PAX (Netherlands)

Activities

• According to its website, “PAX is a partnership between IKV (Interchurch Peace Council) and Pax Christi. In 2006, the two organisations merged under the name IKV Pax Christi. As of 29 January 2014, the new name of the organisation is PAX.”
• PAX claims that it “supports the work of Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, facilitates regional dialogue, and improves the human security of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the C areas.”

Political Advocacy

• PAX accuses Israel of “stealthy ethnic cleansing” and claims that “The Israeli government does not want a resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians.”
• PAX, along with Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and Oxfam Novib (and Cordaid until January 2016), formed the organization United Civilians for Peace, which advocates for BDS campaigns against Israel and partners with highly politicized NGOs.
  • In April 2016, Amin Abu Rashed, reportedly a Hamas operative, participated in a workshop organized by UCP on “Gaza/Palestine.”
  • In a 2013 film about the Israeli elections, UCP interviewed individuals from radical NGOs, including Eitan Bronstein Aparicio of Zochrot, Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and Mohammed Zeitan of the Arab Association for Human Rights.
• According to PAX, “The opportunity to bring about a two-state solution is receding due to the continual expansion of settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The settler movement is very influential in Israeli politics.”
  • PAX carries out lobbying and “advocates in Brussels, in Israel and in the Netherlands for international pressure regarding this policy.”
• In May 2018, published “Fragmented Jerusalem,” a publication that claims “the decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem has already had a highly detrimental effect, sparking both renewed Palestinian violence and a resumption of initiatives to expel Palestinians from their homes on disputed land in Sheikh Jarrah.”
  • “Fragmented Jerusalem” relies exclusively on reports and interviews with political advocacy NGOs Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, and Terrestrial Jerusalem
• In June 2017, to commemorate 50 years since the Six Day War, PAX hosted a workshop for participants to “develop ideas in a co-creation process that can creatively and innovatively deal with the consequences” of the security barrier.

BDS Activities

• PAX supports a boycott of “products from settlements” and calls on citizens, the business community and investment companies in the Netherlands to cooperate with this international pressure by not buying products from Israeli settlements.
• In April 2013, IKV PAX co-wrote a report, “Dutch Economic Links with the Occupation,” which “explores trade and investment relationships between companies located in Israeli settlement or profiting from the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights on the one hand, and the Netherlands on the other hand.” The report notes that “extensive use was made of the online database ‘Who Profits,’” an Israeli NGO that initiates international BDS campaigns targeting Israeli and foreign banks, security companies, civil infrastructure facilities, and private companies. It supports BDS campaigns around the world in finding target companies.
• Was a signatory to the 2012 report “Trading Away Peace,” which repeats the BDS agenda and calls on EU and individual European governments to wage political warfare through various forms of economic sanctions against Israel.