EU denies accusations it supports terror-linked NGOs, BDS groups

In the wake of an Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry report raising concerns that “European taxpayers’ money is being used to support ties with terrorist organizations,” the EU’s Federica Mogherini slammed Israel for “disinformation.”

By: World Israel News Staff

The European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, recently responded to an Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry report accusing the EU of “directly financ[ing] organizations which promote anti-Israel delegitimization and boycotts to the approximate sum of more than five million euros in 2016” and “rais[ing] the concern that European taxpayers’ money is being used to support ties with terrorist organizations.”

While Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan sent the report to Mogherini in May, she reportedly lashed out in a letter in July, the contents of which Haaretz reported on Tuesday after obtaining a copy of the message.

The report, titled “The Money Trail: The Millions Given by EU Institutions to NGOs with Ties to Terror and Boycotts Against Israel,” included a number of serious accusations, concluding, “The State of Israel expects the EU to act with full transparency and reveal the scope of its financial aid to organizations that have ties to terror and promote boycotts against Israel. Israel strongly urges the EU to fully implement in practice its declared policy of rejecting boycotts against Israel, and to immediately halt funding to organizations which promote anti-Israel boycotts and delegitimization.”

In response, Mogherini claimed the report spreads “disinformation.”

While Mogherini declared in her letter to Erdan that “[w]e are confident that EU funding has not been used to support boycott of Israel or BDS activities and certainly not to finance terrorism,” the report lists donation amounts and identifies specific activities by EU-funded organizations such as the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA).

The report accuses NPA of “calling on the Norwegian pension fund to withdraw its investments from companies that ‘assist in the violation of international norms in the Palestinian territories,’ such as Motorola, HP, and G4S. The report also calls on Norwegian banks and funds to add these companies to their ‘blacklists.’”

More troubling accusations in the 40-page report include those related to NPA’s alleged links to terrorist organizations.

According to the report, “In April 2018, American authorities announced that the NPA, which received US funding over the years, was fined $2 million following an investigation which discovered the organization transferred money between 2012 and 2016 for projects in which Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine partook–both officially recognized as terrorists groups by the EU, US, Israel, and others. Furthermore, the group was found to have provided services to
Iran’s energy sector between 2001 and 2008.”

While Mogherini maintained that “the EU rejects any attempts to isolate Israel and . . . does not fund actions that are related to boycott activities,” Erdan retorted, “[Mogherini] chooses to bury her head in the sand and to disregard the clear proof that BDS organizations who receive funding from her are tied to or participate in activities with terror organizations.”

“Mogherini admits that most of the supported organizations appearing in the report are indeed promoting a boycott against Israel but explains why it is all right to support them,” Erdan claimed.

BDSEuropean UnionFederica MogheriniGilad ErdanTerror funding