Beirut, Lebanon – Western donors are cutting back financially on Arab civil society groups for criticizing Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, or for supporting them, according to human rights activists.
All the humanitarian aid groups and civil society that Al Jazeera spoke to said that some Western donors have cut funding to Arab media, human rights groups and think tanks. They also said that they have become disillusioned with many Western countries and foundations because of Israel’s support for the bombing and siege of Gaza.
“The amount of anger and bitterness is not limited to our country, but to us [as human rights advocates in the Arab region]. We don’t know how or if we can interact again with some of these Western governments or partners,” said Hossam Baghat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
Israel’s assault on Gaza, which rights groups in the besieged enclave describe as an “open-air prison”, has killed more than 11,200 people since it began on 7 October. UN experts and hundreds of experts have warned the 2.3 million people living. there they are facing serious danger of the genocide
Al Jazeera spoke to civil society groups in Egypt, the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon against Israeli atrocities in Gaza. All said their claims and reports are increasingly at odds with European donors, who have largely remained silent on Israel’s relentless attacks on civilians, which may violate international law.
Funding “cut off without notice”
Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden suspended bilateral development aid programs in Gaza and the West Bank days after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on army posts and nearby towns in southern Israel on October 7, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. The shutdown has resulted in a loss of $139 million in funding and is affecting UN agencies, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and some civil society organizations.
On October 11, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) also suspended millions of dollars in grants to six Palestinian and five Israeli civil society organizations.
Zaid Amali, director of public discourse and programs at MIFTAH, which promotes democracy and good governance in the occupied Palestinian territory, said they received a very positive assessment after the Swiss FDFA evaluated their activities in September.
But, after the deadly attack by Hamas, FDFA suspended its cooperation with MIFTAH, which temporarily ends the possibility of future funding without warning.
“We know that this decision may be due to pressure from right-wing groups in Switzerland,” he said.
Al Jazeera contacted the Swiss FDFA to ask why funding has been suspended for Palestinian and Israeli civil society groups, which HRW considers respected organizations.
“For eleven of these NGOs, FDFA had external indications of a potential violation of the Code of Conduct and/or FDFA’s anti-discrimination clause,” media spokeswoman Lea Zurcher responded in an email.
Another Palestinian civil society organization, which also lost FDFA funding, attributed the decision in part to intense “lobbying” by an Israeli NGO, ONG Monitor. A spokesperson for the organization spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
NGO Monitor operates a database of Palestinian civil society groups that it says “whitewash violence and terrorism, demonize and wage legal war against Israeli officials and promote BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns and anti-Semitic propaganda.”
NGO Monitor took some the credit For the FDFA’s decision on X (formerly Twitter) and has previously said its investigation was cited by Swiss MPs calling for cuts to Israeli human rights groups like B’tselem that work for the welfare of Palestinians.
“There are many non-governmental organizations with innocuous names like NGO Monitor, which seek to silence voices critical of the Israeli government…but these organizations never criticize the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinians,” said Omar Shakir Israel-Palestine. Director of HRW.
“These groups don’t work alone,” Shakir added. “They are usually financed [by] or coordinating with the Israeli government.’
Al Jazeera contacted the NGO Monitor for comment, but it did not respond by the time of publication.
Western funding – “the journey will end”
European donors and partners have stopped expressing solidarity with Arab media, as they usually do, after they were censored or smeared for their reporting on Israel-Palestine, two Arab media outlets told Al Jazeera.
A journalist with an Arab media outlet, who asked to remain anonymous to risk his organization’s funding, said Western donors were happy to support independent media organizations as long as they did not infringe on their support for Israel.
“How will the West reconcile its acceptance of “independent media” and “freedom of expression” with its tacit or explicit criticism of its death? [11,000] The Palestinians… are all there to see,” the source told Al Jazeera.
“But there are some Western organizations that have responded by prioritizing support for Israel over engagement with regional press and civil society organizations,” he added.
The founder of another media outlet that also relies heavily on Western donors added that many partners – although not all – have continued to support independent journalism in the region, including his own outlet.
“We always knew that this dependence on Western funding is a commercial solution, but as long as we have no editorial limits it is worth doing. When or after that funding is cut, the trip will end,” the source told Al Jazeera.
Position of UN agencies “defies logic”
Civil society organizations in the region are also losing faith in UN institutions, which have not spoken out against Israeli atrocities in Gaza, or only after a long delay, despite evidence that these actions may amount to war crimes.
Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation (Skeyes), which advocates for press freedom throughout the Levant, said he is particularly disappointed with the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF), which is cooperating with his organization but has been silent on the issue. Regarding Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the violence in the West Bank.
“They are silent. No action has been taken against the independent media [that they support]but their silence is not something that is really understandable today,” he told Al Jazeera.
Mhanna added that he hopes the UN bodies will continue to repeat the position of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who called for a ceasefire, raised the issue of Israel’s occupation as the main reason for the violence and asked all sides not to commit war crimes in a speech. He gave it on October 24. “We don’t expect to take a completely pro-Palestinian position, but what’s happening right now defies any logic.”
On November 6, the heads of various UN organizations made a joint statement along with global aid groups calling for a full ceasefire. But Martin Griffiths, who heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Assistance (OCHA), order later “humanitarian pause”.
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour called on Griffiths and others to call for a full ceasefire.
Amali, of MIFTAH, said the silence of various organizations and Western countries that claim to support international law risks completely eroding the credibility of human rights work in Palestine, the wider Arab region and the world. Other activists echoed the same sentiment.
He added that the global community had failed the Palestinians long before October 7.
“They have failed us for 75 years,” he said, referring to the Nakba – or catastrophe – in which 700,000 Palestinians were dispossessed from their land during the founding of Israel. “But right now, we’re really feeling it.”
