Activity

• The Swedish government funds numerous Israeli, Palestinian, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Embassy in Tel Aviv, and indirectly by outsourcing to Swedish church groups and aid organizations such as Diakonia.
• In 2023, Sweden provided approximately $25.3 million to NGOs involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many of these NGOs and church aid organizations are involved in anti-peace activities such as incitement, BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), and legal attacks (“lawfare”) against Israel. Some of these groups also have reported ties to terrorist organizations.
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, the Swedish government suspended all funding for Palestinians pending a review of the aid. In December 2023,  Sida published the results of an initial review proclaiming that “Sida does not find any links to Hamas in Swedish aid in Palestine,” and that no NGO grantees were involved in incitement to hatred and violence after the 7 October 2023 events. (Read NGO Monitor’s report, “Sweden’s NGO Whitewash: NGO Monitor’s Analysis of Sida’s Palestinian Funding Review.”)
• In February 2023, Sweden published a supplemental review whitewashing Swedish-funded Palestinian NGOs that justified and celebrated the October 7th attacks, denied Hamas’ atrocities, and continued to advance antisemitism. The supplemental report claimed that it “screened all direct contracting parties and all cooperation partners that receive support… and found that no organization is found on the EU’s sanctions list .” This inaccurate conclusion was achieved by creating an artificially narrow scope allowing it to exclude the most problematic Palestinian NGOs funded by Sweden – BADIL, Al-Haq, Defense for Children Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis, “Selective Oversight: Sweden’s NGO Review Found No Terror Support Because They Didn’t Look.”)
• In August 2018, OmVärlden, an online magazine owned by Sida, published 20 articles making numerous false accusations about NGO Monitor. The articles consisted almost entirely of innuendo, factual inaccuracies, and antisemitic motifs reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (spider web, conspiracy theories).
  • In December 2023, OmVärlden announced an indefinite “pause to its operations.” 
• Sida paid $66,490 in 2014-2016 for an evaluation, “Research to better promote human rights in Israel/Palestine.” The evaluation was written by Jessica Montell, a member of the Secretariat’s Reference Group and, at the time former executive director of a Sida-funded NGO (B’Tselem). The Swedish government failed to respond to NGO Monitor’s concerns about conflicts of interest in this evaluation.

Direct Funding

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Funding to Palestinian NGOs

• Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
  • In 2021-2024, Sida has committed SEK 45.2 million to PMRS.
  • PMRS rhetoric includes accusations of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” “collective punishment,” and “war crimes.”
  • PMRS is a signatory to a multiple BDS initiatives and has organized BDS conferences.
  • PMRS runs “Palestine Monitor,” an “independent news website” that has featured virulently antisemitic cartoons that trivialize the Holocaust; depict of a pile of emaciated dead bodies in striped uniforms under the caption “Gaza”; featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stamping Palestinian babies with the word “terrorist,” as they are transported on a conveyer belt into a smoking oven; and of an elderly Palestinian woman with a blood-dripping “1948” tattooed on her arm, invoking the numbers that were tattooed on the arms of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.
• Health Work Committees
  • In 2017-2019, HWC received $3.6 million from Sida.
  • HWC is the West Bank and Jerusalem spinoff of Union of Health Workers Committees (UHWC), a Gaza-based NGO identified by Fatah as a PFLP “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged audit as “the PFLP’s health organization.” The PFLP is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
  • HWC’s Youth Development Program, “A community, cultural, and social development program that provide services to Jerusalemite youth through ‘Nidal Center,’” served as “a place of action of the [PFLP] organization.” As a result of these ties to the PFLP, the Center was closed by Israeli authorities from 2009 to 2012. In 2015, Israeli authorities closed an HWC center in Shufat for one year. The decision states that the decision was made to raid and close the center “[u]nder the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1948 and after the conviction that this place is used in terrorist activities.”
  • In October 2019, Waleed Hanatsheh, HWC’s finance and administration manager, was arrested as part of a terror cell that carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother.
• Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR)
  • In 2023-2025, Sida is committing SEK 15 million to the Independent Commission for Human Rights.
  • ICHR was established by former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. While purporting to be an National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) that monitors PA compliance with human rights standards, ICHR also serves as a vehicle to produce and promote PLO political propaganda.
  • ICHR regularly collaborates with and has demonstrated its support for EU, US, Canada and Israel-designated terror groups, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
• Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP)
  • In 2022-2024, GCMHP is receiving $2.7 million from Sida.
  • GCMHP uses unsubstantiated medical claims as an avenue to criticize the Israeli government, including allegations that the Jewish state engages in “collective punishment,” “massacres,” and “war crimes.”

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Funding to International NGOs

• Islamic Relief Sweden
  • In 2021-2026, Islamic Relief Sweden is receiving $2.2 million from Sida for projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
    • Islamic Relief Sweden also received $3 million in Sida funding indirectly through Forum Syd (see below).
  • Islamic Relief Sweden is part of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) and was founded by The Islamic Association in Sweden.
  • On June 19, 2014, Israel’s Defense Minister declared IRW to be illegal, based on its alleged role in funneling money to Hamas, and banned it from operating in Israel and the West Bank. Hamas is a designated terror organization by Israel, the US, EU, and Canada. According to media reports, the decision was made after “the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the coordinator for government activities in the territories, and legal authorities provided incriminating information against IRW.”
  • In November 2014, the United Arab Emirates banned IRW as a terror organization.
  • In January 2016, HSBC Banking group in the UK severed ties with IRW over terror funding fears.
• Save the Children
  • The Swedish government committed $3.8 million to Save the Children for a (2017-2022) West Bank and Gaza project.
  • On May 18, 2018, the Swedish government, together with Save the Children and Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR), sponsored a workshop at the Dar al Huda kindergarten, “Training of Teachers on Positive Discipline in Everyday Teaching.”
    • The Dur al Huda kindergarten has a history of anti-Israel activity, On May 26, 2018, the Dar al Huda kindergarten in Gaza held a graduation ceremony that included the mock killing and kidnapping of Israelis by children dressed as combatants. The simulation included sophisticated equipment such as drones, body cameras, military fatigues, body armor, and sniper camouflage. Children wore headbands representing Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and others.
    • According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Dar al Huda held similarly exploitative military-style events in 2017 and 2016.
  • Save the Children works with local NGO partners. For example, it funds a project called “Child’s rights and Child Protection in OPT” with a budget of SEK 33.6 million for 2017-2021. Implementing partners and organizations are unclear. However, a similarly named 2015 project (SEK 6 million) lists implementing organizations as: Al Mezan, Al Dameer, PYALARA, Independent Commission for Human Rights, and Sawa; partners are Defence for Children International – Palestine, Al Mezan, Juzoor Foundation for Health & Social Development, Aisha, Palestinian Counselling Center, and Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution.
• Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)
  • In 2021-2024, SIDA is providing $1.8 million to the 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 inflammatory anti-Israel, and at times antisemetic, rhetoric and advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
  • Sweden sends about 20 participants on the EAPPI program annually. Upon returning to Sweden, many EAPPI activists use their experience in the West Bank to promote anti-Israel campaigns, including BDS.
• Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  • In 2020-2023, NRC is receiving SEK 39 million for the “West Bank Protection Consortium.”
  • One of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, “Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA),” exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks.
  • Included in ICLA’s program goals is “supporting the PA both locally and nationally on casework” and works with “other NRC core competences, West Bank Protection Consortium partners, and UN OCHA, as well as with local authorities and village councils.”
  • As part of the ICLA program, NRC provides “legal assistance, including paralegal services, accompaniment, follow up or court representation in order to ensure the best possible individual legal protection outcomes” in “collaboration, coordination and partnership both internally within NRC and externally with NGO sector… and with the PA with a view to address some of the barriers to participation of the hard to reach population in ICLA response.”
  • A lawyer affiliated with the NRC program stated that the objective of these cases are an attempt to “try every possible legal measure to disrupt the Israeli judicial system… as many cases as possible are registered and that as many cases as possible are appealed to increase the workload of the courts and the Supreme Court to such an extent that there will be a blockage” (emphasis added).
  • According to its 2023 ICLA project response plan, “In 2023, NRC Information, Counselling and Legal aid team (ICLA) will target 17,583 Palestinians identified as affected by conflict-related violations and protection risks such as conflict-related violence, risk of forcible transfer, restrictions on freedom of movement and access to services, including livelihoods and settler violence.”
• European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
  • In 2023-2024, ECFR is receiving $494,672 from Sida.
  • ECFR has been one of the leading BDS advocates in Europe under the guise of a so-called “differentiation” policy. Under differentiation, ECFR lobbies the EU and European governments to adopt policies that promote silent boycott and divestment of any business activities supposedly related to Israeli “settlements built on occupied territory” on the false basis that such activities violate international law and the “domestic legal order.”
  • In December 2019, the Jerusalem Post published an article exposing that while ECFR accepts donations from donors who do business in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and Northern Cyprus, it pushes for the EU and European governments to adopt policies that promote silent boycott and divestment of any business activities supposedly related to Israeli “settlements built on occupied territory.” This reflects ECFR’s non-objective standards which single out Israel while ignoring comparable conflict situations.

Sida Funding to NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Funding through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• In 2022, the Swedish MFA granted NIS 254,454 to Yesh Din.
  • Yesh Din regularly petitions the Israeli High Court of Justice and engages in advocacy, including briefings to foreign diplomats, to alter what it labels as “discriminatory” policies.
  • Yesh Din is central to the allegations that Israeli investigative and court systems are unable or unwilling to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and is part of a wider “lawfare” strategy of pressing “war crimes” cases against Israeli officials in foreign courts and in the International Criminal Court (ICC). These campaigns use faulty information and skewed statistics to promote their political claims.
• In 2022, the Swedish MFA granted NIS 360,306 to Ir Amim.
  • Although Ir Amim has been described as “work[ing] toward coexistence in Jerusalem,” an Ir Amim official was quoted as saying that the group was “seeking to advance a political agenda, and was not an organization geared to promote coexistence.”
  • Ir Amim frequently accuses Israel of attempting to “Judaize” Jerusalem and promotes the Palestinian narrative on the city, including claims that “government powers are being handed over to the settler organizations” and archeological digs have become an important “tool in the fight for control” over Jerusalem.
• In 2022, the Swedish MFA granted NIS 299,340 to Terrestrial Jerusalem.
  • Promotes a one-sided approach to the conflict, placing sole blame for the failure of the peace process on Israel. The complexities of the situation in Jerusalem are erased, including illegal building and crime in Palestinian neighborhoods, damage to the Temple Mount as a result of illegal digging by the Waqf, and incitement to violence against Jews by extremist clerics.

MFA Funding to NGOs

Indirect Funding

• NGO Development Center (NDC)
  • In 2023-2027, Sida is committing SEK 120 million to NDC’s Human Rights Programme. According to the NDC, its Human Rights Fund Programme is guided primarily by Sweden’s development Cooperation Strategy for Palestine and “provide[s] core support to organisations that can demonstrate having the competence and capacity to contribute to real and sustainable change towards achieving the overall objective of the programme.”
  • The NGOs receiving Swedish funding through the NDC are Al Mezan Al-Haq, Badil, Defence for Children – Palestine (DCI-P), Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Gisha, and Yesh Din.
  • NDC “facilitated” and funded the “Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct,” which demands that Palestinian groups reject “any normalization activities with the occupier, neither at the political-security nor the cultural or developmental levels.”
• Diakonia
  • According to Sida’s CSO Database, Diakonia is receiving $2.7 million (2021-2026) for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • Diakonia frequently exploits international legal rhetoric to demonize Israel. Its “International Humanitarian Law” (IHL) program promotes anti-Israel lawfare campaigns and a narrative based on Palestinian victimization.
    • For years, Diakonia did not conduct similar types of programs in terms of content or resources in any other conflict region in the world.
  • Diakonia promotes BDS, demanding that the international community “seriously consider restrictive and other measures against in Israel” by “exerting diplomatic pressure, taking lawful countermeasures and refusing arms transfers.”
  • In addition to its own activities, Diakonia funds some of the most highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict including:  Alternative Information Center (AIC), Sabeel, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, BADIL,  Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), and Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS). Several of these NGOs are linked to the PFLP and/or promote extreme antisemitic content, advocate for BDS, and reject a two-state framework. (See table below for further funding information.)
    • In 2016-2019, Diakonia provided SEK 1.6 million the Palestinian NGO Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC). In May 2017, WATC inaugurated a youth center in the village of Burqa named after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who in 1978 murdered 37 civilians, including 12 children. Diakonia defended WATC’s participation in naming the center, claiming that “WATC has requested that its logo be removed from the center.” Despite this claim, WATC was present at the center’s inauguration and posted photos of the inauguration.
• Kvinna Till Kvinna (KTK)
  • Kvinna Till Kvinna received $2.5 million (2019-2023) from Sida for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • KtK funds numerous NGOs that support BDS initiatives through participation in activities and events, signing of petitions and initiatives, and/or membership in BDS platforms. NGOs include Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD), The Palestinian Working Women Society for Development (PWWSD), Women’s Affairs Center, Women’s Studies Center, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).
  • KTK funds the Gun Free Kitchen Tables project of the Isha L’Isha Feminist Center. According to GFKT, the project “works to stem and reverse small arms proliferation, to advance gun control across the board…” in Israel.
    • GFKT English page also reveals the group’s overt political orientation, explaining that “we also subvert basic principles of the endemic, masculinized militarization dominating government policies in Israel and underpinning the continued occupation of territories conquered in 1967.”
    • In November 2018, GFKT petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice against new criteria for obtaining a civilian and organizational firearms licenses. The petition ignores that the criteria were eased in 2016 for defensive purposes following a sharp increase in violent stabbing attacks targeting Israeli citizens.
  • A 2013¹ Sida evaluation of KtK states, “KtK is vocal in its denouncing of so called Normalisation of the relationship between Israel and the occupied Palestinians and support Women’s organisations with a clear Anti-occupation profile such as women (and their families) bereaved through martyrdom or jailing due to opposition to the occupation forces.”
• Oxfam
  • In 2021-2026, Oxfam is receiving $538,000 from Sweden for projects in Gaza and the West Bank.
  • Oxfam consistently paints a highly misleading picture of the Arab-Israeli conflict, departing from its humanitarian mission focused on poverty. Most Oxfam statements erase all complexity and blame Israel exclusively for the situation, and these distortions and their impacts contribute significantly to the conflict.
  • In March 2020, following criticism, Oxfam apologized for raising funds by selling copies of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabricated text that proclaimed an international Jewish conspiracy bent on world domination and accuses the Jews of controlling government, the economy, media and public institutions
• ForumCiv
  • ForumCiv (formerly Forum Syd) is receiving $142,000 (2023-2029) from Sida.
  • In 2017-2018, Forum Syd granted SEK 1.2 million to Palestine Solidarity (Palestinagrupperna i Sverige – PGS).
    • The project aims to lobby the Swedish government and “increase knowledge about Sweden’s official positions on the Palestine-Israel conflict, as well as Sweden’s support for Palestine in the form of development aid.”
    • PGS provides funding to Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) and Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), ActiveStills and Worker’s Action Centre-Maan.
• We Effect (formerly Swedish Cooperative Centre)
  • We Effect is receiving $6 million (2020-2025) from Sida for Climate Justice Program Palestine.
  • We Effect partners with Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), for its joint program aimed “at ‘Improving Good Governance Practices among Palestinian Cooperatives and Community Based Organization (CBOs).’”
• The Olof Palme International Center
  • The Olof Palme International Center is receiving $4.1 million (2020-2025) from Sida for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • The Olof Palme Center partners with PYALARA – The Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation among others. It does not reveal funding to these organizations.

Indirect Swedish Funding to NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Funding via the United Nations

UN-OCHA oPt Humanitarian Fund

• In 2023, Sweden granted $3.5 million to the UN-OCHA occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.
• Several PFLP-linked NGOs, including UAWC, UHWC, and PCHR are regular recipients of disbursements from the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.”

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the occupied Palestinian territory

• In 2017-2020, Sweden budgeted $11.4 million to OHCHR for projects in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. Sweden does not reveal what are these projects.
• In February 2020, OHCHR published a discriminatory blacklist of entities allegedly conducting activities in areas over the 1949 Armistice line. The database aimed at economically damaging companies that are owned by Jews or do business with Israel, and is ultimately meant to harm the Jewish state.

UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA)

• Sweden provided $34,978 in 2021 to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FOA).
• According to FOA, implementing partners include the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).
  • The Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC) is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged audit as 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 of terror-related offenses including murder and is currently standing trial. According to the indictment, he 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.

UNICEF

• In 2022-2027, Sweden is providing UNICEF with $692,000 “humanitarian response.”
• UNICEF spearheads a campaign to have Israel included on a UN blacklist of “grave” violators of children’s rights. The list appears as an annex to the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). This political agenda is a primary facet of UNICEF’s activities relating to Israel, completely inconsistent with its mandate of “child protection” and from its guidelines for neutrality and impartiality. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group: Failing Children.”)

UN Women

• In 2021-2022, Sweden granted $1.2 million to UN Women to “to strengthen the opportunities for women in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.”
• According to UN Women, members of its “Civil Society Advisory Group” include representatives from numerous NGOs involved in delegitimization and/or BDS campaigns against Israel, including Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), Al-Haq, PYALARA, and Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA). It is unknown if the Swedish grant is being carried out with any of these or other organizations.

Swedish Funding to the UN