Yesterday, July 12, the European Parliament passed a resolution with concrete recommendations to the EC executive bodies on policies towards the Palestinian Authority. Despite noteworthy efforts by several Members of the European Parliament to achieve a more balanced document, the final resolution defames and demonizes Israel.

NGO Monitor notes with regret that, as we have documented systematically, many of these policy recommendations reflect the advocacy and lobbying efforts of Palestinian political NGOs, including many EU-funded organizations.

This resolution, inter alia, demands that Israel revoke the 2021 designation of six European-government-funded Palestinian NGOs as terrorist entities due to their ties to the EU-designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It completely ignores the involvement of the senior officials of these NGOs in the terror attack which killed the 17 year old Rina Shnerb in 2019.

The resolution further calls for the EU to proactively promote the campaign lobbying the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel.

The MEPs who led this process consulted with NGOs, many of whom promote antisemitic rhetoric, incite to violence, and/or and designated by Israel as terror fronts, such as Al-Haq – which denies Israel’s right to exist, exploits the “apartheid” label, and campaigns for advancing the ICC investigation.

The NGO involvement is reflected in the letter sent by Al-Haq and 16 other Palestinian NGOs to the MEP drafters of the resolution, in which they call for the “assertion of Palestinians’ sovereignty to all of Jerusalem”, and call for the EU and member states to impose economic sanctions and cut cultural ties with Israel.

The resolution contradicts existing EU policy which clearly directs the EC to prevent “funding from being directly or indirectly diverted to terrorist organizations” and states that “EU external funds may not be misallocated to activities that incite hatred and violence.” An amendment to this EP resolution reinforces this directive by calling on “the relevant EU authorities” to prevent “funding from being directly or indirectly diverted to terrorist organizations; recall that, in line with the EU strategy on combating antisemitism, EU external funds may not be misallocated to activities that incite hatred and violence.”

For years, NGO Monitor has identified the influence exerted by these political NGOs on EU EU policy. We call on the EU to implement robust vetting measures to ensure that funds are not provided to organizations that are affiliated with terror groups or that promote violence and antisemitism – including by denying Israel’s right to exist.