The European Union (EU) is the world’s largest donor to the Palestinians. Based on years of extensive research and analysis of NGOs operating within the Israeli-Palestinian context, NGO Monitor has identified three major and persistent areas of concern regarding the EU’s engagement and funding practices.

First, through the External Action, development, and humanitarian programs, the EU provides millions of euros annually to highly problematic and politicized Palestinian, Israeli, and international NGOs. Such funding has continued despite amendments to the EU’s Financial Regulations in 2024 designed to prevent grant beneficiaries and contractors from receiving future funding if they engage in “incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence” or similar activities that contradict the Union’s stated fundamental values. (The amendments were adopted following a November 2023 decision to temporarily suspend funding to two projects after the NGOs involved were alleged to have incited hatred and violence related to the events of October 7.)

NGO Monitor’s detailed open-source research shows that the EU provides grants to NGOs that claim to promote human rights, but:

  • portray the attacks of October 7, 2023 as legitimate acts of “resistance,” thereby seeking to justify or normalize terrorism;
  • publicly denied, minimized, or cast doubt on evidence of Hamas’ crimes, including documentation of systematic sexual violence against Israeli women.

Continued support for these NGOs, the absence of meaningful sanctions against violators of the new regulations, and the EU’s failure to publicly condemn NGO conduct has raised concerns regarding accountability and the enforcement of funding standards.

In parallel, the EU is major funder of NGOs that spearhead the genocide canard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other frameworks; lead lawfare campaigns calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict Israelis; and promote anti-Israel narratives, including the apartheid libel, and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions)  campaigns.

Second, despite repeated requests from members of the European Parliament, the European Commission has not launched a comprehensive investigation into evidence-based allegations that Hamas systematically sought to exploit Gaza’s international NGO sector. Declassified Hamas documents from 2018-2022 reveal the strategy of infiltrating and influencing humanitarian and civil society organizations, particularly entities participating in internationally funded aid programs. These findings have intensified questions  regarding the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms, and the vulnerability of European-funded projects to manipulation, diversion, and abuse. 

Third, on European soil, organizations linked to groups designated as terrorist organizations by the EU, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), engage in advocacy and lobbying efforts aimed at securing arrest warrants against Israeli civilians and former members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Some of these organizations have also gained access to European institutions and parliamentary forums, where they advocate policies and narratives aligned with the interests of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

Examples of Ongoing EU Funding to Problematic NGOs

MIFTAHーThe Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy

According to the EU Financial Transparency System, in the years 2024-2028 the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) is a partner in a €3.5 million EU-funded project entitled “Recentering the Civic Internet through Partner Engagement (ReCIPE).”  

On the morning of the October 7 massacre, MIFTAH’s Executive Director, Tahreer Al Araj, published: “Gaza the powerful … May Allah protect you” (on file with NGO Monitor).

Parliamentary Question and Response

In May 2026, the European Commission (EC) answered a parliamentary question submitted in November 2025 by German MEP Niclas Herbst (EPP) on EU funding to MIFTAH. In its response, the EC admitted it “was made aware about allegations that the organisation MIFTAH, funded by the EU, published statements about Israel and the 7 October 2023 events that would be allegedly incompatible with the EU’s contractual obligations of anti-incitement of violence and hatred.

“The Commission treats allegations concerning EU-funded partners with the utmost seriousness and is actively reviewing the statements brought to its attention, as part of its ongoing procedures. To date, no evidence of any breach of principles or contractual obligations has been identified. The process remains under continuous review” (emphasis added).

Euromed Feminist Initiative (EFI)

According to the EU Financial Transparency System, in the period of 2015-2026, the EU has provided €10.6 million to Euromed Feminist Initiative (EFI). EFI is currently implementing three EU-funded projects totalling €2.75 millions. 

EFI board member Amal Khreishe serves as General Manager of Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), an EFI member NGO. She shared a video lauding the October 7th attack and depicting Hamas fighters paragliding next to the Dome of the Rock.

  • EFI board members serve in senior positions at NGOs in several Middle Eastern countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, West Bank and Gaza, and Turkey). These local NGOs also receive funding from European governments and from EFI.
  • One member of EFI is “the women’s framework” of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), an Israeli-designated terror organization that participated with Hamas and other Palestinian groups in the October 7 attacks. This NGO, Palestinian Federation of Women’s Action Committees (PFWAC), regularly posts pictures of DFLP activists wearing military gear and DFLP paraphernalia.

    Selected screenshot (2023) taken from PFWAC’s Facebook account 

Parliamentary Question and Response

In April 2025, the European Commission (EC) answered a parliamentary question submitted in October 2024 by German MEP Niclas Herbst (EPP) on EU funding to EFI. In its response, the EC claimed it “is currently verifying all the elements reported in the quoted article and provided by NGO Monitor. After a complete review of these allegations, the Commission will act in line with contractual provisions and the EU Financial Regulation.” The EC never published the conclusions of its review into the group.

Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center

According to the EU Financial Transparency System, in the period of 2024-2028, the EU is providing Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center with €1 million for a project entitled “Faithful Futures: Religious Leaders for Accountability, Justice and Peace through the Two-State Solution.” As described in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) database, the project, apparently funded through the EU Peacebuilding Initiative instrument (approved under the previous Commission), “seeks to preserve from further erosion and possibly reverse the negative public perception of the prospect for peace and a two-state solution.”

  • Sabeel, through its “liberation theology” agenda – casting Palestinians as the modern-day version of Jesus, blaming the State of Israel and Zionism for their “suffering” – demonizes the existence of Israel and promotes antisemitic tropes. For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “EU Funds NGO Promoting Antisemitic Imagery and Theology.”
  • In March 2024 (nine months before the beginning of the EU grant), Sabeel published a report titled “Holy Week with Gaza,” in which the NGO, applying “liberation theology,” explicitly recasts Palestinians as the modern-day version of Jesus, blaming the State of Israel and Zionism for their “suffering.” The report’s table of contents includes highly antisemitic chapter titles, such as “Failure of International Community: Judas Plans to Betray Jesus”; “Nakba: Jesus Condemned to Die”; “Refugees: The Cross”; “Cutting of Access to Food, Water, and Electricity: Jesus Nailed to the Cross”; “Rafah and Ongoing Genocide: ‘My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me’”; “Engineered Famine: Jesus’ Death;”; and “31,000 killed: The Burial of Jesus” (emphases added). 

  • In a statement from Sabeel for New Year’s 2025, Sabeel founder Naim Ateek stated that “Our people will fear neither Israeli genocide nor Israeli erasure because, with our Muslim brothers and sisters, we say, God is Greater, knowing that God indeed stands above Israel’s evil snares and conspiracies and God will ultimately defeat the evil schemes of Zionism” (emphasis added).
  • Four days after the worst attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, on October 11, 2023, Sabeel published a statement referring to EU-designated Palestinian terror organizations as “armed Palestinian resistance groups.” Sabeel asserted that “it is pivotal to remember: Palestinians have been under attack, suffering dispossession and dehumanization from Zionism, for over 75 years; The continuation of Israel’s policies related to displacement, apartheid, and occupation has been facilitated by the backing of several dominant global powers, notably the U.S., which remains deeply involved in this conflict” (emphases added). Since then, Sabeel has falsely accused Israel of “genocide” and a “mass extermination campaign.”

Parliamentary Question and Response

On November 24, 2025, the European Commission (EC) answered a parliamentary question submitted in May 2025 by Belgian MEP Sophie Wilmès (Renew) on EU funding to Sabeel. In its response, the EC claimed it “has currently one ongoing grant contract with Sabeel” and “has verified all the elements of allegations highlighted in the written question and by NGO Monitor in accordance with its internal procedure. The conclusion is that none of the mentioned elements constitute a contractual breach related to incitement to hatred and violence” (emphasis added).

The EC’s response does not address Sabeel’s multiple violations of the provisions of the IHRA Working definition of antisemitism, endorsed and used by the European Union.

Systemic Hamas Control of NGOs in Gaza

Since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, the Hamas terror group has exploited NGOs there to tighten its grip on the enclave. In December 2025, based on declassified internal Hamas documents dated between 2018 and 2022,  NGO Monitor revealed the extent of Hamas’ infiltration and subordination of humanitarian organizations for its terrorist agenda – and evidence that all too many NGOs cooperated with Hamas’ surveillance, obstruction, and hijacking of aid. NGO Monitor’s analysis shows that some eight International NGOs appear in the Hamas various documents, and that during the 2018-2022 period they implemented EU-funded projects totalling €45 millions. For more information, see NGO Monitor’s report “Puppet Regime: International NGOs in the Gaza Terror State and the Involvement of EU-Funded NGOs”). 

In this context, in April 2026, the European parliament approved a discharge report for the 2024 budget. In it, the EP “[e]xpresses deep concerns over the report, on internal suspected Hamas documents … which allegedly indicate attempts of Hamas’ infiltration and monitoring through so-called ‘guarantors’ of international NGOs including within Union-funded humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip; recalls that, largely in response to the demands of Parliament, verification mechanisms have been further reinforced since 2023, including specific audits, risk analyses and additional external monitoring; stresses that any claim on any misuse of Union taxpayer funds should be carefully verified and urges the Commission to investigate all allegations of any type of undue infiltration and influence within Union-funded humanitarian projects and to suspend or recover Union funding where breaches are confirmed; underlines that any allegation of misuse of Union funds indirectly diverted to terrorist organisations undermines the integrity of Union assistance; [and] warns that in armed conflicts, disinformation and information warfare pursued for strategic purposes are common practices” (emphasis added).

Several parliamentary questions and letters had been submitted to the Commission to draw attention to this matter. However, rather than launch an official investigation into the allegations, the Commission downplayed the concerns, arguing that its requests to the Israeli authorities to verify the authenticity of the documents had remained unanswered. 

NGOs in the EU Acting on Behalf  of Terror Groups

Hind Rajab Foundation

Founded and registered in Belgium in 2024, the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) initiates legal proceedings seeking the arrest of Israelis who have served in the IDF. Its chairman, Dyab Abou Jahjah, has strong, documented ties to Hezbollah.

  • In a 2003 New York Times article, Abou Jahjah claimed he had “joined the Hezbollah resistance against Israel” and “had some military training, I’m still very proud of that.” 
  • In a 2024 eulogy for Hassan Nasrallah, Jahjah claimed he met the Hezbollah leader in 2001. In the same article, Belgium Prime Minister at that time, Guy Verhofstadt, called Abou Jahjah a “threat to the society.”
  • According to information provided by Israeli security officials to the Jerusalem Post in February 2025, Abou-Jahjah is linked, by family and business ties, to several actors designated as part of Hezbollah’s vast terror funding network. According to this report, Abou Jahjah is also included in the US government’s “No Fly” list.
  • On September 25, 2024, Jahjah stated that “in 2009, as director of the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine, I organized visits for Hezbollah’s political leadership to several European countries, including the UK …. We met with various prominent figures in the UK.”
  • In November 2001, Jahjah described the 9/11 attacks on the United States as “sweet revenge.”
  • In 2005, Jahjah defended former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map, writing that “his position on this matter is the only possible moral one.”

In November 2025, NGO Monitor uncovered that Hind Rajab Foundation was invited by Europol to speak at its annual meeting in The Hague. 

Parliamentary Question and Response

On March 23, 2026, the European Commission (EC) answered a parliamentary question submitted in December 2025 by several MEPs on “Europol cooperation with Hezbollah-linked Hind Rajab Foundation.” In its response, the EC stated that “according to information received from Europol, the meeting with the Hind Rajab Foundation took place in the context of Europol’s support as regards Core International Crimes. The contact with the Hind Rajab Foundation was exploratory.” Reflecting a lack of due diligence, the EC detailed that “this meeting was preceded by an assessment on the nature and activities of the Hind Rajab Foundation. Europol has not engaged in further contacts with this foundation” (emphasis added).

Euro-Med Monitor

In 2013, as Director of Euro-Med Monitor, Abdu addressed a Hamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs-organized conference, “Activating the role of Palestinian communities abroad.” Abdu sat next to Ghazi Hamad, at the time the Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister.

  • Despite its multiple links to terror and its incendiary rhetoric, Euro-Med Monitor has gained significant influence – organizing events with senior UN officials, and serving as a key source for an inflammatory New York Times opinion piece – indicating that Hamas-linked actors have successfully penetrated institutions widely viewed as respectable and credible. For instance: 
    • In March 2024, MEP Rima Hassan, at the time candidate for the EP elections, spoke at a Euro-Med Monitor side event at the UN Human Rights Council.
    • In December 2019, Euro-Med Monitor met with then-MEP Marc Tarabella. Notably, Tarabella was later “charged with public corruption, money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation for his alleged involvement in the scandal known as ‘Qatargate.’”