Dutch stop funding Palestinian NGO, question Israeli charges

Source: Associated Press

Dutch stop funding Palestinian NGO, question Israeli charges

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
January 6, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Netherlands said it will stop funding a Palestinian civil society group recently outlawed as a terrorist organization by Israel but rejected Israel’s main claims about the group following its own audit.

The Dutch government said Wednesday it found no evidence that the Union of Agricultural Work Committees had “organizational ties” to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing militant group, or was involved in funding or carrying out terrorism, as Israel has alleged.

The government nevertheless decided to stop the funding because it found evidence that individual members of the civil society group were linked to the PFLP, which has a political party as well as an armed wing, and is considered a terrorist group by Israel and Western countries.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision, saying UAWC and the five other Palestinian civil society groups it designated as terrorist organizations in October are an “organic part” of the PFLP. Two former UAWC employees have been arrested and accused of carrying out a bombing in the occupied West Bank in August 2019 that killed an Israeli teenager, prompting the Dutch government to suspend funding pending an independent investigation.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-israel-netherlands-terrorism-96d93d12bf989a4317f501752d09216c