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Israel groups pressing for checks on UK funding for Palestinian organisations
Groups claim some of the funding is being misused to 'promote violence' and 'hateful messages'
British supporters of Israel are backing a parliamentary push to place conditions on UK funding for Palestinian organisations, citing reports which allege that the money is being used to “promote violence”.
Groups such as the Zionist Federation, StandWithUs and UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) are pressing for action ahead of a parliamentary debate on 13 June, after a report from the European Coalition for Israel (ECI) which states that European aid donated to the Palestinian Authority is being “misused and exploited to promote violence and hateful messages”.
Lawyers based in Jerusalem helped compile the report which was sent to the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini last week, alleging that aid is still funding convicted terrorists, despite PA assurances in 2014 that it would not use Western funds to pay them.
Authors say: “In 2015, when Israel withheld PA tax money, the PA made cutbacks and announced that the salaries of prisoners who receive more than 2,000 NIS a month would be reduced by 60 percent… This demonstrates that the prisoners’ salaries are still being paid from the PA budget, and that the PA controls the allocation of those funds.”
The ECI, which has campaigned on this issue for more than a decade, also alleges that the Palestinians “institutionalise incitement to violence and radicalisation” and that PA textbooks “educate students to the delegitimisation and demonisation of Israel and of Jews”.
In the UK, politicians will review British taxpayers’ aid money sent to the Palestinian Authority by the Department for International Development (DfID), with a spokesman for the Zionist Federation saying that the debate “offers a unique opportunity”.
The ZF, which is promoting a petition and encouraging members of the Jewish community to email their local MPs, said: “The Palestinian Authority incites hatred against Israel and her Jewish inhabitants.”
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