Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sjoerd Sjoerdsma responded to two sets of parliamentary questions, submitted by MP Rajkowski (VVD) and MPs Markuszower and Lammers (Markuszower Group), respectively. Both sets of questions related to the findings of NGO Monitor’s reports.
Captured Hamas documents analyzed by NGO Monitor indicate that German-funded NGOs in Gaza operated within a system tightly controlled by Hamas, which infiltrated NGO structures, dictated beneficiaries, and diverted humanitarian aid. This raises serious concerns about German taxpayer money supporting these activities.
Since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has employed a number of methods to divert international humanitarian aid to expand its military infrastructure, pay salaries, and cement its rule.
Many of the activities and projects undertaken by Swisspeace are highly politicized, reflecting ideological preferences, prejudices and biases that can interfere with the organization’s stated objectives. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the biases are highly visible.
Last week, both the European Union and Switzerland finalized internal reviews of their Palestinian aid portfolios, which had been initiated following the October 7 massacre.
NGO Monitor notes with regret that, as we have documented systematically, many of these policy recommendations reflect the advocacy and lobbying efforts of Palestinian political NGOs, including many EU-funded organizations.
On February 1, 2022, the highly politicized and terror-linked PNGO hosted an EU-funded conference, titled ”Shrinking Civic Space for Palestinian Civil Society Organizations: Local and International Policies.” The conference was attended by Head of the EU Delegation to the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sven Kühn Von Burgsdoff
On November 10, 2021, Juanna Sanchez Rishmawi, a fundraiser from 1993 for the West Bank-based NGO Health Work Committees (HWC), pled guilty to “carrying out services on behalf of a banned organization,” the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This case is part of wider allegations regarding the systematic diversion of European government funds that were provided to Palestinian NGOs for human rights and humanitarian work.
