Activity

Background

• The Netherlands funds numerous Israeli and Palestinian NGOs directly through government entities including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Representative Office in Ramallah (NRO), and the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat(the Secretariat), and indirectly by outsourcing to Dutch church groups and aid organizations, such as ICCO and Oxfam-Novib.
• The Dutch government has provided over €75 million in direct and indirect funding to NGOs operating in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza since 2014.
• In May 2016, Dutch MPs Voorderwind (Christian Union), Ten Broeke (VVD), and Van der Staaij (SGP) submitted written questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs about indirect Dutch support for pro-BDS activism.
• On June 16, 2016, a majority of the Dutch Parliament (of 78 out of the 150 members) adopted a resolution that demanded the government review and halt, as soon as possible, all direct and indirect funding to radical NGOs that support BDS against Israel.

Direct Funding

Human Rights and Humanitarian Law International Secretariat

• The Netherlands, together with the governments of Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden, jointly fund the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (Secretariat). This funding mechanism had an initial budget of $17.6 million (2013-2016). The funds are managed by the Institute of Law at Birzeit University (IoL-BZU) in Ramallah and a European multidisciplinary consulting company, NIRAS.
  • The Secretariat has received over €3.7 million from the Netherlands, out of €3.9 million appropriated (2013-2018).
• This framework funds highly politicized NGOs that promote antisemitism, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and adopted by a June 1, 2017 European Parliament resolution; use language that refers to “resistance” in order to justify and excuse terrorism; and have alleged links to terror groups, and engage in legal warfare against Israeli officials and companies that do business with Israel.
• NGOs that receive Secretariat core funding include Addameer, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, B’Tselem, BADIL, Breaking the Silence, Defense for Children International – Palestine, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Yesh Din.
• NGO Monitor has extensively documented numerous concerns relating to the Secretariat.
• In January 2018, Minister Zijlstra (Foreign Affairs) and Minister Kaag (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) noted that Support for Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations by the Netherlands and the other partners through the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat will expire at the end of this year [2017].
• According to the 2018 budget of the Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, “the government will continue to support Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. The government is examining various options for this.”

Funding via Embassy in Tel Aviv

• The Embassy in Tel Aviv does not publish details on NGO funding. According to information submitted by Israeli NGOs to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits, the Embassy allocated NIS 896,588 to Israeli NGOs from 2013-2017.
• The Embassy in Tel Aviv claimed that it “will not be able to accept any project proposals for the year 2016.” However, both Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) reported funding from the Dutch Embassy in 2016, and Hamoked reported funding in 2017.
  • Ir Amim NIS 7,209 (2015)
    • 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.”
  • Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) NIS 140,441 (2016).
    • In 2013, PCATI published a statement, “Childhood is not a Privilege but a Right!,” inaccurately alleging that Israeli authorities place Palestinian “prisoners in iron cages (including children)” (emphasis added –originally published December 31, 2013; revised January 8, 2014).
  • HaMoked NIS 148,255 (2015-2017)
    • Regularly petitions the High Court of Justice and makes inaccurate and inflammatory allegations of Israeli “apartheid,” “deportations,” “torture,” and “forcible transfers.” Accuses Israel of “collective punishment” and of “ghetto-ization of the West Bank” (translated from Hebrew).
  • Bimkom NIS 235,995 (2013-2015)
    • Bimkom attacks Israeli policies, as “apartheid,” “collective punishment,” “discrimination,” and “war crimes.”
    • Bimkom often uses politicized language, and distorts facts, regarding the complex Negev Bedouin issue.

Funding via Embassy in Tel Aviv

Funding via Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), in partnership with the Land Research Center, Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), and the Economic & Social Development Center of Palestine, is receiving €8.4 million (2013-2018) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  • UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official PFLP “affiliate,” and by USAID as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP. According to academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, UAWC was founded in 1986 by “agronomists loosely affiliated with the PFLP.”
  • Land Research Center claims that the Balfour Declaration “placed a toxic dagger in Palestine that aims at restricting the advancement of the Arab Nation and disconnecting its east from its west,” and is part of a “continuous conspiracy.” LRC outlines “the conspiracy in years,” which also includes the American war in Iraq, the “Fatah-Hamas conflict,” and the Arab Spring.
  • Palestinian Hydrology Group is part of Stop the Wall, a grassroots network organization engaged in BDS and delegitimizing Israel through international advocacy.
• In August 2017, Dutch Open Aid published a new project (€60,000; 2017-2018) called Voices For Change with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights “designed to help Palestinian women in three marginalized communities in East Jerusalem to achieve their financial and social rights by holding relevant Israeli Gov’t offices and Jerusalem Municipality accountable for rendering various welfare services to them.”
• Diakonia receives €250,000 (2016-2019) from the Dutch government for “Enhancing Legal Knowledge on Humanitarian assistance and Development in Area C”
  • Diakonia’s “International Humanitarian Law” (IHL) program, exploits international law, demonizes Israel, and promotes anti-Israel lawfare campaigns and a narrative based solely on Palestinian victimization.
  • Diakonia “Partners” with a number of NGOs that promote BDS and lawfare campaigns against Israel and even blatant antisemitism, including: BADIL, Sabeel, Al-Haq, Alternative Information Center (AIC), B’Tselem, Al-Mezan, and others.
• The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also provided funding to Israeli NGOs, Comet-Me and B’Tselem.
• • Comet-ME received NIS 1.9 million (2014-2016) from the Dutch MFA, as part of a €404,242 grant (2014-2016). Comet-ME is also receiving a grant of €494,962 (2016-2017) from the MFA.
    • The 2016-2017 MFA grant was provided for a project that “fits the ambition to implement politically relevant projects: it helps a very vulnerable community in Area C (priority of the EU), enabling the people to remain in an area where settlement activities and pressure from the Israeli government could otherwise force people to leave.” (emphasis added)
  • B’Tselem received NIS 135,177 (2015) from the Dutch MFA. B’Tselem reported this as a “Human rights defenders project.” The Dutch funding transparency website OpenAid does not list B’Tselem as a “receiving organization.”

Funding via Representative Office in Ramallah

• Highly politicized organizations funded through the Representative Office in Ramallah (NRO) include the Union of Agricultural Works Committee (UAWC) (see above), the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), the Independent Commission for Human Rights, and AMAN. From 2013-2017, NRO provided over €12.8 million in funding to such groups.
• AMAN – the coalition for integrity and accountability” is receiving €961,028 (2013-2017) from the NRO. AMAN coalition includes the organizations Miftah and Al Mezan.
• Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) was “the main partner for the implementation of the Dutch-funded interventions between 2008 (and before) and 2012 was the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a national NGO.” According to a Dutch evaluation of funding to the West Bank and Gaza, PARC received just over €36 million in 2008-2013. As of 2014, NRO funding appears to have ceased.
• The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) received €1.2 million (2014-2017) from the NRO.
• Musawa received €817,063 (2013-2015) from the NRO. Additionally, Musawa is receiving €1.38 million (2015-2020) in core funding from NRO.

Funding via Representative Office in Ramallah

Indirect Funding

• Large-scale indirect funding for political advocacy NGOs is channeled through Dutch aid-organizations, most frequently Oxfam-Novib. Other aid-organizations include: Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), Kerk in Actie (KIA), PAX, and the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid (Cordaid). NGOs in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza have received over €13 million since 2012 through this form of indirect funding from the Dutch government.

Oxfam-Novib

• Oxfam-Novib received €162.5 million from the Dutch government (2015-2017). Oxfam-Novib is also head of the IMPACT alliance, which received €373.7 million from the Dutch government in 2011-2015. Oxfam-Novib’s projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza listed as “active” (as of January 2017) have combined budgets of over €8.8 million.
• Oxfam-Novib supports the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), 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 Medical Relief Society, Palestinian Working Women Society for Development, Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), The Coalition for Accountability and Integrity – AMAN, Union of Health Work Committees (UAWC), Women’s Affairs Center (WAC), Womens Centre for Legal Aid a Counselling (WCLAC), Women’s Studies Center, Yesh Din, as well as other “undisclosed” partners.

Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO)

• Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) received €19.6 million in 2016 from the Dutch government and provided over NIS 3 million to Israeli NGOs from 2012-2016. Following the loss of MSFII funding, ICCO’s funding to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza has decreased significantly. In 2016, ICCO provided NIS 43,168 to Who Profits, according to information submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.
• ICCO no longer lists Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza in the list of countries it operates in, or in its list of projects. According to its 2016 Annual Report, Amman, Jordan is the only country in the Middle East in which ICCO operates.
• In November 2010, NGO Monitor revealed that ICCO had transferred Dutch government funds to Electronic Intifada (EI) (known amount of €200,000 between 2006-2010). Dutch FM Uri Rosenthal told the Jerusalem Post, “I will look into the matter personally.”
  • In January 2011, Minister Rosenthal had a “frank and open discussion” with ICCO, noting that EI’s activities are “directly contrary to Dutch government policy.” The Minister dismissed ICCO claims that its funding of EI comes from private donations as “disingenuous.”
  • ICCO refused to change its policy and defended support for BDS and EI as “a peaceful and legal way to push for an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

Kerk in Actie

• Kerk in Actie (KIA) runs projects co-financed with the government, but does not detail which ones. KIA partners include Rabbis for Human Rights, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and Sabeel.

Cordaid

• From 2012-2015, Cordaid funded 23 projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, with a total budget of €4.7 million. The majority of the funding allocated by Cordaid was provided by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the MSFII program. The projects were all completed on or before December 31, 2015.
• Cordaid has funded Ma’an Development Center, Israel Social TV, Culture and Free Thought Association, Mada al-Carmel, Sadaka Reut, Baladna, and Kayan, among others.

PAX

• PAX (formerly IKV Pax Christi) received €9.9 million from the Dutch government in 2015-2016 through the MSFII funding program. PAX was chosen in “2015 as a strategical partner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” In 2016, PAX received €12.8 million from the Dutch government.
• Pax does not disclose funding to Israeli or Palestinian NGOs.

Indirect Funding