Germany largest foreign donor to Israeli human rights NGOs

Over NIS 500 million was donated to groups involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict from 2012-2016

By SARAH LEVI
Updated: FEBRUARY 25, 2020 15:19
Left-wing activists rally in favor of Oslo Accords 370 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS)
Left-wing activists rally in favor of Oslo Accords 370 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Germany tops European countries in the amount of funding it provides to Israeli political advocacy and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) working with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The German government provided some NIS 50 million to 39 NGOs over the last five years, according to a report released Monday by NGO Monitor.
Germany was followed on the list by the European Union, Norway and the Netherlands.
The report revealed that from 2012-2016 a total of NIS 515,804,616 was transferred to Israeli political advocacy and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Out of that, 60.1% (NIS 310,032,692) came either directly or indirectly from governments, almost all of them from Europe.
The United States came up ninth in the list of government funding to Israeli NGO's with NIS 11,760,571.
The remaining 39.87% (NIS 205,686,924) came from private donors.
The highest private donations came from the New Israel Fund (NIF) providing 13% from a list of eight groups and foundations which included: the Sigrid Rausing Trust which provided 10%, the Open Society Foundation with 7% and Amnesty International with 6%.
The report also found that church groups and Christian organizations provided some 20% of the total amount funded and according to the report much of this originated with European governments.
"A large percentage of the government-funded church bodies are themselves involved in anti-Israeli campaigns abroad, including BDS, lawfare, and other delegitimization campaigns against Israel," claimed NGO Monitor in a statement.
Itai Reuveni, director of the Israel desk at NGO Monitor said, "Politicized NGOs play a central role in the discussion of human rights in the Arab-Israeli conflict. An informed debate on the activities of these groups requires transparency in their funding."
NGO Monitor is a Jerusalem based research group that provides information and analysis on NGO's with an agenda to promote human rights.


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