Israel wields influence to block foreign funding to Palestinian NGOs
Apparently at Israel's request, some Palestinian nongovernmental organizations are losing their financial support from abroad over allegations of their links to terrorism.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Some international donors recently stopped funding Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that, according to Israel, participate in boycott campaigns against it or glorify Palestinians who have carried out attacks against Israelis. The donors include the United Nations, Denmark and Norway.
On May 26, Norway said it would halt funding to a Palestinian women's center, a project of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women. The West Bank center in Burqa, Nablus province, aims to promote women’s participation in elections, but is named after Dalal Mughrabi, a woman who led a 1978 attack in Tel Aviv by hijacking a bus and killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children. Israel obviously considers Mughrabi a terrorist, yet she is called a freedom fighter and war hero in Burqa.
Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Borge Brende issued a strong statement saying the Palestinian Authority (PA) used Norwegian financial support to build a women’s center that glorifies a terrorist.
“We will not enter into any new agreements with either the Palestinian Election Commission or UN Women in Palestinian areas until satisfactory procedures are in place to ensure that nothing of this nature happens again,” he said.
