Erdan calls countries to halt funding for BDS groups with terrorist ties

Ministry of Strategic Affairs reported a "100 links" shared between terrorist groups, such as Hamas, and 13 BDS supporting NGOs.

MARCH 4, 2019 11:35

Gilad Erdan (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST) — Gilad Erdan

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan called on interior, internal security and justice ministers across the world to halt funding to NGOs that push for boycotting Israel in a letter on Monday.

"It is unthinkable that terrorists who present themselves as human rights activists are going around to European parliaments’ receiving legitimacy and funding from them," Erdan wrote in a letter to 10 countries. "I urge my counterparts to put an end to the fraud stemming from BDS."

Erdan is basing his claims off of two reports published by the Strategic Affairs Ministry in 2019. One of the reports detailed the €5 million in annual funding the European Union distributes to organizations which promote boycotting Israel. The second report asserts "100 links" shared between terrorist groups, such as Hamas, and 13 BDS supporting NGOs. This report is titled "Terrorists in Suits."

"I urge you to examine the activities of the boycott organizations operating in your country and ensure that they do not advance the radical agenda of the terrorist organizations to which they are connected, and halt any activities or public funding they receive," Erdan said.

Samidoun, one of the NGOs mentioned in the report, claimed that the report was an attempt to incriminate Palestinian prisoners who are held in Israeli prisons, as well as an attempt to incriminate demonstrations held for them and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, in Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanese news site.

Samidoun's mission is to "build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners," according to their website.

Samidoun and Erdan have also traded barbs in June 2018, when Erdan pushed to lower prison conditions for terrorists.