Sigmar Gabriel, German Foreign Minister
Sigmar Gabriel, German Foreign MinisterReuters

Germany funds a large number of Israeli, Palestinian and European organizations active within the Israeli-Arab conflict, according to a report by the research institute NGO Monitor. The funding is transferred via federal agencies, political foundations, church organizations and humanitarian organizations. Some of these organizations are active within BDS and/or praise terror and violence and/or employ anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery.

For example, The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs(PASSIA) is an Israel-based NGO which receives funds from the German Society for International Cooperation(GIZ) as well as from the Friedrich Ebert foundation belonging to the Social Democrat party. The NGO described the wave of stabbing attacks in 2015 as a "youth uprising" and gave positive mention to terrorist Baha Elian, who murdered three Jews on a bus in Armon Hanatziv in October 2015. Elian is termed a 'martyr' on the PASSIA site.

The Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, a leader of BDS and lawfare campaigns, has been receiving direct German government funding since 2013, as well as indirect funding through the German-funded NGO Medico International (MI). Al-Haq’s General Director, Shawan Jabarin, has alleged ties to the PFLP and has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan.

MI also funds the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian NGO that was founded in 1968 by members of the PFLP and is an official PFLP “affiliate.” UAWC was identified by USAID as the agricultural arm of the PFLP.

A German-funded project on “strengthening non-violent initiatives” (2013-2016) involved the Palestinian NGO Popular Struggle Coordination Committees (PSCC) – an organization that has organized protests that have turned violent. PSCC’s Twitter activity (December 2015 and onward) repeatedly employs “martyr” rhetoric and showcases photos of demonstrators hurling rocks. PSCC board member Manal Tamimi has promoted terrorism, violence, and virulent antisemitic rhetoric and imagery, as well as using Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric on her Twitter account.

NGO Monitor has informed the German federal program of these issues surrounding its project with PSCC. Although there was no government response, PSCC no longer appears as a partner.

Professor Gerald Steinberg, the president of NGO Monitor, says that the funding of Breaking the Silence and Be'Tselem is not the main problem , but rather the funding by Germany and European governments of organizations which are fighting the right of the Jewish people to live in its country. We have a window of opportunity to initiate a high-level discussion of this matter in the most direct way and which will lead to the rectification of this situation.

Olga Deutsch. Director of the Europe Desk at NGO Monitor added that the organization had been trying for years to raise awareness of European policymakers regarding the funding of terror-supporting organizations. Recently a member of the German parliament belonging to the German Foreign Minister's party published a media statement in which she described the funding of such organizations as "outrageous" and called for direct dialog between governments and adopting regulations regarding funding.