The European Union (EU) provides substantial funding to highly politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict through various funding mechanisms. Due to the highly complex and poorly coordinated nature of EU aid and to the lack of a consolidated database differentiating between NGOs and other types of organizations, it is impossible to determine the exact amount or proportions of EU funding to civil society organizations.
This analysis will present the details of funding to 39 Palestinian NGOs, including the identities of the donors (government or private), the grant’s time frame, and the source of the data.
Founded in 1997 by Jeff Halper, a former Professor at Ben-Gurion University, the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), describes itself as a "non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories". The scope its advocacy and lobbying extends much further, however. As documented in previous NGO Monitor reports, ICAHD uses its funding (including 472,000 from the EU in 2005) to campaign against the two-state solution, promote boycotts and divestment, uses terms such as "apartheid", and grossly distort the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, ICAHD often recites statistics on the numbers of Palestinian homes demolished in the West Bank without sources making independent verification of ICAHDs allegations impossible. ICAHDs claims that Israeli planning and development policies are founded in racism are opinions based on ideology, and of no validity beyond this.
Palestine Legal is highly active in BDS campaigns, particularly on college and university campuses throughout the United States.
Misereor is the official aid framework of the Catholic Church in Germany - since 1962, the German government is obligated under German law to provide financial support for the development work of church-aid organizations.
Oxfam Novib is the Dutch affiliate of Oxfam international, an “international confederation of 17 organizations networked together in 92 countries.” Within the Oxfam umbrella, Oxfam Novib plays a leading role on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including demonization and other anti-Israel campaigns.
IfNotNow was founded during the 2014 Gaza War by young Jews “angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” as a way to “demonstrate their resistance through the beauty of Jewish ritual.”
The German federal government provides millions of euros to political advocacy NGOs in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, through a variety of frameworks, including German federal funding programs of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German Federal Foreign Office, government-funded church aid, and independent development NGOs.
OSF is an organization funded by George Soros that provides funding to civil society groups around the world. Funding information is not transparent.
In April 2020, Professor Gerald M. Steinberg and Olga Deutsch responded to an article by the German Ambassador to Israel Susanne Wasum-Rainer regarding NGOs funded by Germany.