Israel on Friday called on the European Union to halt funding to more than a dozen European and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that promote boycotts against Israel, saying the financial support violates the EU's own stated policy that it opposes boycotts against the Jewish state.
The Strategic Affairs Ministry published a report listing groups that it said receive EU funding and call for boycotts against Israel. It said some of the EU-funded groups maintain links to terrorist groups.
The report is the latest move by Israel in its fight against the global movement calling for businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel, and it includes thousands of volunteers around the world.
"The State of Israel expects the EU to act with full transparency and reveal the scope of its financial aid to organizations that have ties to terror and promote boycotts against Israel," the report said.
"Israel strongly urges the EU to fully implement in practice its declared policy of rejecting boycotts against Israel, and to immediately halt funding to organizations that promote anti-Israel boycotts and delegitimization."
The EU said in a statement that it had not received any "communication from the government of Israel" over the report, and it is confident its "financing does not go to support terrorism" or boycott efforts.
"We are, of course, happy to review any relevant information received concerning EU-funded activities. Money from the EU budget may only be spent for the purpose for which it was contracted, under strict transparency rules, and is subject to extensive monitoring requirements," the EU statement said.
Anti-Israel NGOs received a total of €5 million ($5.9 million) in 2016, the last year for which data was available, according to the ministry's report. Millions of additional euros have also reached the NGOs through indirect funding, the ministry said.
It accused some of the NGOs of having links to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Norwegian People's Aid, which received more than €1.7 million ($2 million) in 2016. It said the Norwegian group had links to Palestinian terrorist groups and published a report in 2016 calling for financial institutions to divest from companies that operate in Israel.
The U.S. Justice Department announced in April that the Norwegian group had reached a settlement with the United States over accusations that it had provided "training and expert advice or assistance" to Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and several other countries, as well as to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Iran. As part of the settlement, the Norwegian group "admitted to and accepted responsibility for its conduct" and agreed to pay the U.S. more than $2 million.
Other groups singled out in Friday's report include the British organization War on Want, the Dutch anti-war group PAX, and a number of Palestinian groups, including PNGO Net, an umbrella organization that works to coordinate Palestinian civil society, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which has ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and has tried to have Israeli officials arrested in England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and New Zealand for supposed war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
These groups have called for sanctions on Israeli settlements and an end to special trade agreements between the EU and Israel.
In the report, the ministry also details the EU's indirect funding of the Al-Haq organization, which has ties to the PFLP and is a leader in the campaign to delegitimize Israel. In 2017, Al-Haq published a report recommending that the French government pressure French financial institutions to "disengage without delay from any financial link with the Israeli banking system" and create "a legislative proposal prohibiting enterprises from all sectors to invest in the settlements."
The ministry emphasized that EU member states often independently fund these organizations on top of the EU's funding, so the scope of European financing is likely on an even wider scale.
"It is inconceivable that taxpayers' money in Europe comes to organizations that promote boycotts against Israel, some of which are connected to terrorist organizations," Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said.
"I expect the European Union to uphold its declared policy not to support boycott organizations and to stop meddling in Israel's internal affairs."
Another organization the EU funds in violation of its own policies is the Mossawa Center, an NGO that opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state, encourages insubordination in the military, advocates for the rights of Arab citizens in Israel, and opposes Israel's state symbols, such as the flag with its Star of David, which it says are meant "for Jews only."
According to a report by right-wing organization Im Tirtzu, the EU has donated millions of shekels in recent years to the Mossawa Center.
The center supports a Palestinian right of return and has published a paper saying that the State of Israel was "founded on the ruins of the Palestinian people." It also routinely accuses Israel of war crimes and apartheid.
In 2009, the center called on a Norwegian pension fund to stop investing in Israel.
Although the Mossawa Center does not publicize information on the donations it receives from the EU on its website as required by law, it received nearly 5.6 million shekels ($1.6 million) from the EU in the last five years, according to the Registrar of Associations.
Im Tirtzu head Matan Peleg called on the EU to "abandon its obsession with vilifying the Jewish state, the only country in the Middle East that affords [its citizens] human and civil rights."
He said, "It sometimes seems as if the European Union's hypocrisy toward Israel is an incurable disease. Shame!"
The Mossawa Center issued a statement saying, "We are proud of the activities the European Union supports for the realization of the right for the employment of Arab women in the periphery, the housing crisis … and youth unemployment caused by the discriminatory policies of the Israeli government. The organization is fully transparent and has undergone international and local reviews."
The EU has recommended member states put special labels on exports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It has stopped short of banning settlement products, but they do not receive the same tax exemptions that products made in Israel receive.
The EU has upheld the free expression rights of its citizens to call for a boycott of Israel but has stressed that as a body it opposes any boycott of Israel.
