Activity

• The British government funds numerous highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) directly through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK Integrated Security Fund (formerly the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund – CSSF), and the British National Security Council (NSC), and indirectly via aid frameworks such as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Christian Aid, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), and Oxfam GB, which all receive significant funding from the British government.
• FCDO has stated that its development funding is geared towards the objective of  supporting “the building of Palestinian institutions and the promotion of economic growth so that any future state will be stable, prosperous, well run and an effective partner for peace with Israel.” 
• In contrast, many FCDO-funded NGOs are involved in anti-peace activities such as incitement, BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), and legal attacks (“lawfare”) against Israel. Some of these groups also have reported ties to terrorist organizations.
• Reflecting a lack of transparency, a comprehensive list of local third-party implementing partners is not available.
• Based on FCDO statements made during the course of FOI proceedings with NGO Monitor, it does not appear that the UK government vets third-party implementing partners. For instance, an FCDO official claimed, “The FCDO conducts its own due diligence process for its main project partners, and then relies on those partners to do their own due diligence for any subcontractors based on global criteria. In this particular case, FCDO did a due diligence exercise itself for NRC. FCDO did not directly vet NRC’s sub-partners, but instead provided them with criteria for assessing those sub-partners.” (Paragraph 49, 26 March 2024 First-tier Tribunal General Regulatory Chamber Information Rights decision, on file with NGO Monitor).

Developments Since October 7 Hamas Massacre

• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, the UK announced “£10 million humanitarian aid for civilians in Occupied Palestinian Territories,” and stating that “All UK aid funding to the OPTs undergoes rigorous oversight, and no funding goes to Hamas.” This claim is inconsistent with information provided to NGO Monitor in the course of our FOI proceedings with the FCDO. 
• In October 2023-April 2024, the United Kingdom granted $53.53 million to UN-OCHA’s “OPT Flash Appeal” that “addressed the most urgent needs of 1,260,000 people in the Gaza Strip (Gaza) and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
• In January 2024, the UK announced it would pause funding to UNRWA following reports of UNRWA’s employees involvement in Hamas’ October 7 massacre.The UK later clarified that it had already made all of its planned contributions to UNRWA for 2023-2024, £35 million. (See UNRWA section below for more information.)

Direct UK Funding

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)¹

• According to FCDO’s Development Tracker website, the UK has allocated a total of approximately £13.4 million to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem for 2024-2025. Of this amount, approximately 50% is allocated to “Government and Civil Society.”
• FCDO is funding seven active projects in the West Bank and Gaza, with a total budget of £1.4 billion. 
• Information on projects funded by the FCDO is available in a projects database. However, local NGO recipients and third-party recipients of UK funds via international organizations do not appear on the website.

FCDO Projects in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank:

UK Integrated Security Fund (formerly the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund – CSSF)

• The UK also funds NGOs through the UK Integrated Security Fund, a “government-wide fund that addresses the highest-priority threats to UK national security, at home and abroad.”² The fund “invested over £830 million in financial year 2022 to 2023 through integrated programmes across 12 government departments and agencies.”
• In 2022-2023, CSSF provided £6.9 million to the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” 
  • According to a 2023 UK Parliament report, “In financial year 2022–2023, the Fund continued to prioritise spending on areas linked to conflict, stability and security overseas that pose the greatest direct threat to the UK including the Middle East and Africa…The Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories programme was largely protected from previous reductions in overall allocations, given the fragility of the situation and the importance of this region to the UK’s security.”
• According to the CSSF Programme Summary of its “Middle East Peace Process programme (MEPP),” in 2021-2022, CSSF led 11 projects in the West Bank and Gaza. 
  • All projects have FCDO listed as the lead department. 
  • The implementing organizations are not listed. CSSF claims, “Information on all implementing organisations is withheld on international relations grounds.”
  • According to a February 2024 Parliamentary question, “The Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) OPTs-Israel Programme also supports Tech 2 Peace, I’lam – Arab Centre for Media Freedom, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and Project Rozana which work to support engagement and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, building stronger constituencies and prospects for peace. We also support local organisations such as COMET-ME who work to keep Palestinians on their land in Area C of the West Bank, protecting the viability of a two-state solution.”

CSSF Projects in the oPt

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

• According to the UN Financial Tracking Service,³ in 2023, FCDO granted $5.4 million to NRC for multiple projects, of which $3,552,577 was earmarked for the Information, Counseling, and Legal Assistance (ICLA) project.
  • No information appears on the UK Devtracker Website regarding funding to NRC, despite the substantial amounts granted to the NGO.
  • ICLA, one of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks.
  • Included in ICLA’s program goals is “supporting the PA both locally and nationally on casework” and works with “other NRC core competences, West Bank Protection Consortium partners, and UN OCHA, as well as with local authorities and village councils.”
  • As part of the ICLA program, NRC provides “legal assistance, including paralegal services, accompaniment, follow up or court representation in order to ensure the best possible individual legal protection outcomes” in “collaboration, coordination and partnership both internally within NRC and externally with NGO sector… and with the PA with a view to address some of the barriers to participation of the hard to reach population in ICLA response.”
  • A lawyer affiliated with the NRC program stated that the objective of these cases are an attempt to “try every possible legal measure to disrupt the Israeli judicial system… as many cases as possible are registered and that as many cases as possible are appealed to increase the workload of the courts and the Supreme Court to such an extent that there will be a blockage” (emphasis added).
  • According to its 2023 ICLA project response plan, “In 2023, NRC Information, Counselling and Legal aid team (ICLA) will target 17,583 Palestinians identified as affected by conflict-related violations and protection risks such as conflict-related violence, risk of forcible transfer, restrictions on freedom of movement and access to services, including livelihoods and settler violence.”
• NRC receives funding from the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF), but this funding is not transparent. NGO Monitor has been able to confirm that these funds are received by NRC via this mechanism based on information received from the UK government in the course of Freedom of Information proceedings with FCDO. Additionally, a March 2024 Parliamentary question acknowledged that “The UK currently provides funding to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including in the West Bank and East Jerusalem through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).” 
  • According to the Parliamentary question, NRC has been receiving from the CSSF:
    • FY 22-23 – £3.07 million
    • FY 23-24 – £ 3.68 million
    • FY 24-25 – £ 2.7 million
  • Additionally, in response to the Parliamentary question, a government official claimed, “We are not currently supporting NRC work in Gaza.” However, a 2023 project on the UN Financial Tracking Service (FTS), relating to ICLA, describes NRC’s activities in the West Bank and Gaza: “NRC Palestine launched a Digital Complaints and Feedback Mechanism, informative sessions on the use and application of NRC’s CFM were conducted for all staff and targeted populations in WB and Gaza. Soft and hard copies of CFM information cards were distributed to targeted populations in WB and Gaza.” This project does not appear on the UK’s Development Tracker.  
  • According to FTS, five other projects for which NRC received funding from the UK in 2023 are implemented by the West Bank Consortium (run by NRC). The project descriptions on FTS includes data on the individuals the consortium serves in Gaza. Additionally, during a November 2023 UK Parliamentary hearing, an NRC advisor testified “We have.. 54 staff working in our Gaza office. We have been operating in Gaza for almost 15 years.”
• Based on research obtained via freedom of information requests, UN reports and funding databases (FTS), publications from governments in Europe, NGO activity reports and financial statements, and filings with government regulators in the UK, Israel, the EU, and elsewhere, NGO Monitor has documented  that  NRC works with a narrow selection of political NGOs that promote a one-sided narrative of the conflict in implementing its legal aid and “public interest litigation” related programs. NRC has partnered with UAWC, HaMoked, JLAC, Society of St. Yves, Terrestrial Jerusalem, Yesh Din, CAC, Bimkom, Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and Al Mezan, among others. 
  • UAWC, PCHR, and Al Mezan are all linked to the PFLP terrorist organization.

UK Direct Funding to Israeli NGOs

Information for 2021-2024 taken from quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits and information for 2020 taken from annual reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits. These projects do not appear on the UK Devtracker Website, and it is unclear under which framework they are receiving these funds. 

Indirect UK Funding

Christian Aid

• In FY 2022-2023, Christian Aid received £2.2 million from FCDO. Reflecting a lack of transparency, Christian Aid does not specify how much of that funding was transferred to implementing partners on projects in Israel, Gaza, or the West Bank.
• Christian Aid does not reveal all of their partners, nor funding to the organizations. Current and former partner organizations include Zochrot, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Al-Haq, Sabeel, Adalah, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-I), Alternative Information Center (AIC), the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Women’s Affairs Centre, and the Culture and Free Thought Association.

Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)

• In 2022, CAFOD received £824,000 from the FCDO. According to CAFOD, in that same period of time, CAFOD funded 9 projects totaling approximately £278,000 in the West Bank and Gaza.
• CAFOD has provided grants to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including: Breaking the Silence, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Culture and Free Thought Association, Wi’am, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), Yesh Din, and Islamic Relief Worldwide.

Oxfam GB

• In FY 2022-2023, Oxfam GB received £231,000 from the United Kingdom.
• Under its 2023-2024 emergency appeal for Gaza, Oxfam GB writes it has been “responding with our partners” including: the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), Juzoor, Cultural & Free Thoughts Association, and Palestine Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC).
  • PMRS rhetoric includes accusations of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” “collective punishment,” and “war crimes.” Mustafa Barghouthi, founder and president of PMRS, praised the October 7th attacks and repeatedly denied the systematic rape of Israeli women during the atrocities.
  • In at least 2007–2014, Juzoor maintained a Jerusalem Youth Parliament (JYP), “…designed to actively engage young Jerusalemite Palestinians ages 12 to 17 (as well as their parents and teachers) in active citizenship and to raise awareness of their Palestinian identity.” JYP hosted events with convicted terrorists, members of the US-designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and their families, and held pro-BDS and anti-normalization activities for children. In addition to introducing children to PFLP terrorists, JYP staff also utilized social media to celebrate PFLP terrorists and promote the organization. (For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “USAID-funded Palestinian NGOs: Introducing Children to Convicted Terrorists.”)
• Oxfam GB draws an immoral symmetry between Israeli self-defense and illegal attacks by terror organizations, and fails to acknowledge Hamas’ exploitation of the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. Its statements refer to the blockade of Gaza as the key impediment to peace, failing to mention that the purpose of Israel’s blockade is to prevent the illegal flow of weapons to Hamas and other terror groups.

Indirect UK Funding to NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Funding via the United Nations

In 2020-2024, the UK government provided millions of dollars to various UN bodies, including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the World Food Program, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and The occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

• In 2023, the UK provided UNICEF with $4.8 million.
• UNICEF spearheads a campaign to have Israel included on a UN blacklist of “grave” violators of children’s rights. The list appears as an annex to the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). This political agenda is a primary facet of UNICEF’s activities relating to Israel, completely inconsistent with its mandate of “child protection” and from its guidelines for neutrality and impartiality. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group: Failing Children”)

UN-OCHA oPt Humanitarian Fund

• In 2024, the UK provided $12.8 million to the UN-OCHA occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund..
• Several PFLP-linked NGOs, including UAWC, UHWC, and PCHR, are regular recipients of disbursements from the “occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund.”

Funding to the World Food Programme

• In 2024, the UK provided $7.8 million to the WFP. According to UN-OCHA’s FTS, these projects are part of the WFP’s Food Security Sector programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
• According to documents published by the Food Security Sector, the Sector distributes funds and partners with UAWC, Ma’an Development Center, and Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).