Europe
European governments directly and indirectly provide upwards of $125 million annually to political advocacy NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In turn, these NGOs inform EU policy, to the detriment of European policy-making. Many of the funding processes are secretive, lacking transparency and accountability.
EU funding pushes the Arab Peace Initiative among Israeli journalists
A project of the EUs Partnerships for Peace program is aimed at "engaging core representatives of the media in a process of reflection on the past treatment and historical background of the API (Arab Peace Initiative) and simulate the adoption of API and its potential consequences in the media."
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EIDHR: Additional European Funding for Mideast Conflict Groups
In 2009, the European Commission allocated 2,007,051 through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) for Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. Highly politicized Israeli NGOs include ICAHD, Machsom Watch, Adalah, ACRI, and Yesh Din. Some grantees use rhetoric that demonizes Israel, including apartheid and war crimes. 2008 EIDHR recipients included BTselem, Breaking the Silence, Gisha, HaMoked, and PHR-I. The EC claims to have evaluations of NGO funding, but these are not made available.
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Spain: Government funding for NGOs promoting the Palestinian narrative
UPDATE: As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, the Spanish government was identified as a sponsor of an ad on PA TV, promoting the boycott of Israeli goods.
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NGO Monitor sues EU over lack of NGO funding transparency
On January 20, 2010, NGO Monitor filed suit against the European Commission in order to obtain vital information related to EC funding of NGOs. After initially rejecting NGO Monitors request one year ago, citing unspecified security factors, the EC provided a disk of documents with most details deleted. The ECs allocation process has no transparency regarding decision-making or evaluation procedures. Many of the politicized NGOs funded by the EU are active in the strategy of demonization, seeking to isolate Israel using tactics such as lawfare and boycott campaigns.
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