The Dutch Parliament passed a resolution on Tuesday to condition funding of Palestinian NGOs on their recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
The parliamentary move is being made two months after a violent attack in Amsterdam against visiting Israeli soccer fans by a mob of rioters, many of them Muslim, in early November. It also comes as a new government in Holland has started to address a lack of vetting and transparency that has existed for years, enabling the funding of non-governmental aid organizations to reach terror groups designated as such by the European Union.
The motion was passed in a tight 70-67 vote in the Dutch House of Representatives.
“In no circumstance may Dutch taxpayer money end up in the hands of terrorists,” Dutch Parliament member Chris Stoffer, who put forward the resolution, told JNS on Wednesday. “From now on, there will be more control and transparency of cash flows, and organizations must recognize the State of Israel and its right to exist.”
Stoffer, a member of a Conservative Christian party, is a co-chair of the Dutch Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus.
Olga Deutsch, vice president of NGO Monitor, an independent Jerusalem-based research organization that has long highlighted the systematic lack of vetting and oversight mechanisms, stated: “We welcome this law as the necessary next step in correcting these fundamental NGO funding and oversight failures.”
Billions of euros have been diverted to antisemitic and anti-Israel entities, she said, noting that “the need to change these practices became even more salient” after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The policy change also comes after Dutch lawmakers were stunned to learn at a hearing in November that the previous government had failed to stop such funding, despite their acknowledgment that they had effectively subsidized the salaries of two Palestinians in a terror-linked NGO who were convicted in the murder of a 17-year-old Israeli teen in 2019. The killers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated a terror group by the European Union, as well as employees of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, based in Ramallah. The UAWC has received some 20 million euros from the Dutch government in the last decade-plus.
“This resolution is a great move in the right direction, and I hope that it becomes actionable in terms of future Dutch funding,” said Shaun Sacks, a senior researcher at NGO Monitor who had testified in the Dutch Parliament on the issue in November.
“We cannot accept that millions of euros disappear into unknown destinations, ending up in the hands of terrorists who use taxpayers’ money to fund terror and murder Jews,” said Leo van Doesburg, Europe director of the Israel Allies Foundation. “I applaud this initiative ensuring that funds support individuals and organizations that seek peace with the Jewish state rather than its destruction.”
