Activity

• The British government provides millions of pounds annually, through direct and indirect funding processes, to highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate in the UK, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. However, reflecting a lack of transparency, a comprehensive list of local third-party implementing partners is not available.
• NGO grantees receive direct funding from the  Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the British National Security Council (NSC), and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), with funds disbursed by UK embassies, consulates, and representative offices.
• Indirect NGO funding comes from aid frameworks such as Christian Aid, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), and Oxfam GB, which all receive significant funding from the British government.

Direct UK Funding

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

• In September 2020, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID) merged to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
• According to FCDO’s Development Tracker website, the UK has allocated a total of approximately £15 million to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem for 2022-2023. Of this amount, approximately 50% is allocated to “Government and Civil Society.”
• FCDO is funding six active projects in the West Bank and Gaza, with a total budget of £448.1 million.
• Information on projects funded by the DFID is available in a projects database. However, local NGO recipients and third-party recipients of UK funds via international organizations do not appear on the website.

FCDO Projects in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank:

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

• According to a Freedom of Information request, in FY 2020/2021, FCDO granted £2 million to NRC for its Information, Counseling, and Legal Assistance (ICLA) project, which exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks. However, according to the UN Financial Tracking Service (FTS), in 2020, the UK government granted £14.9 million for the same project. 
• NRC supports politicized “Litigation of public interest cases …through Israeli courts and international mechanisms” in 2016. Previously, NRC funded over 4,000 cases and legal interventions in Israeli forums.
• NRC works with a narrow selection of political NGOs that promote a one-sided narrative of the conflict in implementing its legal aid and “public interest litigation” related programs. NRC has partnered with HaMoked, JLAC, Society of St. Yves, Terrestrial Jerusalem, Yesh Din, CAC, Bimkom, Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al Mezan, among others.

UK Direct Funding to Israeli NGOs

Information for 2021-2022 taken from quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits and information for 2020 taken from annual reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits. 

Indirect UK Funding

Christian Aid

• FY 2021-2022, Christian Aid received £7.2 million from FCDO. Reflecting a lack of transparency, Christian Aid does not specify how much of that funding was transferred to implementing partners on projects in Israel, Gaza, or the West Bank.
• Christian Aid does not reveal all of their partners, nor funding to the organizations. Current and former partner organizations include Zochrot, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Al-Haq, Sabeel, Adalah, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-I), Alternative Information Center (AIC), the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Women’s Affairs Centre, and the Culture and Free Thought Association.

Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)

• In 2021, CAFOD received £2.4 million from the United Kingdom. According to CAFOD, in that same period of time, CAFOD funded 13 projects totaling approximately £385,000 in the West Bank and Gaza.
• CAFOD has provided grants to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including: Breaking the Silence, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Culture and Free Thought Association, Wi’am, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), Yesh Din, and Islamic Relief Worldwide.

Oxfam GB

• In FY 2020-2021, Oxfam GB received £1.6 million from the United Kingdom.
• In FY 2020-2021, Oxfam GB granted £155,000 to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza for the “Reuse of treated wastewater for agriculture irrigation in southern part of Gaza strip” alongside the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).
  • PARC’s rhetoric includes accusations of “apartheid,” “collective punishment,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “war crimes.”
  • According to PARC’s “2014-2018 Strategic Plan,” one of PARC’s strategic goals is “Holding the occupation accountable towards Palestinian rights related to the agricultural sector and rural areas” by “Boycotting…Israelis’ settlement products” and “Supporting the cooperation and coordination with the boycott committees.”
• Oxfam GB draws an immoral symmetry between Israeli self-defense and illegal attacks by terror organizations, and fails to acknowledge Hamas’ exploitation of the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. Its statements refer to the blockade of Gaza as the key impediment to peace, failing to mention that the purpose of Israel’s blockade is to prevent the illegal flow of weapons to Hamas and other terror groups.
• In 2013-2017, Oxfam GB granted NIS 936,272 to Gisha, B’Tselem, Zochrot, Emek Shaveh, and Yesh Din.

Funding via the United Nations

• In 2020-2021, the UK government provided millions of dollars to various UN bodies, including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), and the World Food Program.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

• In 2021, the UK provided UNICEF with $2.7 million.
• 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”)

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)

• In 2018, the UK provided UNMAS $131,505 for a project titled “Mitigation of Threat Posed by the Presence of ERWs in Gaza directly implemented by UNMAS.” Palestinian NGO Ma’an Development Center is listed as an implementing partner on the project.
  • In May 2018, Ma’an Development Center employee Ahmad Abdallah Aladini was killed in the violence on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “comrade” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to the PFLP, Aladini was active against the “Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

Funding to the World Food Programme

• According to the UN-OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), in 2020 the UK provided $3.2 million to the World Food Programme. According to UN-OCHA’s FTS, these projects are part of the WFP’s Food Security Sector programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
• According to documents published by the Food Security Sector, the Sector distributes funds and partners with UAWC, Ma’an Development Center, and Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).

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