Activity

• According to its website, “DanChurchAid is rooted in the Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church.”
• Aims to conduct “humanitarian aid and development assistance in close cooperation with churches and other cooperative partners.” According to its “statutes,” this “means that DanChurchAid shall engage popular and political powers and seek to influence decision makers in order to improve conditions for the world’s poorest. These efforts shall be conducted on local, national and global levels.”
• In 2016, established a “joint office” with Norwegian Church Aid in Jerusalem.

Funding

• In 2017, total income was 691.5 million Danish kroner (DKK); total expenses were DKK 8 million, of which DKK 27.2 million was spent in the “West Bank/Gaza.”
  • This included DKK 215.5 million from Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), DKK 91.6 million from the European Union, and DKK 206.5 million from “International Donors.” (See table below for further funding information.)
• Other donors include (funding not disclosed): United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Church of Sweden, ICCO (Netherlands), and the United Nations (UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, OCHA).
• DanChurchAid received €1.5 million (2016-2019) from the European Union via the East Jerusalem Programme in partnership with PalVision for “Promoting Change and Youth leadership in East Jerusalem.”

Political Advocacy and Activities

• DanChurchAid has provided funding to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israel conflict including: Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Who Profits, BADIL, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC), PalVision, Norwegian Church Aid, Ma’an Development Center, YMCA- East Jerusalem, and the Women’s Affairs Center. (See table below for further funding information.)
• Some of DanChurchAid’s partners and grantees promote BDS (boycotts, divestments and sanctions) and lawfare campaigns, false “war crimes” allegations, and even antisemitic propaganda.
  • BADIL is the main Palestinian “right of return” NGO, and a leader of BDS campaigns and political warfare against Israel. This NGO publishes antisemitic cartoons on its website, as well as imagery calling for the destruction of Israel (also a form of antisemitism) and denying Israel’s right to exist. Cartoon published by BADIL include classic antisemitic tropes, featuring a Jewish man, garbed in traditional Hasidic attire, with a hooked nose and side locks. He stands above a dead child and skulls, holding a pitchfork dripping with blood. Additional graphics deny the legitimacy of Israel in any form, and oppose peace agreements, in direct contradiction to Danish government policies. These are direct and blatant displays of antisemitism.
    • In correspondence with NGO Monitor, a representative from DanChurchAid agreed that the cartoon was antisemitic, attributing “this unfortunate incident” to “a misjudgment or error on behalf of Badil management.” NGO Monitor also requested information from DanChurchAid on its funding for BADIL. Despite repeated emails and phone calls, DanChurchAid did not respond to these questions.
• In June 2017, to mark “50 years of occupation,” DanChurchAid organized a panel with Shawan Jabarin, Director of Al-Haq, and Hagai El-Ad, Director of B’Tselem.
  • Shawan Jabarin is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• In May 2017, DanChurchAid published a statement defending itself against criticism that it partners with organizations that promote antisemitism and individuals with alleged ties to terrorism. NGO Monitor responded to the statement, outlining how DCA’s defensive and misleading response to criticism reflects a lack of due diligence in its funding of and partnerships with NGOs.
• Publishes one-sided condemnations of Israel that erase the context of terrorism, repeat the Palestinian narrative, ignore corruption, and blame Israel for Palestinian poverty and the continuation of the conflict.
• Was a signatory to the 2012 report “Trading Away Peace,” which repeats the BDS agenda and calls on EU and individual European governments to wage political warfare through various forms of economic sanctions against Israel.
• Funds DanWatch, which promotes BDS under the guide of “business ethics.” DanChurchAid specifically funds DanWatch’s project “Business on Forbidden Land,” focusing on Danish companies allegedly conducting business in Israeli settlements and opposing the marketing of Israeli goods produced in the West Bank.
• Claims that the “Palestinians are not able to move freely and are denied access to land and water,” ignoring evidence that Israel provides Palestinians in the West Bank with more water than required under the Oslo framework and that thieves are responsible for stealing up to 50 percent of supplies in some Palestinian areas. In so doing, DanChurchAid manipulates and distorts water and land issues in order to falsely portray Israel as a brutal regime.
• For three years beginning in June 2011, DanChurchAid partnered with Grassroots Jerusalem in a EuropeAid funded project to improve “respect for human rights and international humanitarian law in occupied East Jerusalem, where many Palestinians are exposed to poverty, violence, and violations of human rights.” Grassroots Jerusalem regularly describes Jerusalem as being “ethnically cleansed” and “colonized by the Israeli settlements” and claims that Israel is engaging in “collective punishment” and turning Palestinian villages into “ghetto[s].”
• As part of a “Gaza Emergency Response” campaign, DanChurchAid described the 2014 Gaza war as “the Israeli military’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’,” which “displaced” civilians in Gaza.  This attributes sole responsibility to Israel, ignoring that the military operation was launched in response to indiscriminate Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and that Hamas’ systematic policy of operating in civilian areas caused the displacement.
• In 2007, DCA joined with BADIL to implement a “Call to Action,” which included anti-Israel boycott and sanction campaigns; efforts to “[e]nlist journalists to organize a targeted campaign to expose the lies of AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League and to expose the Jewish and Zionist community’s double standards regarding Nakba & Occupation”; and enlisting the help of anti-Israel “Jewish” NGOs to “rais[e] awareness of the . . . right of return among the Jewish public in Israel.”

EAPPI

• In Denmark, DanChurchAid administers the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
• EAPPI sends volunteers to the West Bank to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
• In 2017-2019, DanChurchAid granted DKK 328,995 to EAPPI.
• In 2017, DanChurchAid and ACT Alliance requested $1.3 million from the United Nations for EAPPI. It is unclear if they received any of this funding.
• According to a DanChurchAid 2015 report, EAs from Denmark were provided with “learning material, including training videos on volunteering and reporting mechanisms for human rights violations.”
• EAPPI volunteers have used inflammatory, demonizing, and antisemitic rhetoric regarding Israel.