The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU), funneled nearly 5.5 million euros ($6.5 million) in grants aimed at preserving East Jerusalem’s “Palestinian identity” in 2019, The Jerusalem Post reported.
NGO Monitor released a report on Aug. 21 stating the only European Commission grants that dealt “with ‘religious and cultural heritage properties’ in a highly conflictual framework are embedded in the Palestinian context” and pointed out that the commission’s stated goals of preserving East Jerusalem’s “Palestinian identity” overlap with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the EU has designated as a terror group.
“In July 2020, after Israel arrested several directors of Palestinian cultural institutions in Jerusalem on terror and money-laundering charges, the PFLP published a statement echoing the EU’s language and asking the EU to intervene against Israel’s ‘strik[ing] the Palestinian narrative, culture and national identity,’ and ‘target[ing] Islamic and Christian holy sites, as well as all of the Palestinian national heritage that constitutes the features of the city of Jerusalem,’ ” the report from NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel nongovernmental research institute based in Jerusalem, stated.
The report said that the commission’s grants to Jerusalem NGOs reflected these objectives. One grant that was nearly 2.1 million euros ($2.48 million) went toward combating “the Israeli policies targeting the marginalized Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, reduce their impact, and empower those targeted communities through legal aid and advocacy.” Another grant worth nearly 2 million euros ($2.36 million) had the stated objective of maintaining “the Palestinian identity of occupied East Jerusalem” and improving “the educational offer provided by the Awqaf system of EJ [East Jerusalem] thus promoting its role as one of the main pillars to protect the Palestinian identity of EJ.”
The Awqaf system, according to the NGO Monitor report, is the main school system for Palestinian students in East Jerusalem; the Awqaf system uses Palestinian Authority (PA) educational material for its curriculum. The NGO Monitor report cites IMPACT-se’s September 2019 report stating that the PA curriculum has become more “radical,” arguing that one part of the curriculum that relates to protecting East Jerusalem’s “Palestinian identity” includes “the libel that Israel carries out excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque to cause it to collapse.”
IMPACT-se is the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, based in Israel.
In May, the European Parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union (EU), passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian textbooks.
The NGO Monitor report also highlights a 1.18 million euro ($1.39 million) grant that has the stated objective of “preserving the Palestinian character and cultural heritage of East Jerusalem” in part through protecting “Islamic and Christian Waqf religious and cultural heritage properties against Israeli violations and threats.” Additionally, a grant totaling nearly 300,000 euros ($353,761.50) had the stated objective of holding “Israel as the occupying power accountable to respect, protect and fulfil[l] the socioeconomic rights of the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem.”
Olga Deutsch, vice president of NGO Monitor, told the Post, “There is no other place in the world where the EU would try to preserve religious sites of one religion alone, or work to make children’s books more violent. On the ground, this aid, instead of reaching thousands that truly need it, only goes to further deepen the divide between the two people. We call on the EU to reexamine how it engages with the civil society so its public funds are used to build, unite and empower people.
International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted to the EU, “You do see don’t you why we Israelis have few trust issues with you?”
So, it seems #EU spent €5m. promoting east Jerusalem as Palestine's capital in 2019. Hi @EUinIsrael @EUpalestinians @JosepBorrellF, you do see don’t you why we Israelis have few trust issues with you?https://t.co/Ke1ho7NFGI
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 21, 2020
Bar Ilan University professor Gerald Steinberg, the founder and president of NGO Monitor, tweeted, “For 20+ yrs, EU & states gave millions to ‘civil society organizations’ promoting Palestinian myths and attacking Israel, as in this Jerusalem campaign.”
For 20+ yrs, 🇪🇺 EU & states gave millions to "civil society organizations" promoting Palestinian myths and attacking Israel, as in this Jerusalem campaign.
@Donna_Rachel_ @Jerusalem_Post
cc @FleurHassanN @NGOmonitor @ZviHauser @IsraelMFA @FarkashOritEU https://t.co/xmKVY7bcL6— Prof Gerald M Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) August 21, 2020
