Activity

• Founded as the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church of Ireland. Works in over 20 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
• Trócaire funds highly politicized and biased NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict including BADIL, Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Haq, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Haqel, Women’s Affairs Centre, Society of St. Yves, and Who Profits. (See below for available funding information of the Israeli NGOs based on information submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.)
  • Trocaire does not publish the amounts that it grants to these NGOs, reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability.

Funding

• In FY 2021-2022, total income was €73.1 million; total expenses were €63.9 million, of which €1.2 million was spent on the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
• Donors include Ireland, United Kingdom, European Union, Sweden, United States, Australia, Oxfam, Misereor, and the United Nations.

Funds received from governments and international institutions (amounts in €)

BDS Activities

• Trócaire states that it does “not call for a boycott of Israel, nor do we involve ourselves in issues within Israeli borders.” In reality, it is active in promoting BDS activities.
• In March 2023, Trocaire “welcome[d]” the “Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill” tabled in the Dáil Éireann that calls on the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to “divest itself of holdings in companies currently listed on a UN database of businesses operating within the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
• In September 2022, Trocaire was a signatory on a letter to the European Union to “review its decision to revive the Association Council Meeting, stop the recently signed gas deal and review its bilateral cooperation programmes.” According to the call, “Instead of allowing Israel to entrench its colonial enterprise and apartheid regime, rewarding it with further economic cooperation and trade of harmful military equipment and technologies, the EU and its Member States have an obligation, and interest, to hold Israel accountable and put an end to impunity.”
• In February 2022, Trocaire participated in a campaign titled “#StopTradeWithSettlements” calling “for an EU law that will end trade with illegal settlements once and for all.”
• In September 2021, Trocaire participated in a campaign titled “Don’t Buy into Occupation Coalition.” As part of the campaign, the coalition of NGOs published a report alleging to “investigate and expose the financial relationships between businesses involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and European Financial Institutions (FIs).” The report called for European governments to “prohibit the import of illegal settlement products and services from entering European markets, and ban trade with and economic support for illegal Israeli settlements.”
  • Other pro-BDS NGOs involved in the campaign include Al-Haq, Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), European Legal Support Center (ELSC), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), and The Rights Forum.
• In May 2021, Trocaire called for the government of Ireland to “become the first EU country to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements by enacting the Occupied Territories Bill.” Trocaire also called for the government to “Use its voice within the European Union to call for Brussels to support measures to review and downgrade its economic, cultural, military and diplomatic relationships with Israel until the occupation fully ends.”
• In 2018-2019, Trócaire lobbied intensively in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel. Trócaire has signed multiple letters to the UN calling for the database to be implemented without further delay. According to Trócaire, “the absence of accountability has enabled the Occupying Power, Israel, to engage in activity in violation of international law in the occupied territory with near total impunity. This has allowed many private actors, including businesses, to contribute to and benefit from, sometimes unwittingly, gross human rights violations.”
• In 2018-2019, Trocaire, alongside Christian Aid Ireland, supported the “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied territories)” bill that would make it illegal for Irish citizens and residents to import or sell “settlement goods” or to provide or attempt to provide “settlement services.”
  • In November 2019, on the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Trócaire hosted Senator Frances Black to discuss “how people can take action to help it become law.”
  • In May 2022, Trocaire called for the Irish government to “Enact the Occupied Territories Bill 2018 as soon as possible to ensure that goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements do not have access to Irish markets.”
• In November 2017, Trocaire was a signatory to a NGO statement (sponsored by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies) supporting the proposedUN database of settlement businesses stating, “The Database is a much-needed initiative which could facilitate states’ regulation of business conduct in the OPT, where hundreds of Israeli and foreign businesses participate in, contribute to, or profit from abuses and violations of human rights of Palestinians.”
• Opposing Irish government policy, Trócaire conducts a campaign to sanction Israel (and Europe) by suspending mutually beneficial trade agreements, and attempting to block Israel’s inclusion in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
• Sadaka, an Irish pro-Palestinian lobbying group, ran a campaignin advance of the February 2016 elections, lobbying candidates to sign a pledge demanding that “the Irish Government [] use all institutional mechanisms at its disposal… seek an EU ban on trade and investment with Israeli colonies/settlements…[and] to suspend military export licenses to Israel and suspend Department of Defence public procurement from Israeli arms companies.” According to a Call for Proposals from December 2015, “partnership funding” for pre-election lobbying was provided by Trócaire.
• In 2015, Trócaire lobbied in support of the EU’s settlement labelling guidelines and acknowledged that it viewed this policy as encouragement “to push further for an EU ban on trade and investment with Israeli settlements.”
• Published the report “Sustaining Injustice: EU trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories” (September 2012) and co-published “Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israel settlements” (October 2012), as part of an intensive lobbying effort for the EU to enact BDS policies against Israel.
• In 2007, Trócaire joined the Palestinian NGO BADIL in a “Call to Action,” which advocated anti-Israel boycotts and sanctions, and enlisted “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.”

Political Advocacy

• Trócaire’s educational material reflects a highly biased approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict and contains false information included casualty statistics. Joint reports with other political NGOs advance highly politicizedlegal claims; for instance, the blockade on Gaza is labeled “collective punishment,” and Israel is referred to as the “occupying power” in Gaza.
• Trocaire “supports the EAPPI programme, which to date has brought 1,800 ecumenical accompaniers to live in the West Bank and monitor human rights.”
  • Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) sends volunteers for political indoctrination, including 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 November 2022, Trocaire, alongside 17 other Irish NGOs, launched the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign, calling on Ireland to “publicly recognise that the State of Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, and to take concrete measures to end this crime against humanity.”
• In November 2022, Trocaire was a signatory on a letter to the ICC Prosecutor to “Urgently expedite his investigation into the Situation of Palestine, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” 
• In October 2021, Trocaire published a press release urging the Irish government to condemn the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs, including Trocaire’s partner Al-Haq, as terrorist organizations. According to the press release, “Trócaire is proud to have worked with our Palestinian partners over the years on protecting human rights and we stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.”
• In May 2021, Trocaire published an article referring to Gaza as an “open air prison.” The article further called for “perpetrators of war crimes must be held accountable…This means ensuring the International Criminal Court has full and unhindered access to investigate potential war crimes.”
• In March 2021, Trocaire was a signatory on a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council alleging that “Palestinians continue to experience an ongoing-Nakba – an ongoing reality of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid.” According to the statement, “By systematically designing and implementing policies of displacement and dispossession tailored to forcibly transfer Palestinians, replacing them with Israeli settlers, to maintain Israel’s settler-colonial enterprise and apartheid regime, Israel continues to violate Palestinian rights, including the Palestinian inalienable right to self-determination, and right of return; while continuing to enjoy an unlawful culture of impunity.”
• In November 2019, Trócaire CEO Caoimhe de Barra wrote an article on US policy towards Israeli settlements, stating “Two different peoples living in the same area, but with different privileges, rights and legal systems. It is hard not to think of this as anything other than apartheid.”
• In May 2018, Trócaire hosted a book launch for Breaking the Silence’s Kingdom Of Olives and Ash, an “anthology [that] explores the human cost of the conflict as witnessed by…notable writers…in collaboration with Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence.” The book is part of Breaking the Silence’s campaign to create international pressure on Israel. As documented by NGO Monitor, instead of addressing “Israeli society,” this NGO spends most of its resources on speaking tours abroad and foreign visitors to Israel.
  • Breaking the Silence makes sweeping accusations based on anecdotal, anonymous, and unverifiable accounts of often low-ranked soldiers. These “testimonies” lack context, are politically biased, and erase the complicated reality in the West Bank. In addition, they reflect a distorted interpretation of the conflict in order to advance the political agenda of Breaking the Silence activists, thereby fueling the international campaigns against Israel.
• In April 2018, during the violent confrontations and terror infiltration attempts on the Gaza border organized by Hamas, Trocaire released a statement saying “Soldiers fired live ammunition into a territory they do not govern, killing unarmed demonstrators who were posing no threat to them. The UN has called for an independent investigation into the killings. Trócaire fully supports that call.” The highly partisan statement ignored the violent nature of the protests, which have consisted of an organized armed attack on the Israeli border and IDF positions, attempts to destroy and breach the border fence, and sustained arson, rocket, and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian communities.
• In July 2017, Trócaire and producer John McColgan released “This Is Palestine,” a 50-minute documentary that claims to explore “the impact of ongoing conflict and military occupation on the people who live there.” The documentary promotes a one-sided Palestinian narrative and features interviews with officials from political NGOs such as Youth Against Settlements, Caritas, Breaking the Silence, and Rabbis for Human Rights.
• In June 2017, Trócaire launched a campaign – consisting of a video, petition, and public displays – marking “the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank, and the 10th anniversary of the blockade of Gaza.” The campaign consisted of false accusations and propaganda, and erased the need for security due to terrorism.
• In January 2016, Director of Trócaire’s International Division Séan Farrell wrote, “When all of the rhetoric is removed about security and legal processes, what is left is an illegal occupation and a systematic campaign of forced displacement, house demolition and land seizures. It is both illegal and immoral.”
• In September 2013, Trócaire co-sponsored the International Right of Return Conference that featured speakers from Zochrot, ICAHD, BADIL, and other advocates for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meaning the dismantling of Israel and of the end of the right of the Jewish people to sovereign equality.
• Trócaire hired two officials who had been involved with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) to deal directly with Palestinian issues. IPSC is a radical group that advocates for BDS, including a cultural boycott of Israeli academics and artists. Trócaire’s former Palestine program officer, Garry Walsh, was National Coordinator of the IPSC; Eoin Murray, Trócaire’s former Campaigns Coordinator, was National Coordinator for the IPSC and also worked for the Palestine Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.