Professor Gerald Steinberg discusses how massive external funding for a very narrow group of unaccountable NGOs is in fact corrupting the democratic principles in whose name they claim to speak.
According to the US Department of Justice, NPA provided “material support” to Iran, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – designated terrorist organizations under US law. As a result of these partnerships, in March 2018, NPA settled a civil-fraud suit, paying a $2 million settlement to the US.
In March 2018, the NGO umbrella group known as Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist) published a Policy Note urging the UN Secretary General to add Israel, Myanmar, and others to a list of “grave violators” of children’s rights. Terror groups, including Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are not mentioned in Watchlist’s publication.
This report provides background on the situation of women and women’s groups within Palestinian society. The report analyses the highly restrictive and coercive civil space and provides an overview of Palestinian female role models, the vast majority of whom are celebrated for their participation in violent “resistance.” The report also looks at the role of the international community in perpetuating this state of affairs, whether through funding of radical Palestinian NGOs, or through granting international legitimacy to these groups in multilateral forums such as the UN.
European funding for strengthening civil society should consider whether some NGO recipients may actually be contributing to shrinking civil space. At least one Palestinian organization uses control of foreign donations to enforce uniformity of thought amongst local NGOs.
Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international institutions. Its publications reflect the absence of professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal expertise, as well as a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel. HRW’s review of “Israel and Palestine: Events of 2017,” reflects these same methodological flaws, resulting in a highly skewed representation of Israeli domestic and international law.
On December 22, 2017, following an internal investigation of its funding to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Danish Foreign Ministry announced that the “majority of Danish aid to the organizations, which was suspended in 2017, will not be paid.” The ministry also confirmed that that “donor cooperation [to the Ramallah-based NGO funding mechanism] will end at the end of the year 2017.”
Prof. Steinberg's open letter to the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr. Halbe Zijlstra.
NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict are at the center of intense partisan controversies in Israel, with the issue of funding featuring prominently in the debate. In the case of WWP, an openly political group that is trying to be non-partisan, this has had a direct effect over the NGO’s decision-making and overall strategy, particularly in relation to funding.
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