Background

  • The Swedish government funds numerous Israeli and Palestinian NGOs through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Representative Office in Ramallah, and indirectly by outsourcing to Swedish aid organizations such as Diakonia and Kvinna till Kvinna.
  • One of Sida’s “overall objectives” for funding in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict is “Promot[ing] peacebuilding and the peace process.” However, as NGO Monitor’s research has shown, many NGOs receiving Swedish funding do not have a record that demonstrates competence to carry out this objective.
  • Additionally, many organizations lead campaigns and political activities that are inconsistent with Swedish government policies to promote peace and a two-state framework for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
  • For instance, certain organizations receiving Swedish funding oppose a two-state solution, disapprove of peace efforts, engage in anti-Semitic activities, and promote BDS efforts.
NGODestructive ActivitiesFundingSwedish Funding Framework
CWP- Coalition of Women for PeaceLeader of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns50,230 NIS (2012)

47,322 NIS (2013)
Diakonia 

Kvinna til Kvinna
AIC- Alternative Information CenterRejects the existence of a Jewish state; supports BDS1,260,000SEKDiakonia
PNGO- Paletinian Nongovernmental Organizations Network Opposes peace talks; supports BDSNot disclosed

Not disclosed
Diakonia

SIDA
BadilLeader of BDS campaigns; rejects the existence of a Jewish state; engages in antisemitic activitiesNot disclosedDiakonia
Sabeel Supports a one-state framework; leader of BDS campaigns; uses antisemitic theological rhetoric711,000SEKDiakonia

 

Examples of Swedish funding recipients:

Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), which describes  itself as “a feminist organization against the occupation of Palestine and for a just peace,” is a leader of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns, particularly via the “Who Profits” campaign it initiated. The “Who Profits” website serves as an “online database and information centre,” initiated “in response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel…” CWP officials have been photographed holding a flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – an EU-recognized terrorist organization responsible for numerous attacks against civilians. (After NGO Monitor informed CWP’s funders of this image, it was removed from CWP’s Facebook page.)

Alternative Information Center (AIC) “strongly opposes ‘normalisation’, – meaning cooperation and positive interactions between Israelis and Palestinians. Founder and head, Michael Warschawski  has said that “one has to unequivocally reject the very idea (and existence) of a Jewish state, whatever will be its borders,” and has written that “Peace, or, better, justice, cannot be achieved without a total decolonization (one can say de-Zionisation) of the Israeli State.

Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) is a Palestinian NGO umbrella organization comprising 92 Palestinian NGO member organizations. PNGO is one of the leaders of the political warfare campaign against Israel, and maintains a radical anti-peace agenda. In July 2013, PNGO opposed resumed negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, in part because progress in the peace process harms boycott efforts.

Badil was founded to promote a Palestinian “right of return” and is a leader in international BDS campaigns. In 2010 it signed a document explicitly rejecting the Roadmap for Peace and the Arab Peace Initiative, in sharp contradiction to the goals and policies of its government sponsors. BADIL also holds annual “right of return contests” in which it has published antisemitic cartoons on its website, as well as imagery promoting a one-state solution and denying Israel’s right to exist. After the antisemitic cartoons were publicly revealed by NGO Monitor, Switzerland froze the funding for this NGO.

Sabeel supports a “one-state” framework for the Arab-Israeli conflict, meaning the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.  Its “Vision for the Future” states, “The ideal and best solution has always been to envisage ultimately a bi-national state in Palestine-Israel… One state for two nations and three religions.” (emphasis added). The organization issued a paper, “Sabeel’s Call for Morally Responsible Investment, A Nonviolent Response to the Occupation,” calling on churches to “to divest/disinvest from companies and corporations that do not respond and comply with morally responsible investment and business practices.” Sabeel uses antisemitic deicide imagery against Israel and consistently disparages Judaism as “tribal,” “primitive,” and “exclusionary.”