Foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini of the European Union sent a sharp personal reply to Minister Gilad Erdan at the beginning of the month, asking him to present evidence of his "vague" and "baseless" claims that the EU finances terrorist activities and boycotts against Israel through non-governmental organizations, according to Haaretz.
In a document received by the daily, Mogherini responded to a report published by Erdan's office in May and sent to her which said that in 2016 the Union financed 14 European and Palestinian Authority associations that clearly and openly support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Rebutting her claim that the report mixes terrorism with the issue of boycott and creates unacceptable confusion in the eyes of the public regarding these two distinct phenomena, Erdan said that Mogherini "ignores clear evidence that BDS organizations that receive funding from it, directly or indirectly, are connected to or cooperate with terror organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front."