Background: UK Funding for Breaking the Silence and other NGOs

Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised with his British counterpart, Theresa May, the issue of UK funding for Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Breaking the Silence.

Millions of shekels are provided by the UK government to a number of highly politicized NGOs – some of the funding is directly granted by government agencies, and other amounts are channelled indirectly by humanitarian aid groups, ostensibly for humanitarian purposes.

For example, Breaking the Silence has been receiving funds originating with the British government, via aid organizations, as follows (information taken from submissions to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits):

• In 2015, Christian Aid provided NIS 293,500 for “testimony collection.”
• In 2016, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) provided NIS 57,407 for “general support.”

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor, commented: “For many years, the UK, like other European governments, has streamed money to groups that polarize Israeli society, and for campaigns exploiting false allegations of ‘war crimes’. The UK has recently been scandalized by such incendiary claims against its own soldiers, and British leaders will understand that funding similar NGO campaigns against Israelis is immoral.”

Direct and Indirect UK funding to Israeli NGOs (2014-2016)

Information for 2014 taken from annual and quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits; 2015-2016 from quarterly reports submitted to the Registrar of Non-Profits.