In May last year, Denmark took the drastic step of suspending all funding to Palestinians NGOs after it was revealed money they had donated was used to build a centre in honour of a terrorist.
Now, the government of Denmark has confirmed that the majority of the aid which was suspended at the time will no longer be paid to the Palestinians. In addition, Denmark will review and strictly monitor all future donations to Palestinian charities moving forward.
The move has been praised by Daniel Laufer, a spokesman for NGO Monitor, whose organisation has identified various links between Palestinian charities and terrorist groups.
According to Laufer, “taken together with Norway’s decision reversing participation in the Secretariat NGO funding mechanism, and with parliamentary scrutiny in Switzerland and the Netherlands, Denmark’s action highlights the belated awareness among Europeans of the need for due diligence and full transparency in NGO funding.”
The Jerusalem Post reported the following:
Denmark will tighten the conditions for providing money to Palestinian NGOs, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said on Friday following a review of aid that came after revelations that European money went to a Palestinian women’s center named after a terrorist.
“It is important that there is confidence that Danish assistance is going for the right purposes,” Samuelsen said in a statement. “Therefore, I launched the Danish survey this summer, and today (24/12/2017) decided that there will be new and tight conditions for receiving Danish assistance in the future.”
Copenhagen will cut down on the number of Palestinian NGOs it supports, and they will come under “rigorous” supervision of where the funds are going, Samuelsen also said.
“Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations can play a key role in attenuating and over time resolving the high-tension conflict between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.
“Denmark supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I am sure it will strengthen the work that we will focus on Danish assistance in the future, so we are absolutely sure that the money is being used for the right purposes.”
The review followed revelations in May that a women’s center partly funded with European aid money in Burka, northwest of Nablus, was named after Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in the Coastal Road massacre in 1978 that killed 37 people.
Samuelsen also said that the “majority of aid” suspended from the summer while the review was under way will not be paid.
