Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)
January 02, 2017 (updated on September 17, 2017)
Profile
Country/Territory | France |
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Website | https://www.premiere-urgence.org |
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Founded | 2011, after the merging of two French NGOs- Aide Médicale Internationale and Première Urgence. |
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In their own words | A non-governmental organization which promotes international solidarity. It is a non-profit organization with no political or religious affiliation. |
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Funding
- In 2016, total public funding was €69 million; total programing expenses were €70 million, of which €28 million went to programs in the Middle East, and about €2 million to the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
- 2016 donors include the European Union (€22 million), the United Nations (€20 million), United States (€14 million), and France (€5 million).
- In 2016, PUI’s programs in the Palestinian Territories were funded by different agencies of France, the European Union (European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection [ECHO], EuropeAid), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Muslim Care, The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), and NRC Consortium.
Activities
- According to its website, Première Urgence Internationale’s (PIU) mission is to “defend basic human rights, such as those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and to provide aid to populations affected by natural disasters, economic crises and conflicts.”
- PUI includes “neutrality and impartiality” is principles of its mission. Contrary to this claim, PUI engages in several politically oriented activities in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Although PUI works in major crisis areas including Syria and Lebanon, it only accuses Israel of “violations of humanitarian law.”
- Patricia Grillo, PUI’s advocacy and communications coordinator, has accused Israel of “war crimes” and “forced displacement of the Palestinian population.”
- PUI has published several studies, which it states are to bring “to light recurring violations of international humanitarian law.”
- In May 2016, published a report with Médecins de Monde (MDM) titled “Violence des colons: Un bras armé de l’expansion des colonies dans le territoire palestinien occupé” (“Settler Violence: Armed Wing of the Settlements Expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”). The report cites Israeli politicized NGO Yesh Din as a source regarding the “annexation policy of the Israeli government (p23).” The report claims that there is a “troubling correlation between official plans of colonial expansion and violence against the villagers.”
- In clear contradiction to their guiding principles of neutrality and impartiality, PUI’s October 2013 paper “Tensions autour des colonies” (“Tensions around the Settlements”) relies solely on Palestinian sources, as well as UN-OCHA and Yesh Din. The paper claims that “many single women and men prefer to remain unemployed and stay at home because of their fear that their homes will be attacked by settlers if they go to work.” The paper accuses Israeli settlers of using chemical products in order to damage olive trees. The report goes on to recommend that the EU and French governments impose sanctions against “violent settlers” such as denying visas and installing systems to track settler violence.
- In 2015, PUI ran a project under which it established a “warning system” to alert Palestinians of “violent settlers.”
International Advocacy
Partners
- PUI is an observer member of La Plateforme des ONG Françaises pour la Palestine, a network-based organization made up of 40 French NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and is a member of the the West Bank Protection Consortium.
- PUI has over 50 institutional and private partners, including: The European Commission for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), the Directorate-General for the European Commission for International Cooperation and Development (EuropAid), The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the French Consulate General in Jerusalem, and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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