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Dutch government cuts money to Palestinian people | West Bank News

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Ramallah, from the West Bank – The Dutch government says it will no longer fund any of the six major human rights and human rights organizations in Palestine that Israel banned as “terrorist groups” in October 2021.

Mu a words In protest of Wednesday’s ruling, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) from Ramallah – which the Dutch government has been providing assistance to since 2013 – “this is the first time the government has been able to fund Palestinian organizations based on political policy.”

The UAWC provides humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, including the rehabilitation of vulnerable areas occupied by Israel. It supports thousands of farmers in Area C – more than 60 percent of the West Bank, which is under the direct control of Israeli forces, as well as where many illegal Israeli settlements and infrastructure are located.

The group said it was considering legal action against the “harmful and unjust sentence” of the Dutch government, which, it warned, “could overtake our party”.

In October 2021, Israel banned six organizations as “terrorist groups” on the pretext that they are affiliated with the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The move has been widely criticized by international organizations and freedom groups as “unjust” and “baseless” as the Israeli government has not provided evidence (PDF) to prove his point.

The election of Israel tied six allies to the PFLP, which was established in the Second Intifada (2000-2005) when it committed acts of aggression against Israel and its armed forces.

Five of these organizations are Palestinian: the Addameer prisoners’ rights group; Al-Haq Freedom Group; Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC); Bisan Center for Research and Development; and UAWC. Sixth is the Palestinian head of the Defense for Children International organization based in Geneva.

External comment

The Dutch government’s decision follows an 18-month suspension from the UAWC.

In July 2020, the Dutch Ministry of Commerce and Development ordered a review after the arrest of two Palestinian staff members. Workers here are now being accused by Israel of being the perpetrators of the August 2019 bombing that killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl near an illegal Israeli facility in Dolev in the West Bank.

The study, compiled by Proximities Risk Consultancy from the Netherlands, began in February 2021 and affected between 2007 and 2020, when UAWC received Dutch funding. The findings were presented Wednesday in the Dutch parliament.

Although an external comment stated that the two workers “received a portion of their salaries from Dutch donations,” there is no evidence of financial transaction between the UAWC and the PFLP, or the cooperation between the UAWC and the PFLP military. The investigation also found that no evidence was found of employees or board members who used their role in the gang to target terrorists.

“And no evidence has been found of any agreement between the UAWC and the PFLP or that the PFLP is providing advice to the UAWC,” the review said, simply finding political and private “PFLP alliances between the UAWC. Staff and board members and the PFLP.”

“The approach says the UAWC cannot expect to know about public relations with the PFLP,” the review continues.

‘More political information’

In a statement Wednesday, the UAWC said the Dutch government’s idea of ​​”strange and very disturbing” “took” a number of connections “identified by Proximities – said to be linked to secret board members and staff at UAWC and PFLP.

Emphasizing that “it would not interfere (and it does not want) to undermine the political beliefs of its members and its staff members and board members”, the UAWC said in a statement. he endorsed and promoted “Israel’s approach to Palestinian non-governmental organizations” through the political alliances with which the people work.

“All of this is diverting the international interest in Israeli kidnapping and the occupation of many Palestinian territories and their brutal repression of Palestinian civilians living in the military,” the UAWC said.

Martin Konecny, director of the Belgium-based European Middle East Project, he explained the Dutch move as “extremist” and “without legal and anti-terrorist motives”. He said the report reads a lot about what the Israeli government has to say.

Since 1967, Israel has banned more than 400 Palestinian organizations and foreign powers as “enemies” or “illegal”, including all major Palestinian political parties, such as the Fatah dictator of the Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which Israel signed the 1993 Oslo Accords. .

The leaders of Israel have done the same announced this in many charities and in the newspapers in Palestine, and used them to destroy their offices, issue laws to detain, detain and detain people, and to constantly test people to work for the use of human rights and to condemn the Israeli occupation, which is considered illegal under international law.



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