[Opinion] The Europeans Play a Double Game With Their Support for Terror-Connected NGOs
[Excerpts]
The Europeans are still playing a double game against Israel. Last week, nine European governments issued a joint statement on six Palestinian NGOs Israel designated as terrorist groups in 2021. The governments said they have seen “no substantial evidence” to support Israel’s allegations and will “continue to cooperate with and support” these groups.
According to Israel, these supposed human rights organizations are, in fact, an arm of the terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Senior officials in these NGOs were involved in the 2019 murder of Israeli teenager Rina Shnerb, as well as fundraising for the terrorist organization. Nonetheless, the foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have now made it clear that, from their perspective, there is nothing to prevent the NGOs in question from receiving European money.
Without getting into the question of what would constitute the “substantial evidence” they seek, European governments should have stopped funding these NGOs long before Israel’s 2021 terror designation. There was already considerable evidence beforehand that these organizations and their employees have ties to the PFLP. For example, PFLP conferences were attended by the directors of these NGOs, who also hired members of the terrorist organization—some of whom had already served time in Israeli prisons. Following Rina Shnerb’s murder, the Dutch government itself published an independent report pointing to ties between one of the organizations it funds and the PFLP. This alone should have prompted any reasonable government to examine how their money was being used.
