Denmark is halting support for Palestinian NGOs after Israel proved the organizations were misusing funds for terrorism and anti-Israel activities.
The Danish Foreign Ministry announced Friday the cessation of financial aid, along with a more stringent vetting process, for the transfer of funds to Palestinian organizations, after Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs provided information that European funds are going to Palestinian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have ties to terrorist organizations and promote boycotts of Israel.
In an official statement, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen wrote that he attaches great importance to ensuring Danish aid is used properly. It is for this reason that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs began, in May, a comprehensive examination of the funds distributed to Palestinian NGOs.
The results of those findings led the Danish government to conclude that there was a need to toughen the conditions and terms surrounding finances given to Palestinian organizations.
According to the announcement, most of the Danish aid frozen in recent months will be returned to government coffers. Samuelsen made it clear that many organizations currently receiving Danish support will no longer continue to do so.
In recent years, Denmark has been a member of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, a European government funding mechanism based in Ramallah which includes Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Among the organizations supported by the Secretariat are Palestinian NGOs that promote delegitimization and boycotts of the State of Israel, and have links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization deemed a terrorist group both by the EU and the United States.
Examples of such NGOs include Al-Haq and Addameer, which count among their senior administrators individuals with close ties to the PFLP. Such individuals include Al-Haq’s executive director Shawan Jabarin, who previously served time in Israeli prisons for his involvement with the terrorist group.
A Just and Resolute Decision
Responding to the announcement by Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen, Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan stated that the Danish announcement “is a significant win for the State of Israel, and a severe blow to our adversaries.”
“It is absurd that these so-called Palestinian NGOs are promoting a distorted and false picture of Israel, and even worse, maintaining ties with terrorist organizations, while receiving European funding,” Erdan added.
He congratulated Samuelsen for his “just and resolute decision.”
“I am glad that Denmark understood that the Danish taxpayer should not finance, directly or indirectly, Palestinian organizations which have direct connections to terrorist groups,” Erdan stated, calling on other countries in Europe to “exercise the same moral responsibility and take similar steps.”
In June, Denmark canceled its funding to a Palestinian NGO and demanded its money be returned, following the examples of Norway and the United Nations, in reaction to a Palestinian NGO’s naming of a youth and women’s center after a notorious female terrorist.
The Women’s Technical Affairs Committee (WATC), a Palestinian NGO, named the center, located in the Palestinian town of Burqa, after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.
“I am outraged that the WATC, which claims to work for human rights, has not only glorified a terrorist but also abused the trust of a generous people like the Danish,” Samuelsen stated. “It is completely unacceptable and I can’t distance myself strongly enough from it. Denmark and Danish tax kroner must under no circumstances be used for anything that glorifies or promotes terrorists in any way.”
Belgium was the latest European country to cancel its funding to the PA over its support of terrorism.
By: United with Israel Staff