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[Excerpt:]

In a separate part of Dassù’s remarks, she responded to a report dealing with the public delegitimization of Israel. According to a report on the Italian public delegitimization of the State of Israel, which was cited at the foreign affairs meeting, Giovanni Matteo, the study’s author, noted that the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the “consolidation of the Palestinian University system” with a grant amounting to 986,000¤, allocated to academic institutions like An- Najah University, a place of activity and recruitment of terror groups, which held exhibitions glorifying suicide terrorism.“

Dassù flatly denied that the Italian government is funding anti-Israel NGOs, saying Italy “has always expressed firm condemnation of any kind of incitement to the hatred for Israel or stances denying the right of Israel to exist, by questioning its legitimacy.”

Dassù added Italy provides no “direct funding to academic institutions like An-Najah University.”

In an email to the Post, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, wrote. “Italy, like the EU and other European governments, provides millions of Euros to NGOs that promote political warfare and hatred of Israel under the facade of peace, democracy, human rights and humanitarian aid.

This recipients of these taxpayer funds are often chosen through secret processes and rarely discussed in parliaments or in the media, and the same true is for evaluations of NGO funding.”

Steinberg continued, “The report ‘How Much Does It Cost to Delegitimize Israel?,’ published by the Federazione Associazioni Italia Israele, details Italian government and regional funding for such activities, and the question posed by Deputy Nirenstein is pathbreaking and an example for every European government involved in such activities.”