns and with Alleged Ties to Terror Groups.)
• In 2019, France endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
• On January 1, 2022, the French government implemented a law, “Strengthening the respect of the republican values.” The law calls for organizations receiving French governmental funding to respect the laws and values of the French Republic. According to the law, every organization that wishes to receive French government funding must sign a “contract of republican commitment” and “Undertake[] (in its activity, in its internal functioning as in its relations with third parties) not to provoke hatred or violence towards anyone and not to condone such acts…[and be] committed to rejecting all forms of racism and anti-Semitism.” Any group that is found in breach of the contract will be defunded by the French government.
• In March 2022, France dissolved the PFLP-linked Collectif Palestine Vaincra (CPV) on the grounds that the group “calls to hatred, violence and discrimination.” The primary reasons for the dissolution included CPV’s support of terrorism (support to terror groups and individuals involved or convicted for terror related offenses), which according to the French authorities, “goes hand in hand with a legitimization of the terrorist methods which it endeavors to justify or minimize on the grounds that it is a necessary form of resistance.” On April 22, 2022, the French State Council froze the decree, pending an appeal by the NGO..(See NGO Monitor’s analysis “France dissolves anti-Zionist and PFLP-linked Collectif Palestine Vaincra – Main points of the dissolution decree.”)
  • CPV is a member of Samidoun, an organization that was designated by Israel as a terror group in February 2021 due to its links to the PFLP. According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Samidoun “acts on the PFLP’s behalf abroad” and “plays a leading and significant role in the PFLP’s anti-Israel propaganda efforts, fundraising, and recruiting activists. These activities compliment the armed and violent terrorist struggle that the PFLP engages in against Israel.”

Developments Since the October 7th Hamas Massacre

• In June 2024, the French government sanctioned Humani’Terre, a Hamas-linked NGO, and ordered the freezing of its assets for six months. This followed media reports that a scooter, donated by the French NGO, was used by Hamas operatives in Gaza. According to a French media report, “money seizures were made for the tidy sum of 36 million euros on blocked accounts, current accounts or in cash.”
  • Humani’Terre (formerly Comité de bienfaisance et de secours aux Palestiniens (CBSP)) was sanctioned by the US (2003) and Israel (1997) over its links to Hamas.

Government Agencies

Agence Française de Développement

• The Agence Française de Développement (AFD – French Agency for Development) is “a public institution that implements France’s policy in the areas of development and international solidarity.” AFD is “designated as the main operator of French development aid, under the joint authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.”
• AFD has been active in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza since 1999 and has provided over €405 million for dozens of projects and partnerships.
• A 2017 AFD document stated that “AFD’s intervention must contribute to the consolidation and development of the [Palestinian Territories] PTs, but also ‘do no harm’, i.e. ensure that the projects implemented do not involuntarily exacerbate conflicts or delicate situations that could lead to acts of violence in the mid-or short-term. The factoring in of potentially negative effects of projects is carried out through the institutionalisation, identification, examination and follow-up of projects, broader consideration of the project’s socio-political environment and its potential impact on divides, a possible source of destruction and violence. Because of the extremely inflammable political and ideological environment, support to NGOs must be implemented with extreme caution.” Yet, AFD funds several highly politicized and problematic Palestinian NGOS.

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)

• In February 2019, AFD approved a €232,000 (out of a total budget of €650,000) grant to a French organization for an agriculture project in Area C of the West Bank. The French NGO partners with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian NGO linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization, designated as such by the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel.
• UAWC is identified by the Palestinian Fatah organization as a PFLP “affiliate,” and by a USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP.
• 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’.”
• Several UAWC board and staff members have reported ties to the terrorist group. For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
• Samer Arbid, UAWC’s accountant from 2016 until his arrest in 2019, was indicted on 21 counts in Israeli military court. Arbid is currently on trial for commanding a PFLP terror cell that carried out the August 2019 bombing attack, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.

Al-Haq and FIDH

• In February 2024, AFD authorized a €8.3 million grant to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). According to the description of the four-year project (“Strengthening the intervention of the FIDH network to increase the power to act of local human rights defenders and CSOs [Civil Society Organizations]”), FIDH will provide funding to 22 NGO partners, including Al-Haq (amount not transparent). The program’s expected results include:
  • “The voice of HRDs [Human Rights Defenders] and local CSOs defending human rights is amplified among inter-governmental, diplomatic and economic institutions and the visibility of FIDH’s fights in matters of HR is reinforced.”
  • “Local CSOs defending HR, members and partners, have access to supportive, flexible and adapted support, allowing them to strengthen their power of action in the face of the shrinking space for Civil Society (110 local CSOs (58 % of FIDH MOs) are supported via flexible grants, missions, training).”
• Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-orchestrated massacre, FIDH and its Palestinian NGO members, including Al-Haq, have led the “genocide” accusations against Israel and have intensified their lawfare campaign in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). For more information, see NGO Monitor report “FIDH and Its PFLP-Linked Member NGOs Lead “Genocide” Accusation Against Israel.”
• On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Al-Haq a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
• Al-Haq’s General Director Shawan Jabarin is linked to the PFLP. According to the Israeli Supreme court, Jabarin “is apparently acting as a manner of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization.”
• In 2011, Al-Haq proposed sabotaging the Israeli court system by “flooding the [Israeli Supreme] Court with petitions in the hope of obstructing its functioning and resources.”=

Palestinian Medical Relief Society

• In 2021-2024, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) is an implementing partner on a €1.7 million project (of which €865,022 was provided by AFD) for “Strengthening citizen engagement pathways for children and young people in East Jerusalem, Palestinian Territories” (phase 3). 
• Mustafa Barghouthi, founder and president of PMRS, praised the October 7th attacks in Israel and repeatedly denied the systematic rape of Israeli women during the atrocities.
• On October 7, 2023, Barghouti declared: “Today is a glorious day for the Palestinian resistance and people. The resistance paid with interest for the attacks of the terrorist settlers, and for the attacks against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It paid with interest for those who normalize [their relations] with the occupation.” 
• PMRS runs “Palestine Monitor,” an “independent news website” that has featured virulently antisemitic cartoons that trivialize the Holocaust; depict of a pile of emaciated dead bodies in striped uniforms under the caption “Gaza”; featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stamping Palestinian babies with the word “terrorist,” as they are transported on a conveyer belt into a smoking oven; and of an elderly Palestinian woman with a blood-dripping “1948” tattooed on her arm, invoking the numbers that were tattooed on the arms of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.

Ma’an Development Center

• In 2021, AFD granted €5,000 to Ma’an Development Center for “Integrated WASH assistance to water service providers for enhanced sustainable and safely managed access to services for the most vulnerable population in the governorates of Bethlehem and Hebron.”
  • In 2016-2020, AFD provided Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS, see below for further information), a French BDS leader organization, with €320,000 for agricultural projects with Ma’an Development Center.
• On May 15, 2018, Ahmad Abdallah Aladini, a Ma’an Development Center employee was killed in the violence on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “member of the leadership of the PFLP in Deir al-Balah” (Gaza). Following a journalistic exposé of Aladini’s PFLP affiliation and the revelation of a second Ma’an Development Center employee, the Australian government, an indirect funder of Ma’an Development Center, announced it would conduct its own investigation.

Culture and Free Thought Association

• In 2021, AFD provided CCFD- Terre Solidaire (see below for further information on CCFD), a French organization that promotes a one-sided Palestinian narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with €850,000 for educative and civil involvement projects for young people in Gaza with the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA). This follows a second phase funding of €800,000 in 2018.
• CFTA’s Director Mariam Zakoot signed a 2016 statement from Palestinian feminists supporting BDS and “deplor(ing) the colonial attitude inherent in some Israeli feminists’ request of us to sign a statement in favor of liberal ideals, ‘dialogue’ and ‘co-existence,’ and against the effective solidarity with the struggle for rights.”
• On June 19, 2019, CFTA announced it “officially launches its fourth educational and sixth community center,” which was apparently funded by AFD with CCFD-Terre Solidaire and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Mariam Abu Dakka, a “senior PFLP official,” also described as “one of the first female military leaders” and a “Palestinian female figure in armed resistance.”

NGO Development Center (NDC)

• In May 2020, AFD authorized an €8 million grant to the NGO Development Center (NDC) for a four-year project titled “Action for East Jerusalem’s Identity and Resilience (AJIR).” Implementing partners include PalVision, Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Palestine, and Al-Quds University.
• NDC is highly politicized, promoting discriminatory BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns and rejecting normalization with Israel.
• NDC “facilitated” and funded the 2008 “Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct,” which demands that Palestinian groups reject “any normalization activities with the occupier, neither at the political-security nor the cultural or developmental levels.”
• In 2013, NDC published “A Strategic Framework to Strengthen the Palestinian NGO Sector” (2013-2017) document funded by AFD that outlines “strategic objectives” of Palestinian NGOs and includes as “Programs/Projects/Activities”: “BDS Campaign[s]”; “Campaign[s] for Academic and Cultural Boycott”; “Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign[s]”; “Anti-normalization Campaign[s].”

AFD Funding to French NGOs

In addition to funding Palestinian NGOs, AFD provides funding to politicized anti-Israel French NGOs for projects in France within the frameworks of “development and international solidarity education initiatives” and “structuring French civil society.”

• Euromed Feminist Initiative (EFI)
  • In 2023-2026, EFI is receiving €3.5 million from AFD.
  • The Paris-based EuroMed Feminist Initiative describes itself as a “policy platform” seeking “an egalitarian and demilitarized world where respect of human rights of women and men is a leading value and practice and where the principle of non- discrimination – based on gender, sexual orientation, age, class, ethnicity, disabilities – is social rule and life.”
  • Individuals who serve on EFI’s board and a number of EFI member organizations have published statements justifying and celebrating the October 7th attack, calling to annihilate Israel, denying Hamas atrocities, and promoting antisemitic imagery. Additionally, in multiple statements, EFI itself has labeled Israeli operations “tantamount to the destruction of the population of Gaza” and joined the propaganda campaign falsely claiming that “today Gaza [sic] population is facing a large-scale massacre and genocide.” For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “Euromed Feminist Initiative’s board members celebrate October 7 Hamas Massacre.”
• Since 2009, AFD has provided approximately €1 million to various Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine (PFP) programs that aim to influence media and decision makers’ opinions of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
  • PFP is a politicized French NGO comprised of 40 French NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict. PFP is active in BDS campaigns. François Leroux, PFP President, was “AFPS national leader for the BDS campaign.”
  • In May 2022, PFP accused Israel of apartheid and recommended that French political authorities recognize the “situation of apartheid towards the Palestinians.” 
  • In 2019, PFP spearheaded a lobby campaign against a “motion for a resolution to combat anti-Semitism.” PFP stated that it would oppose any resolution that includes “reference to a largely fantastical antizionism” and did not “explicitly exclude ‘examples’ supposed to illustrate the ‘IHRA definition’” (emphasis added).
  • In December 2023, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA) demanded that AFD  “immediately” end its financial support for PFP, accusing the French NGO of “propagating fake news and showing relativism in the face of ultra-violent terrorist actions, particularly in a dramatic context of a sharp increase in anti-Semitic acts on French territory.”

Consulate General of France in Jerusalem

• The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem (CGF) has not published details about its funding to NGOs since 2016, reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability.
• CGF reports that it supports local NGOs via “the Innovative Projects of Civil Societies and Coalitions of Actors program (PISCCA)” and the funding of “micro-projects that contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of Palestinian civil society.”
• In 2023, Yesh Din received NIS 297,169 from the Consulate in Jerusalem.
  • Yesh Din is central to the allegations that Israeli investigative and court systems are unable or unwilling to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and is part of a wider “lawfare” strategy of pressing “war crimes” cases against Israeli officials in foreign courts and in the International Criminal Court (ICC). These campaigns use faulty information and skewed statistics to promote their political claims.
• In 2022, Gisha received NIS 172,535 from the Consulate in Jerusalem. 
  • Gisha employs “apartheid” rhetoric and vocabulary based on international law and human rights to promote a partisan political and ideological agenda.
• In 2021, Hamoked received NIS 164,840 from the Consulate in Jerusalem for the “Protection of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.”
  • Hamoked is an Israeli NGO that regularly petitions the High Court of Justice and makes inaccurate and inflammatory allegations of Israeli “apartheid,” “deportations,” “torture,” and “forcible transfers.”
• In 2021, Ir Amim received NIS 200,000 from the Consulate in Jerusalem.
  • Ir Amim’s activities consistently promote a one-sided Palestinian narrative, accusing Israel of the “Judaization” of Jerusalem, and alleging without evidence that the security barrier’s supposedly “demographic rationale therefore outweighs its security rationale.”

Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE)

• The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) has not published details about its funding since 2016, displaying a lack of transparency and accountability.
• In 2023, France granted €650,000 and €159,248 to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for a project titled, “Humanitarian response to the most vulnerable population affected by extreme poverty, humanitarian crisis, and violations of IHL/IHRL in the Gaza Strip.” Implementing partners include Médecins du Monde, Mercy Corps, Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion, and several Palestinian NGOs including, Ma’an Development Center (see above), Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA; see above), and  Al Awda Health and Community Association (Awda).
  • Awda (formerly Union of Health Work Committees – UHWC) is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate” and by a 1993 USAID-engaged audit as the “the PFLP’s health organization.” For more information on AWDA’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Health Work Committees’ Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
• In 2020, France granted €1.2 million to Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for its flagship program, “Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA).”
  • One of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, “Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA),” exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks. NRC’s legal projects are funded mainly by Norway, the European Union (EU), and the United Kingdom (UK).
  • Included in ICLA’s program goals is “supporting the PA both locally and nationally on casework” and works with “other NRC core competences, West Bank Protection Consortium partners, and UN OCHA, as well as with local authorities and village councils.”
  • 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.”
  • A lawyer affiliated with the NRC program stated that the objective of these cases are an attempt to “try every possible legal measure to disrupt the Israeli judicial system… as many cases as possible are registered and that as many cases as possible are appealed to increase the workload of the courts and the Supreme Court to such an extent that there will be a blockage” (emphasis added).
  • According to its 2023 ICLA project response plan, NRC “will target 17,583 Palestinians identified as affected by conflict-related violations and protection risks such as conflict-related violence, risk of forcible transfer, restrictions on freedom of movement and access to services, including livelihoods and settler violence.”

National Commission for Decentralized Cooperation

• Under the framework of the “National Commission for Decentralized Cooperation,” MEAE co-funds several projects with French local authorities.
• In 2019-2022, MEAE and French local authorities are granting €394,928 (€204,000 by MEAE; the rest by French municipalities and departmental councils) for a youth program in East Jerusalem that involved a convicted PFLP member. The program partners with the Palestinian NGO Al Bustan, which publishes imagery showing children engaging in mock executions, videos glorifying violence, supporting members of terrorist groups, and taking children to visit families of Palestinian prisoners. For more information, see NGO Monitor’s report: “French Government Supports Youth Project Involving Convicted PFLP member – Update.”

Direct French Funding to Israeli NGOs Based on Information Submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits (Amounts in NIS) 

Indirect Funding

CCFD-Terre Solidaire

• In 2023, total income was €42.3 million, of which €5.3 million (12.3%) was provided by the French government (AFD) and the European Union.
• In 2021, AFD provided CCFD- Terre Solidaire with €850,000 for educative and civil involvement projects for young people in Gaza with the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA). (See more on CFTA above.)
• CCFD calls for “defending the right to boycott the products from Israeli settlements, and for stopping the criminalization of the BDS movement.”
• CCFD has provided funding to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict including Breaking the Silence, Who Profits, Zochrot, Social TV, Emek Shaveh, and Sadaka Reut.

Funding via UN Frameworks

Funding to UN-OCHA oPt Humanitarian Fund

• In 2023, France granted the oPt Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) with €250,000.
• Several PFLP-linked NGOs, including UAWC, UHWC, and PCHR are regular recipients of disbursements from the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.”

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

• In 2024, France provided the World Food Programme with €4,5 million and €1 million as part of  the “Escalation of Hostilities in the OPT Flash Appeal 2023-2024” framework. According to UN-OCHA’s FTS, these projects appear to be part of the WFP’s Food Security Sector programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
• According to documents published by the Food Security Sector, the Sector distributes funds and partners with UAWC, Ma’an Development Center, and Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).

Indirect Funding to Israeli NGOs (Amounts in NIS)

According to information provided to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.