Activities

• ActionAid leads tours in Bethlehem and Hebron where participants are encouraged to “come face-to-face with the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” “illegal Israeli settlements,” and the “political struggles between locals and the Israeli occupation over land, water, and the building of the Israeli separation wall.”
• In September 2024, ActionAid Denmark board member Sara El-Khatib and council member Arif Qaraeen left ActionAid after it was revealed they had published antisemitic posts on social media.
  • Following Qaraeen’s departure, Board Chair Haifaa Awad announced, “one of our council members Arif Qaraeen has previously been a member in the early 1970s of the PFLP.”
• In May 2023, Israel announced that it had arrested a six-member cell from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) responsible for manufacturing and planting a bomb on a bus in the town of Beitar Illit, on March 9, 2023, including Wisam Owainah who participated in ActionAid’s 2021 project  “Civil and Democratic Participation of Palestinian Youth.”
  • On March 23, 2022, Owainah shared photos of a PFLP youth rally he had attended in support of a wanted Palestinian gunman who was killed after opening fire at Israeli forces. During the rally, participants raised PFLP flags.
  • On June 2, 2022, Owainah shared photos from the funeral of PFLP member Ayman Muheisen – killed by Israeli forces after hurling an explosive device at them. Owainah wrote, “…The martyrs are the beautiful birds of the world…they are those who love freedom the most…They [the Israelis] do not hit us to kill us, they hit us so they can kill the freedom that hides within us…”

Political Advocacy

• In May 2025, ActionAid published a statement demanding a “halt [to] all arms exports to the Israeli government and [the] imposi[tion of] sanctions on senior Israeli government officials linked to any breaches of international humanitarian law.”
• In February 2025, over 230 global NGOs, including ActionAid UK, were signatories on a statement calling on “governments producing F-35 fighter jets to immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel, including the F-35 jets.”
• In January 2025, following the announcement of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, ActionAid published a statement, “Fifteen months of unimaginable violence and horror has turned Gaza into hell on earth. …The international community must apply maximum pressure…on the Israeli government to end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory. The Israeli government must be held accountable for all violations of international humanitarian law and comply with ongoing proceedings by the international courts into the charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
• In October 2024, ActionAid “pledged” to “intensify efforts to campaign and build support for: an immediate ceasefire, the cessation of violence, humanitarian assistance, an end to the 57-year Israeli settler occupation, an end to the 17-year-old blockade on Gaza, and an end to enforced displacement which are the root causes of the current crisis,” as well as “support the Palestinian people to define the solutions for themselves to advance this struggle and work with them to address the underlying systemic challenges, heinous injustices, inhumanity and the genocide they are experiencing.”
• In September 2024, ActionAid published a statement claiming, “Now is the time to invoke targeted sanctions, travel bans, and asset freezes on senior Israeli government officials linked to alleged violations of international humanitarian law…States also have an unequivocal duty to adhere to the court’s ruling, including by halting all arms exports to the Israeli government immediately.”
• In May 2024, following the ICC Prosecutor announcement to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, ActionAid published a statement, “Welcom[ing] ICC’s Steps Towards Accountability and Justice.” According to ActionAid, “There continue to be severe breaches of international humanitarian law across the West Bank, and we urge the international community to begin the process of accountability and justice for the millions of Palestinians living under this illegal and brutal occupation.”
  • In November 2024, ActionAid stated, “We demand that these individuals face full prosecution for their actions and that justice be swiftly delivered to the victims of these atrocities. The time for accountability is now. It is too late for the tens of thousands of Palestinians brutally killed in Gaza, but the search for justice for them, their families, and Occupied Palestine takes a big step forward today.”
• In May 2024, ActionAid Palestine held a webinar titled “The Impact of the War against Gaza Strip on Climate and the Environment,” alleging that “the issue of climate justice in Palestine [] can’t be separated from Israeli occupation which controls natural resources as water and energy and livelihoods and achieving climate justice in Palestine needs addressing the root causes of climate injustice.”
• In October 2023, ActionAid sent a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel calling for “a just resolution to the root causes that led to the escalation of violence and to apply the international law, notably regarding the blockade of Gaza and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory which result in daily violence.”
• In August 2022, ActionAid Palestine condemned the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to ActionAid Palestine, “We strongly condemn these actions. These attacks are another way of the Israeli occupation trying to assert its authority and undermine the work of human rights organisations in Palestinian territories…“We stand in solidarity with Palestinian human rights organisations, who are working to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people.”
• In February 2022, ActionAid Ireland participated in a campaign titled “#StopTradeWithSettlements,” calling “for an EU law that will end trade with illegal settlements once and for all.”
• In May 2021, ActionAid launched a petition calling for the passage of the Irish “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied territories)” bill, which would make it illegal for Irish citizens and residents to import or sell “settlement goods” or to provide or attempt to provide “settlement services.” The Old City and Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, are considered “settlements” under the bill.
• In February 2021, ActionAid was a signatory on a statement falsely claiming that Israel has “legal obligations, to provide vaccines to the Palestinians while altogether ignoring that Palestinians residing in Jerusalem are part of the Israeli health care system; that under the Oslo Accords the PA is responsible for health care of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and that the PA has adopted its own vaccine policy for its population.
• In May 2019, Action Aid published an article stating that the “US and European Union are complicit in the whitewash of war crimes against Palestinian civilians.”
• In April 2018, ActionAid was a signatory on a statement “condemning Israel’s unlawful killing of civilians” during the Gaza-border violence and called for an “independent and transparent investigation into the killing and injuring of civilians in the context of peaceful demonstrations, and for those responsible to be held to account.” 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 2016, the ActionAid General Assembly approved a motion by ActionAid Palestine, ActionAid Denmark, and ActionAid UK to “challeng[e] corporates that profit from the illegal occupation of Palestine.” The motions approved efforts to “identify companies profiting from the occupation” and “undertake an audit of their relationships with the companies identified.”

ActionAid Denmark

• While ActionAid Denmark claims that it “does not appeal to a boycott of Israeli products,” it does “encourage investors not to invest money in companies that violate international guidelines for corporate human rights liability by, for example, contributing to the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
• ActionAid Denmark is one of the founders of DanWatch, which promotes BDS under the guide of “business ethics.” It specifically funds DanWatch’s project “Business on Forbidden Land,” focusing on Danish companies allegedly conducting business in Israeli settlements and opposing the marketing of Israeli goods produced in the West Bank.
• In March 2024, ActionAid Denmark,Oxfam Denmark, Amnesty International Denmark, and Al-Haq announced they were suing the Danish National Police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an attempt to stop Danish arms exports to Israel. 
  • In April 2024, in response to the lawsuit, Denmark announced that it would implement a “very restrictive approach” for military exports to Israel amid what it called the “disastrous consequences” of the war in Gaza. According to Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, “All arms exports to Israel, as applications will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
• ActionAid Denmark’s “Facts [on] Children and Adolescents in Palestine” rely on a discredited March 2013 UNICEF report on juvenile justice in the military courts and false claims proffered by Defense for Children International –Palestine (DCI-P).In addition, the group also disregards the circumstances surrounding arrests, such as extreme violence including murder and attempted murder. (Read NGO Monitor’s reports “No Way to Represent a Child: Defense for Children International Palestine’s Distortions of the Israeli Justice System” and “The Origins of “No Way to Treat a Child” : Analyzing UNICEF’s Report on Palestinian Minors.”)
• In April 2019, ActionAid Denmark Program Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Morten Gobel Poulsen stated, after visiting Gaza, “You totally get the feeling of being in prison.”
• In 2018, ActionAid Denmark launched a petition calling for the Danish Government to “Recognize Palestine as State!”
• In May 2018, Secretary-General of ActionAid Denmark Tim Whyte stated that it “should be clearly stated today on the packaging of certain Israeli exports if they are produced on occupied Palestinian lands – that is, produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
• In 2017, ActionAid Denmark launched a petition titled “Stop Occupation of Palestine- 50 Years is Enough” calling to “Ensure that Danish pension funds are not invested in companies that contribute to the occupation and the illegal settlements” and “Ensure that no Danes’ tax crowns are placed in companies that help to support the illegal settlements.”
• In December 2015, following HeidelbergCement being blacklisted by Denmark’s largest pension fund, Senior Policy Advisor and CSR expert with ActionAid Denmark Troels Børrild stated that “Investing in companies that profit from the systematic human rights violations caused by the illegal Israeli settlements and the belligerent occupation is becoming toxic to investors… Too many investors and companies still fail to live up to their own policies in the case of businesses who profit from the Israeli occupation.”
• In May 2015, ActionAid Denmark called to end “any trade and cooperation with Elbit Systems.”

ActionAid Palestine

• In 2019, ActionAid Palestine lobbied in support of the discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel.
• In September 2019, ActionAid Palestine was a signatory on a letter to the French President calling for him to take “concrete measures against the policies of annexation, de facto and de jure, of the Israeli government. These measures should be implemented immediately, to prevent possible Israeli unilateral actions…Inaction on the part of the international community following an Israeli annexation would spell the end of the two-state solution, and would reinforce the feeling of impunity rooted in this conflict.”
• In May 2018, in response to the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem, ActionAid’s “Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territories” Ibrahim Ibraigheth, stated that “By supporting Israel’s campaign to force the Palestinian people off their ancestral land, the U.S. is complicit in wide-ranging human rights violations. It’s no coincidence that this announcement comes the day before Palestinians remember the Nakba, when the newly established State of Israel carried out a systemic ethnic cleansing.”
• In May 2018, ActionAid Palestine encouraged a Palestinian “right to resist” stating, “We will keep going and resisting. The occupation of Palestine will fall, the way that the Berlin wall fell, and the apartheid system fell.”
• Co-signed an July 2016 campaign, calling on world leaders “to press the Israeli government to lift the blockade on Gaza,” while altogether omitting that the blockade was implemented in an effort to stop Palestinian terrorists from smuggling of weapons and rockets into Gaza that would later be used to target Israeli civilians.

Employees

• Ibrahim Ibraigheth, “Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territories,” posted an image on his Facebook page glorifying Ayat al-Akhras, a suicide bomber who murdered two Israelis after detonating her explosive vest at a Jerusalem supermarket.
• Lina Abuaisha, an ActionAid Australia employee, has a picture of a Palestinian rioter hurling stones at Israeli security forces as her profile picture.
• Wisam Shweiki, a Project Manager at ActionAid International, posted an image on his Facebook profile glorifying Khader Adnan, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group who gained notoriety following repeated hunger strikes while in prison. The caption reads “For every gram you lose in weight, your honor increases by thousands [of grams].”
• Before joining ActionAid, Riham Jafari worked at UNRWA.
  • Hamas’ and other terror groups’ exploitation of UNRWA and its facilities is well documented. Additionally, there is blatant evidence of UNRWA employees’ involvement in Hamas terrorism, including direct participation in the brutal October 7 slaughter.