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- On August 30, 2012, the Church Development Service (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst-EED) merged with Brot für die Welt and formed a new agency, “Brot für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst” (Bread for the World – Protestant Development Aid Service), as part of the new Protestant Agency for Diakonia and Development (Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung).
- Brot für die Welt-Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (BfW-EED) is the official aid framework of the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland-EKD). Since 1962, the German government is obligated under German law to provide financial support for the development work of church-aid organizations.
Funding
- In 2023, total income was €331.5 million; total expenses were €316.7 million, of which €2.5 million was spent on “Israel and Palestine.”
- Donors include the European Union and Germany.
- BfW-EED does not publish detailed information about its projects or local partners. In June 2017, BfW-EED issued a press release in which it claimed that “In order to protect our partners working on human rights issues, we cannot publish the funding in this area” (NGO Monitor translation from German).
- On November 26, 2018, the German government, in response to a parliamentary question (Drucksache 19/6047), stated that, in 2017, Germany granted €4.5 million to ten projects in the West Bank and Gaza implemented by the Protestant Central Agency for Development (EZE). In 2018, EZE implemented eight projects worth €3.1 million.
Funding to Bread for the World-EED (amounts in €)
Donor | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
European Union | 1,337,729 | 1,175,654 | 524,283 | 415,367 | 74,322 |
Germany | 172,908,293 | 182,098,285 | 179,832,310 | 168,557,225 | 173,880,448 |
Funding to Politicized NGOs
Political Advocacy
- Bread for the World “administer[s]” the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). According to Bread for the World. “Bread for the World supports this EAPPI program with ecclesiastical funds, with a contribution to the shared costs of the Geneva office and the cost of preparing and posting 10-15 volunteers from Germany.”
- EAPPI sends volunteers to the West Bank to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
- Bread for the World runs “Tourism Watch,” a “policy desk” that claims to promote a “consistent application of a human rights approach in tourism.”
- In February 2020, Tourism Watch published an article by Ania Kdair, a researcher at Al-Haq, titled “Human Rights Due Diligence of Tourism Platforms in Palestine and Israel.” The article accused Israel of “us[ing] distorted place names and information,” stating that this strategy “contributes to the tendency to erase the existence of Palestinian heritage, identity and host communities.” The article further lobbied for “accurate information about the advertised offerings” and encouraged differentiation, a term to call for sanctions against Israeli entities (and certain individuals) that have or alleged financial contacts with Israeli settlements.
- In May 2022, ACT Alliance, of which BfW-EED is a member, was a signatory on a statement referring to the “Nakba” as a “continuous international crime…The continuation of the Nakba reflects the extent of international complicity with the Israeli-Zionist colonial and apartheid regime in Palestine.”
- In March 2020, Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), of which Bread for the World is the official aid framework, published an official position on BDS. EKD stated that, while it “rejects boycott measures against Israel and does not participate in corresponding projects within the BDS campaign” and “criticism of Israel has an anti-Jewish resonance area,” it acknowledges that it is “connected to ecumenical partners who see themselves as part of the BDS movement.”
- In February 2020, Bread for the World sponsored a conference titled “Criticism of the Raison D’ètat Formula: Inclusion of Palestinians,” which called to “not allow arms to be delivered to the region.” Claus Walischewski, head of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Germany branch, spoke at the event.
- In May 2019, BfW-EED called on the German Bundestag to revoke its joint resolution defining BDS campaigns against Israel as antisemitic. Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, president of BfW-EED, stated that “The resolution of the Bundestag equates BDS with antisemitism. A differentiation between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the concrete occupation policy of Israel’s current government is missing.”
- In May 2018, ACT Alliance, of which BfW-EED is a member, released a statement “condemn[ing] the killing of Palestinian people on their own land” during the Great March of Return. The petition repeats unverified claims and ignores the violent nature of the protests, which have consisted of an organized armed attack on the Israeli border and IDF positions, attempts to destroy and breach the border fence, and sustained arson, rocket, and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian communities.
- In June 2017, BfW-EED issued a press release in which it stressed “For Bread for the World any promotion ends with the denial of Israel’s right to exist, calling for the boycott of goods from Israel, or promotion of antisemitism” (NGO Monitor translation). Contrary to this claim, BfW funds radical and politicized NGOs that promote BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) and “lawfare” campaigns against Israel, including Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), Who Profits, and Al-Haq (see below for further funding information).
- Published, together with Misereor, the aid framework of the Catholic Church in Germany, a 2014 guide purporting to promote “fair tourism in Israel and Palestine taking into account international law”
- The guide seeks to “encourage travelers and pilgrims to view the Holy Land as a coherent travel destination and not to limit themselves to one side of the border… Until now travel programs and itineraries have been largely determined by the interests of the Israeli tourist industry” (p. 4-5, NGO Monitor translation).
- The guide dedicates a chapter to the Kairos Palestine document, titled “Pilgrimage of Change” (p. 10, NGO Monitor translation). The Kairos-Palestine-Document denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel in theological terms, calls to mobilize churches worldwide in the call for BDS, and characterizes terrorist acts of “armed resistance” as “Palestinian legal resistance.”
- Recommends tours of politicized anti-Israel organizations such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), which promotes BDS and advocates for a one-state solution.
- Recommends politicized anti-Israel organizations, such as Al-Haq, Breaking the Silence, Sabeel, and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), as sources of information.
- In July 2014, BfW- EED and Misereor held a conference in Berlin on “The ICJ’s Wall Opinion Revisited: Towards its effective Implementation.” The event addressed “the impact of the wall … on the human rights of the local population, … attempt to clarify the role of the United Nations and …the role of third parties in ensuring the implementation of the legal obligations described in the advisory opinion.” Contrary to the narrative at the conference, the security barrier was built in response to terror attacks emanating from the West Bank and has saved countless lives since its construction.
- Sponsored a December 2014 “Canaan conference” in Berlin titled “Trialogue with Israel and Palestine,” which included radical NGOs Israeli Social TV, New Profile, and Café Palestine Freiburg. While the Canaan conference claims to be “a platform for bi- and trilateral communication between women from Palestine, Israel and Germany,” it features many inflammatory speakers, including one who reportedly declared “Zionists are racists.” Café Palestine Freiburg has previously advocated “dismantling Jewish ideology” and has been accused of stoking modern antisemitism.
- In 2012, BfW and Misereor supported and promoted Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence’s “Testimonies of a crew” exhibit in Berlin, spreading anonymous and unverifiable allegations that Israeli soldiers commit “war crimes.”
- In a September 13, 2013 article, “20 years Oslo Accords: Learning from the history of the Middle East peace process,” BfW blamed the failure of the peace process on Israel, while failing to mention Palestinian rejectionism, violence, incitement, corruption, and the role of Hamas.
- Publishes inaccurate water libels, alleging insufficient and inequitable water distribution, ignoring evidence that Israel provides Palestinians in the West Bank with more water than required under the Oslo framework and that thieves are responsible for stealing up to 50 percent of supplies in some Palestinian areas. In so doing, BfW manipulates and distorts water issues in order to falsely portray Israel as a brutal regime.
Partners
- BfW-EED is a member of VENRO, an umbrella organization of development and humanitarian NGOs in Germany that was founded in 1995 in order to represent NGOs in the political arena and strengthen their influence in decision-making processes. As stated on its website, at the time of VENRO’s creation, “NGOs wanted to be not only helpers of the south, but also a critical voice in north-south politics and to exert their influence on political decision-makers.”
- VENRO has a working group (Kofinanzierung) designated for “intensive political dialogue” (translation by NGO Monitor) with the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), advising them on funding guidelines and selection of beneficiaries. VENRO’s current CEO, Dr. Bern Bornhorst, is head of the “politics and global issues for the future” department (PGZ) at BfW/EED.
- Member of the ACT Alliance, a coalition of 144 churches and church-related organizations.
- Advocacy goals include contributing “to a global discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that addresses the consequences of occupation, promotes access of individuals to resources, and ultimately brings an end to the occupation” and targeting “Christian communities on the International level…by stressing Christians’ suffering in the Holy Land and seek to preserve Christians presence in Palestine.”
- Urges “various forms of boycott of settlement products,” accusing Israel of denying “Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through military occupation.”
- Published a February 2013 Advocacy Paper, “The ‘Permit Regime’ and Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Freedom of Worship,” alleging that “Under Israeli military occupation, repression has become the worst of history compared to that of South Africa. It’s a sophisticated form of social, economic, political and racial discrimination, strangulation, and genocide, incorporating the worst elements of colonialism and apartheid as well as repressive dispossession, displacement and state terrorism to separate Palestinians from their land and heritage, deny them their rightful civil and human rights, and gradually remove or eliminate them altogether. The ID/permit system is one of many elements designed to make greater Israel an ethnically pure Jewish state.”
- Member of ACT Alliance EU.
- Lobbies international frameworks, mainly the EU, to apply “pressure” on Israel; promotes BDS campaigns; and utilizes highly biased and politicized language demonizing Israel.
- In April 2024, ACT Alliance EU published a statement calling on the EU to “suspend all arms transfers to Israel while there is a plausible risk that weapons, parts, and ammunitions may be used for the commission of violations of international law.”
- In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, ACT Alliance EU published a statement claiming that “As we mourn the devastating impact of escalating violence, we must not forget the root causes that are sustaining this endless cycle of violence and human tragedy…Sixteen years of blockade in Gaza has created a man-made humanitarian, social, and economic disaster, condemning generations of Gazans to a life that has been described as an open-air prison, devoid of hope and human dignity…The only path to sustainable peace with freedom, security and dignity for all people in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory is to address these root causes urgently and immediately.”
NGO Grantees (amounts in NIS)
Information about funding to Israeli NGOs for 2020 was taken from annual reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits; for 2021-2024, from quarterly reports submitted to the Registrar.
Grantee | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
B'Tselem | 295,256 | 1,095,291 | 362,305 | 999,657 | 219,628 |
Gisha | | 115,456 | 376,637 | 168,289 | |
Ir Amim | 246,237 | 768,035 | 959,044 | 433,606 | 151,200 |
Combatants for Peace | 195,005 | 499,046 | 528,487 | 219,279 | |
Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-I) | | 2,032,247 | 513,225 | 721,510 | |
Human Rights Defenders Fund | | 89,934 | 80,709 | 7,753 | |
Mossawa | | 526,220 | | 687,614 | |
Adalah | 293,822 | 529,909 | 256,364 | 458,329 | |
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) | 751,636 | 805,162 | 420,919 | 870,645 | |
Bimkom | 411,362 | 1,060,323 | 194,383 | 350,665 | |
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC) | | | $525,770 | $175,616 | |
World Council of Churches (WCC) | | | | CHF 4,423,538 | CHF 4,420,682 |
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