By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute—
For many years, Palestinians have received unconditional funding from Western donors.
Here is how it worked: Palestinian organizations would submit an application for funding, and the donors would automatically sign the check or approve the wire transfer of millions of dollars or euros to the Palestinians’ bank accounts.
In a nutshell, the Palestinian attitude regarding Western funding has always been along the following lines: “You Westerners owe us this money because you contributed to the establishment of Israel after World War II. Thus, you have no right to set any conditions for the funding. Just give us the money and shut up. Any refusal to comply with our demands will result in our rage, and possibly terrorism and other forms of violence, not only against Israel, but also against you ‘infidels’ in the West.”
Against this backdrop, it is easy to understand why Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now furious with the European Union (EU). Recently, the EU and its member countries have had the audacity to demand that EU taxpayer money not end up in the hands of terrorists or terrorist organizations.
The donor countries, in other words, appear finally to have woken up to the fact that their money has been going into the coffers of Muslim terrorists and Arab extremists who continue to call and work for the elimination of Israel.
There are signs, however, that the EU is about to surrender to Palestinian pressure and threats.
During a May 19, 2020 meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, Oliver Varhelyi, Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, stated that he had instructed the heads of EU delegations to Israel and West Bank/Gaza to “look deep” into the allegations that some EU funds go to terror-linked or terror-supporting NGOs, declaring that such funding “will not be tolerated.”
The announcement came in wake of concerns that the EU, under pressure from the Palestinian NGOs, has backtracked on its condition for providing funds to the Palestinians.
In a May 30, 2020 “clarification” letter to the Palestinian NGO Network, the head of the EU Representative Office to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, explained that the EU “does not ask any civil society organization to change its political position towards any Palestinian faction or discriminate against any natural person based on his/her political affiliation.” Continue Reading…..