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.
• NGO grantees receive direct funding from the Department for International Development (DFID), 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, Oxfam-GB, and the British Council, which all receive significant funding from the British government.

Direct UK Funding

The Department for International Development (DFID)

Screenshot; https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/location/country July 10, 2018

• The Department for International Development partners with and provides funds to politically active international NGOs including Norwegian Refugee Council and Ma’an News Agency (MNA) / Ma’an Network.
• DFID is funding seven active projects in the West Bank and Gaza for 2018-2019, with a total budget of £60 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.
• In July 2018, DFID released an updated profile for its work in the West Bank and Gaza, indicating that the planned budget for 2019-2020 would be £56 million.
• On July 27, 2018, DFID announced that the UK intends to “double support for Palestinian economy to advance peace with Israel.” The project will provide up to £38 million over five years (2018-2023) to support economic activity in Gaza and the West Bank by “creat[ing] hundreds of jobs, install vital water and electricity infrastructure, and boost exports.”
• On June 10, 2017, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department of International Development Alistair Burt announced the allocation of £3 million over three years (2017-2020) to fund a co-existence or “people-to-people” programs. According to DFID, the project, called “Partnerships for Peace,” is implemented by an NGO, Search for Common Ground (SFCG).

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

Other DFID Projects

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

• In 2017, DFID granted $4,000,000 to NRC’s Information, Counseling, and Legal Assistance (ICLA) project, which exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks.
• NRC supports politicized “Litigation of public interest cases …through Israeli courts and international mechanisms.” In 2009-2014, NRC funded over 4,000 cases and legal interventions in Israeli forums.
• A lawyer affiliated with the NRC program stated that the objective of these cases is 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)
• 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. In 2016 and 2017, NRC 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.
  • Local NGO recipients and third-party recipients of UK funds via the NRC do not appear on the UK government transparency website.
• Through its Standby Roster for Civilian Observers (NORCAP), NRC “contributes” to Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH).

Ma’an News Agency (MNA) / Ma’an Network

• Ma’an Network received £730,000 (2015-2017) from the United Kingdom as part of a “multimedia project to raise awareness of, and seek to prevent, violence against women and girls.”
• Ma’an acts as a platform for tendentious anti-Israel statements, regularly presenting an entirely biased and distorted view of the conflict based on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and sole Israeli aggression, while also publicizing material from radical NGOs.
• On August 1, 2017, Ma’an published an article and a video titled “Song in Hebrew in Defense of Al Aqsa Mosque,” which featured footage of terrorist attacks against Israelis, accompanied by a song in Hebrew with the lyrics “I will clean my country of every Jew / I will strive for it with all my being” (NGO Monitor translation). The article reported that it “promises to clean Palestine of Jews, and protests against Israeli security measures,” with Ma’an adding commentary that “Israel deteriorated the situation in Al Aqsa mosque when it installed metal detectors in the entrance to Al Aqsa compound” (NGO Monitor translation).
  • Ma’an subsequently published an article claiming that “Ma’an did not produce the video, but had only written about its existence,” and accusing “Israel supporters” of “showing the video out of context and claiming that it was created and condoned by Ma’an.”
  • Ma’an additionally stated that “Both the article and the video have since been removed from Ma’an online platforms.”
• In correspondence with NGO Monitor, Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt confirmed that DFID was ending its projects with Ma’an.

Indirect DFID Funding via Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD):

• Ecumenical Accompaniment 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.
  • According to the UK Jewish Board of Deputies, EAPPI “helped to create a climate of hostility towards Israel within the Church of England.” Furthermore, “The EAPPI narrative is based on the experience of volunteers who spend several months living alongside Palestinians in the Territories, but less than a day in Israel, and then return to address audiences who know little or nothing about the reality of everyday life for those on both sides of the conflict.”

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

• In 2016, due to reports that UK foreign funds to the PA were being used to pay salaries of convicted terrorists, the FCO mandated that Palestinian aid be directed through the European Union’s PEGASE mechanism (Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism).
• Despite assurances of vetting and verification procedures, FCO does not give details of third party NGO recipients and funding amounts.

FCO projects in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank

Direct Funding to Israeli NGOs

Information for 2015-2018 taken from quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.

Indirect UK Funding

Christian Aid

• In 2016/2017, Christian Aid received £42.1 million from governments and institutions, the majority of which came from DFID (£20 million); other major contributions came from Irish Aid £4.5 million and the European Commission £1 million.
  • According to Christian Aid, none of its DFID funding was earmarked for Israel of the OPT.
• According to its annual report (2016/2017) Christian Aid provided £938,000 in grants to partners in “Israel/the occupied Palestinian territories.”
• 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 in Gaza, Culture and Free Thought Association, and Israeli Coalition Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).
• In May 2016, released a video titled “Christian Aid’s work in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.” The video presents misleading and false information about the security barrier and water usage in the West Bank, and adopts a Palestinian narrative of the conflict.
• On October 30, 2012, 22 NGOs, including Christian Aid, released a report, “Trading Away Peace: How Europe Helps Sustain Illegal Israeli Settlements.” The report repeats the BDS agenda, calling on the EU and national governments to wage political warfare through various forms of economic sanctions on Israel.

Oxfam GB

• In 2014-2017, Oxfam GB received £138.8 million from the UK government. In FY 16-17, Oxfam GB received £8.4 million from DFID.
• 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.

British Council

• The British Council does not list NGO grantees or funding amounts in its financial documents. NGO Monitor research reveals that the British Council has provided grants to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including:
  • Ma’an Development Center
    • 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.”
      • On his Facebook page, Aladini posted PFLP propaganda, including images that glorify violence and terrorists. On May 7, 2018, Aladini posted a PFLP memorial notice for the death of six members of Hamas who were killed during the “crimes of the Zionist enemy.”
  • Women’s Studies Center
    • On February 4, 2016, General Director of WSC Sama Awiedah signed a statement declaring support for “Palestinian feminists living under Israel’s system of colonial and racist oppression.”
    • On March 8, 2016, WSC was a signatory on the “Palestinian Women’s Call for Worldwide Women’s Endorsement of BDS,” which called on women and feminists to join BDS campaigns as “the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid has for decades denied the Palestinian people our inalienable right to self-determination.”