Report: UN gave $40 million to terror-supporting Palestinian NGOs

A Palestinian NGO with links to Hamas received over $1 million in UN funding between 2016 and 2020, the report found.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A report from Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu revealed Tuesday that some $40 million in funding from the UN was funneled to Palestinian NGOs that support terror and BDS from 2016 to 2020.

All of the 19 Palestinian NGOs that received UN funding support BDS, and eight of them have clear ties to Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror groups, the report said.

One group which received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the UN, Al Haq, calls itself a human rights organization.

According to the report, Al Haq has ties to the PFLP, supports the Palestinian Authority’s pay-for-slay policy, which pays salaries to imprisoned terrorists, and is a member of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), which refused to sign an anti-terror pledge.

Another group thath received over $1 million in funding, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), has extensive ties to both Hamas and the PFLP.

“Their names are innocuous and mislead people into thinking they promote human rights, but in reality they peddle malicious anti-Israel agendas,” said Eytan Meir, director of external relations and development for Im Tirtzu.

The report also charged that the UN is perpetuating a culture of obfuscation when it comes to how such funding is actually distributed.

In reports, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) often omits “implementing partners” — namely, the bodies who are responsible for actually carrying out the tasks for which the funding was granted.

This means that radical organizations can be given funding, without accountability to ensure funds are used properly, or the name of the organization being officially recorded.

Because the U.S. is responsible for a large portion — 22 percent — of the UN’s core funding, the country is in a unique position to cut off cash to terror-supporting Palestinian NGOs.

Citing the 2018 Taylor Force Act, which barred U.S. funding for the PA as long as it pays salaries to terrorists, Im Tirtzu suggested that the UN adopt a similar policy towards the UN.

“A similar law can be implemented…which would stipulate that the U.S. will halt its aid to the UN so long as it continues to fund propaganda organizations that have ties to terrorist groups, promote BDS, and lobby international bodies against Israel.

“Such a law would require the UN to cut its funding of these organizations out of fear of losing funding from the U.S., its largest donor.”