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 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, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), and Oxfam GB, 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, February 17, 2020

• According to the DFID’s Development Tracker website, the UK has allocated a total of approximately £100 million to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem for 2019-2020. Of this amount, approximately 70% is allocated to “Government and Civil Society.”
• DFID is funding six active projects in the West Bank and Gaza for 2019-2020, with a total budget of £102 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.

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

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

• Despite assurances of vetting and verification procedures, FCO does not give details of third party NGO recipients and funding amounts.
• 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).

FCO projects in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

• In 2017 and 2018, DFID and FCO provided $4,000,000 and $2,713,535 respectively 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 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 2017-2019 taken from quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.

Indirect UK Funding

Christian Aid

• In 2018-2019, Christian Aid received approximately £10 million from DFID. 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 FY 2018/19, DFID provided CAFOD £4.3 million. According to CAFOD, in that same period of time, 16 projects totaling approximately £511,000 were funded 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.

Funding via the United Nations

• From 2017-2019, the UK government provided millions of dollars to various UN bodies including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the World Health Organization.
  • In 2017, the UK provided UNICEF $20,652 for a project titled “Preventing and mitigating conflict-related violence in the West Bank including East Jerusalem,” which was implemented by Palestinian NGO Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P).
    • Numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel, have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P.
    • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared DCI-P a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
    • For more information on DCI-P’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • 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.”

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.

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