Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Activity

• Finn Church Aid “is the largest Finnish development cooperation organisation and the second largest provider of humanitarian aid.”
• Operates in 17 countries worldwide.
• Claims that its “actions are guided by international human rights standards and principles such as equality and non-discrimination, participation and accountability.”

Funding

• In 2024, total income was €74.5 million; total expenses were €75.3 million.
• Donors include Finland, Netherlands, United States, European Union, and the United Nations.

Governmental and Institutional Funding to Finn Church Aid (amounts in €)

Political Advocacy

• Finn Church Aid funds highly politicized and biased NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict including Sadaka Reut, Rabbis for Human Rights, Arab Center for Counseling and Education, and the Palestinian Counseling Center.
• In February 2025, Finn Church Aid was a signatory on an open letter to the European Commission urging the Commission to “already draft a proposal for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.”
• In September 2024, following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the “legal consequences arising from Israel’s Policies and Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Finn Church Aid called on “all governments, including the UN Security Council and its members, to adhere to the ICJ’s advisory opinion, including through the halting the transfer and sale of weapons, parts and ammunition.”
• In July 2023, as a member of the Act Palestine Forum, published a statement “express[ing] our deep concern and condemnation regarding the recent escalation of violence at Jenin Refugee Camp and its surroundings…Such actions contribute to an alarming trend of violence in the occupied West Bank, undermining efforts for peace and stability in the region.”
  • According to the Meir Amit Center, on July 3, 2023, the Israeli security forces initiated a broad counterterrorism activity in Jenin. The forces located and destroyed laboratories for the manufacture of weapons, IEDs, weapons, and operations rooms. The IDF spokesman reported that nine of the ten Palestinians killed were involved in terrorist activities.
• In May 2018, as a member of ACT Alliance, released a statement “condemn[ing] the killing of Palestinian people on their own land” following the Great March of Return. The statement ignored 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 March 2018, as a member of the ACT Palestine Forum, published “Water in the Gaza Strip,” which repeats the false allegation of Israeli water discrimination against Palestinians. APF ignores evidence that Israel provides Palestinians in the West Bank with more water than required under the Oslo framework and that poor management by the PA of infrastructure, waste, and theft of up to 50 percent of supplies in some Palestinian areas.
• Listed as a sponsor of the September 29-30, 2013 conference, “From Truth to Redress: Realizing the Return of Palestinian Refugees,” organized by Zochrot. This event advocated a “one state” framework and included lecture topics on the logistics of materializing a Palestinian “right of return,” which would effectually mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state. (See NGO Monitor’s factsheet on Zochrot’s Support for “One State,”May 1, 2014).
• Was a signatory to the 2012 report “Trading Away Peace,” which repeats the BDS agenda and calls on EU and individual European governments to wage political warfare through various forms of economic sanctions against Israel.
• Published a 2009 report “Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses” – together with Amnesty International UK, Trocaire (Ireland), Diakonia (Sweden), Oxfam International, Christian Aid (UK), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), CAFOD (UK), Medical Aid for Palestinians, and others – advancing  the unsupported legal claim that Gaza remains occupied and the false allegation of “collective punishment” in order to “prove” the central thesis that “primary responsibility [for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza] lies with Israel.”

Participation in EAPPI

• Finn Church Aid is the “Finnish participant” of the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) volunteer program, which claims to “provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor, and report human rights abuses.” Both WCC and EAPPI play key roles in mobilizing church BDS efforts.
  • 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.
  • According to FCA, “In 2017, FCA deployed 12 Ecumenical Accompaniers to the Occupied Palestinian Territories with support from the MFA. Out of the 21 countries that participate in the EAPPI programme, Finland is one of the largest contributors.”
• In 2023, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland contributed €9,000 to EAPPI.
• According to EAPPI Finland, “In Finland, the Foreign Ministry is responsible for selecting and coaching the observers. The Church’s Foreign Aid is a partnership between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry finances Finland’s EAPPI activities with partner organizations. Partner organizations are required to have a clearly defined development cooperation program that is in line with the Finnish development policy objectives.”
• In May 2024, Finn Church Aid organized a lecture together with EAPPI Finland titled, “Is There Hope for Peace in Israel and Palestine?” The lecture featured an activist from Breaking the Silence.
  • Breaking the Silence makes sweeping accusations based on anecdotal, anonymous, and unverifiable accounts of often low-ranked soldiers. These “testimonies” lack context, are politically biased, and erase the complicated reality in the West Bank. In addition, they reflect a distorted interpretation of the conflict in order to advance the political agenda of Breaking the Silence activists, thereby fueling the international campaigns against Israel.
• In October 2023, EAPPI claimed, “This escalation must be understood in the context of 55 years of Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land and 75 years of dispossession and oppression of the Palestinian people…This major escalation did not happen in a vacuum.”
• In 2021, volunteers from EAPPI “turned its focus to advocacy in Finland and abroad, working in cooperation with partners such as the World Council of Churches.”
• In November 2017, EAPPI arranged a four day event in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere titled “Glimpses of Hope- Life Under Occupation” with speakers from the NGO “Combatants for Peace.”
  • While claiming to “allow each side to understand the other’s narrative,” Combatants for Peace activities reflect a strong affiliation with the Palestinian agenda and narrative, placing most of the blame for the conflict on “the occupation.”
• In 2016, EAPPI launched a campaign to “shed light into the increasing number of house demolitions in the West Bank, with an appeal for Finnish decision makers to act to prevent the house demolitions.”
• In a public May 2016 event held in London, an EAPPI activist made antisemitic comments (referring to a ”Jewish lobby” in America), accused Israel of planting knives beside the bodies of Palestinian terrorists, and promoted BDS.
• In 2015, EAPPI held a photo exhibition in Finland that “depicted life under occupation.”
• In 2015, EAs “spread the word about a report on operation Protective Edge by the Israeli organisation Breaking the Silence in Finland.”
• In 2014, Finn Church Aid and EAPPI traveled to major university campuses in Finland, alleging that Israel victimizes and discriminates against the Palestinian population and “vindictively persecutes” Palestinian children.
• EAs in Finland have been active in lobbying on the issue of the EU’s labelling of settlement products, “appealing also to MEPs, e.g. during the annual EAPPI lobby trips to Brussels, arranged by WCC.”
• In May 2012, FinnChurchAid and EAPPI launched a campaign to “mark products from the settlements to tell their true origin…The settlements are a key obstacle to peace in the Middle East. They also involve serious human rights abuses.”