Press Releases

Against Terrorism and Against Conditional Funding: Statement of the Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding
Against Terrorism and Against Conditional Funding:  Statement of the Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding
PR/EN/301219/64
 
We, the Palestinian organizations signed below, announce our categorical rejection of politically conditional funding, regardless of the amount and even if it leads to the collapse of our organizations and the inability to perform our vital work.

The European Union and other donor institutions are stipulating the signing of the so-called anti-terrorism clauses and policies in order for Palestinian community-based and non-governmental organizations to obtain funding. These policies include labeling a number of Palestinian political and resistance factions, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al-Aqsa-Brigade-Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Front -  General Command as terrorist groups and organizations. In addition, the policies require Palestinian civil society to play the role of security accomplice against its people through the so-called procedures of “vetting” and “screening”.*
 
In recent years, Israeli and Zionist campaigns targeting Palestinian civil society, and its national non-governmental organizations, have escalated. In conjunction with this, funding constraints from various donors have escalated, which include conditions that we have resisted such as preventing engagement in the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS), the defense and promotion of the right of return, and programs and projects in areas such as the Gaza Strip , or Palestine 1948 (Israel). These conditions have reached an unacceptable level that stipulates the signing of the provisions on preventing terrorism that affect the history and struggle of our people. Undoubtedly, this escalation cannot be separated from all policies and approaches aimed at obliterating Palestinian national rights. This is occurring in the context of heightening Israeli colonial policies from confiscation, annexation, forced displacement, repression and abuse, to the institutionalization of racism, fragmentation and isolation, all of which constitute international crimes against our people. Rather than receiving support from the European Union and its member states, which should defend the Palestinian human rights movement, we are being coerced into complying with these anti-terrorism policies and conditions.  Signing such policy documents has become a prerequisite for funding.

And since Palestinian civil society’s efforts to persuade the European Union and other donor institutions to exclude this condition from the Palestinian context have been unsuccessful, we underscore the following:
  1. Politically conditioned funding is resolutely rejected in its entirety, regardless of the amount and whatever its justifications. The so-called screening and vetting procedures, which include subjecting members of the management bodies and staff of organizations, their contractors, service providers, and beneficiaries to examination under the guise of standard security measures are rejected and condemned. Further, these procedures are completely outside the responsibility and obligations of  civil society and non-governmental institutions.
  2. Palestinian political factions and forces are not terrorist organizations, and their popular, national, and legal statuses are not determined by a European document.
  3. The Palestinian civil society institutions, with their vast and varied fields of work, are an integral part of our people’s struggle for liberation from Israeli colonialism and apartheid.
  4. The right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli colonialism and apartheid by legitimate means until we attain our inalienable rights to self-determination and return is guaranteed by international law.
  5. Approval of the aforementioned European Union condition, or any other granting institution, that mars the history, dignity and rights of our people are rejected nationally, legally and morally.


Accordingly,

  1. We call on the European Union and its donor institutions to revoke this condition from any contracts with Palestinian civil society institutions.
  2. We demand the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Palestinian National Authority, and the Palestinian political forces, individually and collectively, to issue a clear declared position rejecting the European Union’s condition, and obliging it and all institutions willing to work in Palestine to cancel any condition criminalizing our people’s legitimate national struggle and political parties.
  3. We call on Palestinian civil society organizations to abstain from signing any conditional funding agreement that includes the anti-terrorism policies, and institutions that have signed such contracts, to terminate such agreements immediately.
  4. We call upon international civil society, especially those movements and organizations in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their rights, to condemn the conditional financing policy and pressure the European Union and its donor institutions to abolish this unjust condition.

This statement enunciates our position and launches the Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding, which will take additional steps and activities at the local and international levels, to stand against and resist the criminalization of Palestinian history, struggle, and rights and its political parties and attempts to implicate civil society in this  dangerous trap.

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* See ANNEX II (to the Contracts): General conditions applicable to European Union-financed grant contracts for external actions, Article 1.5 bis. (EU restrictive measures) and
Article 12.2/d. Consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to EU financial sanctions, and EU Sanctions Map
 
 
The Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding
  for endorsement, please contact: [email protected]
 
  • Global Palestinian Refugee Network (GPRN), a network of 40 member organizations world wide
  • Palestinian Coalition for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - ADALAH (a coalition of 70 Palestinian organizations)
  • Palestinian Network for Children's Rights (a Network of 71 Palestinian organizations)
  • BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights  (GPRN Coordinator)
  • Bisan Center for Research and Develeopment
  • Freedom Theater
  • Majed Abu Sharar Media Foundation
  • Ashtar Theater
  • Social and Economic Policies Monitor (Al-Marsad)
  • Al Kamandjâti Association
  • A-Harah Theater
  • Naqsh Popular Art Center
  • Association of Popular Art Theater
  • El-Funoun - Palestinian Popular Theater
  • Palestine Circus School
  • Alternative Tourism group
  • NAWA Palestinian Institute for Cultural Development
  • Palestine Center for Culture and Music.
  • Global Right of Return Coalition (17 Palestinian organizations and right of return committees working in Eurpe and in the United States)
  • Yaffa Cultural Center in Balata Refugee camp
  • Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights (Coordination Committee of Return Committees, Popular Committees North West Bank "Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilyia, Tubass, and Salfit").
  • Alternative Information Center (AIC) - Palestine
  • Khazaaen Association - Jerusalem
  • Saqyia Foundation for Experimental Research and Development
  • YABOUS Cultural Center - Jerusalem
  • Joint Advocacy Initiative (East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA of Palestine)
  • Qader for Community Delvelopment
  • Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum - Nablus
  • Center for Palestinian Rights (Aidoun) - Lebanon 
  • Hawwa Society for Culture & Arts - Nablus
  • Association for the Defence of the Rights of Internally Displaced (ADRID) - Shafa Amre
  • Women Union Society - Nablus