Activity

Oxfam Novib is the Dutch affiliate of Oxfam international, an “international confederation of 17 organizations networked together in 92 countries.” Within the Oxfam umbrella, Oxfam Novib plays a leading role on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including demonization and other anti-Israel campaigns.

See also NGO Monitor’s reports on Oxfam International, Oxfam Great Britain, and Oxfam-Solidarité (Belgium).

Funding

• In FY 2020-2021, total income was €185.2 million; total expenses were €183.9 million.
• Donors include the Netherlands, European Union, other branches of Oxfam, and the United Nations.
• Oxfam Novib does not reveal all of its governmental donors, but does note that it has received money from Sweden (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency –SIDA) and from Belgium.

2017-2021 grants received (amounts in Euro)

Funding for Politicized NGOs

• Between 2014-2021, Oxfam Novib is granting €1,590,887 to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict including Adalah, Al-Mezan, Bimkom, Coalition of Women for Peace, Culture and Free Thought Association, Emek Shaveh, Gisha, HaMoked , Miftah, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), Union of Health Work Committees, Women’s Affairs Center (WAC), Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC), and Yesh Din. (See below for a full list of projects funded by Oxfam Novib.)
• Oxfam Novib funds the following projects, amongst others:

1. Implement Value Chain Development -Gaza – Project partners include the Union of Agricultural Works Committee (UAWC)

• The Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC) is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged auditas the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, 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. According to Israeli security officials, commanded a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror cell that carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother. According to the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.

2. Strengthening Resilience in E.J – Project partners include the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC), Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), and the Palestinian Counselling Centre (PCC).

• WCLAC, PMRS, and PARC support BDS initiatives through participation in activities and events, signing of petitions and initiatives, and/or membership in BDS platforms.
• Additional funding for this project was provided by the European Union’s East Jerusalem Programme.

3. Install Carrier Lines & Rehab Agr Road – Project partners include Ma’an Development Center.

• In May 2019, MA’AN Director General Sami Khader attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP that centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna. 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. On May 15, 2018, Ma’an Development Center posted on Facebook a memorial notice for Aladini, referring to him as a “colleague and martyr.” (Ma’an has since removed the post.) Aladini was a “comrade” of the PFLP, a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to the PFLP, Aladini was active against the “Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.” On his Facebook page, Aladini posted PFLP propaganda, including images that glorify violence and terrorists.

4. B’Tselem Occupation 101 crash course

• The project aims to “bring delegations of European and American journalists to see an overview of the impact of occupation on Palestinians and [sic] Israelis.”
• B’Tselem actively pursues its political agenda of “international consequences” and international pressure on Israel via lobbying of the UN and European governments.
• In January 2021, B’Tselem launched a discriminatory and hateful campaign, under the banner of “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” As part of the campaign, B’Tselem attacked Israel’s role as a haven for the Jewish people (the Law of Return) and used the phrase “from the river to the sea” – echoing long-standing Palestinian terminology for the destruction of Israel. (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis: “From the “River to the Sea”: B’Tselem’s Demonization Crosses the Line.”)

Political Advocacy

• Oxfam Novib is active in promoting an anti-Israel agenda. Its 2009 monitoring report states that Oxfam Novib has “taken the lead in campaigning on Palestinian issues” within the Oxfam International network.
• Oxfam Novib, along with Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and Pax (and Cordaid until January 2016), formed the organization United Civilians for Peace, which advocates for BDS campaigns against Israel and partners with highly politicized NGOs.
  • In April 2016, Amin Abu Rashed, a reported Hamas operative, participated in a workshop organized by UCP on “Gaza/Palestine.”
  • In a 2013 film about the Israeli elections, UCP interviewed individuals from radical NGOs, including Eitan Bronstein Aparicio of Zochrot, Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and Mohammed Zeitan of the Arab Association for Human Rights.
• In June 2022, Oxfam Novib humanitarian expert Dirk Jan Jalvingh stated that “Humanitarian aid in Gaza has now become a humanitarian aid industry. Aid organizations are collectively forced to keep an open-air prison running.”
• In May 2021, in the context of the 2021 Gaza conflict, Oxfam Novib posted a statement urging the United States “to realize that the billions in unconditional military aid to Israel that they approve each year — aid the Israeli military uses against my people — means that the United States is not a neutral spectator. or be an impartial peace broker, but fuel the conflict. I tell them that it is long overdue for them to critically examine the root causes of the violence and human rights abuses, and the US complicity in them.”
• In April 2021, Oxfam Novib, alongside Amnesty Netherlands, PAX, and the Rights Forum hosted a webinar “about the consequences of the raids on the homes of Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli army.” The webinar discussed the joint report by Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, and Breaking the Silence titled “A Life Exposed.”
  • The report falsely claims that “The existence of two legal systems that apply to two separate national groups, as illustrated in this report in the context of the rules governing entry into the private domain, supports the claim that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid in the West Bank” (emphasis added).
• In June 2020, Oxfam Novib, alongside the Rights Forum and PAX, hosted a webinar on “understanding business activities related to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a major human rights problem, and presenting ways to end the complicity of Dutch/European economic and political actors with the settlement economy.” The webinar endorsed the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel.
• In July 2017, on the occasion of “50 years of occupation,” Oxfam Novib called to “Put an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and also to the blockade of the Gaza Strip.” According to Oxfam Novib Policy Officer for the Middle East Evelien van Roemburg, “The expansion of the settlements, excessive use of force, forced expulsions, restrictions of freedom of movement, seizures of land and the destruction of houses are illegal. A powerless condemnation is not enough…We can not wait another 50 years for a solution.”
• In June 2017, Oxfam Novib Head of Humanitarian Team Suying Lai, placed sole blame on Israel for the situation of people in Gaza stating “The occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel, which has been going on for 50 years, feeds the conflict between Israel and Palestinians…The occupation is the root cause of poverty and injustice in occupied Palestinian territory. This is exacerbated by the political struggle between the Palestinian Authority (in power in the West Bank) and the rulers in Gaza (Hamas). Sustainable and just peace is only possible if Israel ends the occupation” (emphasis added).
  • Country Director Chris Eijkmans, has also placed sole blame on Israel for the conflict stating, “There are few examples of poverty or injustice in the OPT that do not stem from the occupation.”
• Signed, as part of the UCP, the 2015 Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) document titled “Charting a New Course: Overcoming the Stalemate in Gaza,” which misrepresents international law and distorts legal terminology in order to place primary blame for the 2014 Gaza war on Israel. The paper fails to mention Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel. It further encourages contact with Hamas, stating that, “Restricted contact can undermine humanitarian access and implementation of humanitarian programmes…”
• In September 2014, Oxfam Novib, alongside MIFTAH, Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), and Women for Women in Sweden, participated in meetings held at the 27th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to discuss “war crimes in Gaza and ongoing human rights violations in Occupied Palestine.”