On October 25, 2023, Switzerland Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) announced the suspension of funds to 11 NGOs (6 Palestinian and 5 Israeli) pending “an in-depth analysis of the compliance of these organizations’ communications with the FDFA’s Code of Conduct and anti-discrimination clause, to which external partners are subject.”

As reported in media, “the suspension affects some CHF2.3 million ($2.5 million) out of a total commitment of CHF4.78 million to fund the activities of NGOs in the region. Switzerland says there is no indication that funds are being used to benefit Hamas, but there are clearly concerns about the political neutrality of some NGOs.”

The amount provided by Switzerland in 2022 and the project category (portfolio) under which each NGO is listed by EDA are in parentheses. 1

Palestinian NGOs

  1. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR, CHF 342,300, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality) – PCHR has reported ties to the PFLP terror group. The NGO and its employees justify violence targeting Israeli civilians.
  1. Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO, CHF 186,200, EDA Portfolio 4 – Local Governance and Essential Service Delivery) – PNGO has reported ties to the PFLP terror group.
  • In November 2021, PNGO condemned the decision of the British government to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.
  • On October 8, 2023, PNGO published a statement: “The Palestinian people are living in a national liberation phase and do not deal with the illusions of peace that is based on imposing a fait accompli. They are resisting this with all valor and sacrifice. The world must wake up today in order to achieve the rights [of the Palestinians] by prosecuting the occupying state, boycotting it, and imposing sanctions on it…” (translated from the original Arabic by NGO Monitor, emphases added).
  1. MIFTAH: Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (CHF 177,000, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • Miftah regularly promotes “resistance” (a euphemism for terror attacks) and glorifies terrorists. Miftah also utilizes anti-Israel rhetoric, such as accusing Israel of perpetrating “massacres,” “cultural genocide,” “war crimes,” and “apartheid.”
  • In an interview with Democracy Now!, Hanan Ashrawi, founder and chair of the MIFTAH Board of Directors denied Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, calling accusations of massacres, rape, and beheading of children “nonsense.”
  1. Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC, CHF 184,000, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • JLAC is highly active in promoting BDS campaigns, lobbying international bodies, and utilizing highly inflammatory rhetoric.
  • In 2010, JLAC published We Have Names, We Have a Homeland, which alleges that “brutality and sadism is the true face of Zionism and the State of occupation” and accuses Israel of “savage,” “abhorrent,” and “fascist” practices. The book continues to ask, “Has the history of humanity ever known such brutality as practiced at the hands of Israel…?”
  1. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC, CHF 360,500, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • Accuses Israel of “collective punishment,” “human rights violations,” “women’s rights violations,” and seeking “to “suppress resistance” by “targeting civil society in order to obtain land and continue to undermine the economic stability, the growth and the development of Palestinian society.”
  • On October 15, 2023, WCLAC signed a joint statement calling on “European leaders” to “eradicate the root causes of the ongoing violence, namely, Israel’s seven-decade long settler-colonial enterprise and oppression of the Palestinian people.” On October 17, it signed a joint statement accusing Israel of “apartheid,” “war crimes,” and “incitement to genocide.”

Israeli NGOs

  1. 7amleh (CHF 148,000, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • On October 12, 2023, Advocacy Manager Jalal Abukhater tweeted, “Europe exported an ideology of ethnic-supremacy prone to commit genocidal violence.. all the way to our blessed little land. They called it Zionism, and it is ceaseless.”
  1. Gisha (CHF 80,300, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • Employs “apartheid” rhetoric and vocabulary based on international law and human rights to promote a partisan political and ideological agenda.
  • In January 2021, Gisha published an article titled “Naming the reality,” writing that the “word apartheid evokes revulsion, as it should. There are undoubtedly differences between the apartheid regime in South Africa and Israel, but the thread that connects them is undeniable.”
  • On October 10, 2023, Gisha Executive Director Tania Hary tweeted, “Today many asked me a version of the question ‘how much longer do they have?’ in reference to the siege. Do they mean how long until they starve to death? I can’t say. Maybe ask Israeli officials how many people in Gaza have to die before the thirst for vengeance is quenched.”
  1. Hamoked (CHF 354,000, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  1. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I, CHF 214,200, EDA Portfolio 4 – Local Governance and Essential Service Delivery)
  • Under the guise of medical expertise and scientific fact, PHR-I promotes distorted and false narratives, aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing Israel in the international arena.
  1. Adalah (CHF 202,400, EDA Portfolio 2 – Rule of Law, Protection and Gender Equality)
  • Adalah rejects the legitimacy of the Jewish state, attempting to portray it as inherently racist and discriminatory. Adalah supports a “transformation [of Israel] in to a transnational regime in all historical Palestine,” i.e. a one-state formula. (translation by NGO Monitor)
  • On October 11, 2023, Adalah posted a statement claiming, “The extremist, racist Israeli government is using the attacks by Palestinian militants as a pretext to launch illegal attacks and commit war crimes toward ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
  • On October 17, Adalah published a statement claiming that “The tactic of arming civilians is imported from Israeli settlers in the West Bank, as a means of exercising control through terror…The Israeli government is now capitalizing on the rage and anxiety of Israelis, amid the fog of war, to entrench its system of apartheid in policing, as part of its supremacist policy.”

US-Based

  1. Al-Shabaka (CHF 61,500, EDA Portfolio 1 – Conflict Prevention and Peace Promotion)
  • Al-Shabaka rhetoric includes accusations of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” “genocide,” “collective punishment,” and “war crimes,” as well as supporting a Palestinian “right of return.”
  • Since October 7, 2023, Al-Shabaka’s employees have made tens of declarations justifying or contextualizing Hamas massacre.
  • On October 8, Al-Shabaka tweeted, “Al-Shabaka rejects the Israeli Regime’s colonial borders that work to fragment and ultimately erase Palestinian existence. Breaching these boundaries expands the Palestinian imaginary for possibilities of both resistance and collective freedom. We recognize that decolonization is not a metaphor; it is not merely statements or analysis, but an active process that demands the dismantling of colonial power and the reclamation of land. We stand alongside those committed to this effort and to the liberation of Palestinians worldwide.”