WarSclerotic

Denmark announces funding cut to anti-Israel Palestinian NGOs, Israel Hayom, Yair Altman, December 24, 2017

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan | Photo: Oren Ben Hakoon

Erdan called the statement from the Danish Foreign Ministry “a significant achievement” for Israel.

“It cannot be that European countries continue to fund Palestinian organizations that act to promote a boycott and present a distorted picture of Israel, and even worse, have ties with terrorist elements,” he said.

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The Danish Foreign Ministry on Friday announced it would cut funding to a number of Palestinian nongovernmental organizations and implement stricter conditions for them to receive Danish aid in the future.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen had been set to announce an additional $8.3 million in Danish funding for the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, an organization that funds a string of anti-Israel groups. But the country launched a review of its funding criteria in May, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Samuelsen to halt his country’s funding of radical Palestinian organizations.

Following a comprehensive examination of the issue in recent months, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced it would toughen conditions for Palestinian NGOs to receive Danish assistance.

In a letter to the Danish Foreign Ministry, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan had also warned that according to the information available to his ministry, a hefty portion of funds allocated to the Ramallah-based secretariat were allocated to organizations with ties to terrorist organizations and organizations that promote a boycott of Israel.

In an official statement noting that a majority of Danish financial aid had been withheld, Samuelsen said he attaches great importance to Danish aid reaching its intended destination. He said a number of NGOs that currently receive Danish aid will not continue to do so in the future.

In recent years, the secretariat, a joint funding mechanism for Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, has donated money to organizations with ties to the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, such as Al-Haq and Addameer. Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, has served time in an Israeli prison.

Erdan called the statement from the Danish Foreign Ministry “a significant achievement” for Israel.

“It cannot be that European countries continue to fund Palestinian organizations that act to promote a boycott and present a distorted picture of Israel, and even worse, have ties with terrorist elements,” he said.

This entry was posted on December 24, 2017 at 5:35 PM and is filed under Denmark, Palestinian funding. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Denmark, Palestinian funding