EU Funding to Terror-Linked Palestinian NGOs Since 2011
In 2011-2018, the EU authorized grants of at least €25 million to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ties to EU-designated terrorist groups.
In 2011-2018, the EU authorized grants of at least €25 million to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ties to EU-designated terrorist groups.
In 2011-2017, the EU provided €18.3 million to projects involving Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a non-governmental organization (NGO) linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
According to the report the “response plan” from UN-OCHA includes projects with terror-linked NGOs, as well as for non-emergency advocacy.
Multiple PNGO officials have ties to terrorist organizations, and at least five PNGO members have ties to EU-designated terror organizations, including through their employees and/or board members who are directly involved in activities and programs.
During a May 19, 2020 meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi stated that he had instructed the heads of EU delegations to Israel and West Bank/ Gaza to “look deep” in to the allegations that some EU funds go to terror-linked or -supporting NGOs, declaring that such funding “will not be tolerated.”
On March 30, 2020, the EU Representative Office to the West Bank and Gaza sent a “clarification letter regarding the EU-funded contracts” to Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) appearing to give in to Palestinian pressure and effectively annul EU regulations that prohibit the transfer of EU funds to terror groups or individuals connected to these groups.
On December 20, 2019, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda announced that she intends to investigate alleged war crimes in the “State of Palestine.” This move is to a significant degree the product of consistent and heavy lobbying of the ICC for over a decade by NGOs.
On December 19, 2019, the Israel Security Agency (Shabak) announced it had uncovered a 50-person terror network, operated in the West Bank by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a designated terrorist organization in the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel. The statement named several leading PFLP figures, several of whom currently or previously worked for European funded, PFLP-linked non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
On October 10, 2019, NGO Monitor sent a letter to the Dutch Foreign Minister regarding a Dutch Government grant to Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian NGO closely linked to the EU-designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).