A Palestinian group promoting the BDS movement has lost its funding from the European Union, after refusing to renounce ties with Palestinian groups linked to terrorism.
The E.U. on Friday informed the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee Rights in an official letter that it was canceling €1.7 million ($1.9 million) in funding for a three-year joint project titled, “Mobilizing for Justice in Jerusalem,” over the group’s objection to an anti-terrorism clause in the grant agreement.
“Based on your reply, we conclude that Badil cannot abide by the General Conditions as they stand and we are therefore obliged to consider your application no longer valid,” the E.U. letter stated, according to Badil.
According to BADIL’s website, the goal of the project was “enhancing the resilience of the Palestinians and highlighting Israeli human rights violations and international crimes in Jerusalem.”
The E.U. introduced the so-called anti-terrorism clause to its contracts with Palestinian NGOS in 2019, according to NGO Monitor. The clause (Annex G.2, Annex II, Article 1.5 bis) stipulates, “Grant beneficiaries and contractors must ensure that there is no detection of subcontractors, natural persons, including participants to workshops and/or trainings and recipients of financial support to third parties, in the lists of E.U. restrictive measures.”
These lists include E.U.-designated terrorist groups, including Hamas, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In December 2019, multiple Palestinian NGOs launched the “Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding,” claiming that the groups on the E.U. list were “Palestinian political and resistance factions.”
This marks the first time that the European Union has cancelled funding to a Palestinian organization over the clause.
