Tzipi Hotovely
Tzipi HotovelyForeign Ministry Spokesperson

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) on Tuesday outlined her plan to fight the European funding of anti-Israel radical leftist groups, and her plans have already begun to be acted on.

Over the course of Tuesday and one day last week Hotovely held a series of meetings with foreign ministers, deputy foreign ministers and ambassadors of European states that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has revealed as being behind funding of radical Israeli organizations that act against the state.

According to reports the deputy foreign minister warned Israel could legislate to criminalize the rampant funding of extremist NGOs by European states.

Hotovely explained to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday that "we are demanding from European states that donate millions of euros to immediately stop the direct funding of delegitimization organizations, that (act) under the guise of human rights organizations."

A source in the Foreign Ministry told Arutz Sheva that "the European funding for human rights groups active in Israeli territory is the highest in the world relatively speaking," showing the unbalanced European focus on Israel.

According to the source, European governments transfer between 100-200 million euros (roughly $109-219 million) every year to radical groups that act to delegitimize the Jewish state.

As an example, the Foreign Ministry revealed that the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law organization based at the legal faculty of Birzeit University received $10.5 million from the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Holland.

The money was meant to fund 24 anti-Israel politicized organizations, including B'Tselem, Doctors for Human Rights, Adalah, The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Breaking the Silence and others.

Other ministry figures show that in 2014 the governments of Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the EU transferred over 415,000 shekels (over $100,000) to the organization Coalition of Women for Peace, a feminist group calling to boycott Israel and impose sanctions against it, while also calling for Israel to be accused of "war crimes."

It has been revealed that radical groups funded by Europe are also promoting illegal Arab settlement, and in particular are working to erase the ancient Jewish village of Susya in southern Judea.

In her meetings with the European diplomats, Hotovely presented to them the figures on European funding of radical groups that work against Israel, and warned that if they do not remedy the matter themselves Israel will be forced to pass laws preventing the European funding.

The European diplomats said in response that the issue would be thoroughly checked.

In parallel, Hotovely ordered Israeli representatives throughout Europe to demand that the European foreign ministers increase the supervision of funds given internationally so that they are not given to harming Israel, in a call for a supervision mechanism.