Activity

See also NGO Monitor’s reports on Oxfam International and Oxfam Australia.

• 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. For instance, the NGO lists its call for “an end to the blockade” of Gaza as an example of advocacy work.
• Trainers from Oxfam Novib conducted workshops as part of the 2008 “Arab Advocacy Project.” One of the results of the project was the documentary, “the Effect of the Apartheid Wall on Essential Services in Palestine,” which was later screened in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
• In 2009, Oxfam Novib sponsored Electronic Intifada Executive Director Ali Abunimah’s participation in an event organized by the Nederlands Palestina Komitee (the Palestine Committee of the Netherlands). In his presentation, Abunimah repeatedly advanced allegations of “ethnical cleaning” and “colonization,” employed terms such as “apartheid,” and advocated BDS.
• In 2009, Oxfam Novib spent €3.7 million in Gaza. However, on its website, Oxfam Novib only lists three projects in Israel and three in the Palestinian Authority. They include:
  • Adalah: €576,000 in 2008-2010 for “emergency relief.” No further details are provided, and the recipients of the “emergency relief” distributed by Adalah remain unidentified.
  • PARC (listed under Israel): €620,000 for a project on nutrition for 2008-10. The details of the project are opaque, and it is unclear why a project with a Palestinian NGO is listed as Israeli.
  • Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS): €670,000. The organization has employed demonizing language in attacks against Israel. The PMRS President Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi referred to the Gaza conflict as a “horrendous massacre,” and used the terms “ghetto” and “apartheid” on a radio program. PMRS refers to the security barrier as the “apartheid Wall.”
  • Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center: €390,000 to work on “labour rights” in 2008-2010. DWRC has a rejectionist agenda, including signing a petition protesting the EU-Israel upgrade and calling for the suspension of the EU Association Agreement. In 2010, the Jerusalem Post reported that the group participated in a pro-BDS event hosted by the Irish trade-union.
• According to Oxfam Novib’s 2009 Monitoring Report and NGO Monitor research, Oxfam Novib partners with a variety of projects not listed on its website. One of these is a three-year project run by Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) entitled “Improving Awareness and Respect for Human Rights in Occupied Palestinian Territory,” which received €964,680 from Oxfam Novib. The project is co-financed by the European Union.
• Oxfam Novib previously partnered with PCHR on a 36-month (2005-2008), €298,339 grant from the European Union, under the auspices of a program to “[c]ontribute to the abolition of the death penalty in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, applied by the Palestinian National Authority via judicial death sentences and via extrajudicial executions” by the Israeli military. With this funding, PCHR and Oxfam Novib hosted several conferences promoting the use of universal jurisdiction statutes against Israeli officials. Ultimately, these activities were used as strategy sessions to bolster war crimes cases (“lawfare”) against Israeli officials throughout the world.
• Israeli NGO Yesh Din claims that Oxfam Novib is a donor, but it is not listed on Oxfam Novib’s website.