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Just a few reminders:

Fatah members burning Danebrog (Photo: AP)

The evidence demonstrates a clear and consistent bias in EU funding for politicized NGOs that ignores the context of terrorism and conflict, and are among the leaders in the demonization and delegitimation of Israel (the "new anti-Semitism").

The EU funds a number of self-proclaimed human rights organizations that advocate the standard Palestinian position in the conflict with Israel, and ignore the background of Palestinian violence and the context of Israeli policies. When many EU funded NGOs mention terrorism, it is marginalized, and not reflected in action items.
[...]
EU human rights NGOs have consistently ignored the issue of anti-Semitism, including physical attacks, incitement, and hate literature, such as the propagation of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

From:NGO Monitor Special Edition 22 April 2004

...the Israeli government had already given them [i.e. the MEPs] volumes of captured Palestinian documents providing evidence that the PA was using EU funds to pay for homicide bombings, the upkeep of terrorists, weapons, and bomb-manufacturing plants; vacations, travel, scholarships and medical treatments for members of the Palestinian leadership and their families; and — not least — Chairman Arafat's personal bank accounts.
[...]
Despite thousands of the PA's own documents — some signed by Yasser Arafat himself — Patten, Swoboda, and many other MEPs not only continue to deny that European tax money has funded Palestinian terrorism, but also claim that the PA documents, authenticated by American, German, and Israeli experts — and even by the Palestinians themselves — are "forgeries produced by Israel."

The IMF report "Economic Performance and Reforms under Conflict Conditions," released last September in Abu Dhabi, was based on the same PA documents that the Israeli government had earlier provided to Patten and the European Parliament. The report concludes that at least 8 percent ($135 million) of the PA's annual budget of $1.08 billion is being spent by Arafat at his sole discretion — and does not even take into account Arafat's control of 60 percent of the security-apparatus budget, which leaves him with at least $360 million per year to spend as he chooses. In addition, the report states that $900 million in PA revenues "disappeared" between 1995 and 2000, and that the 2003 budget for Arafat's office, which totaled $74 million, was missing $34 million that Arafat had transferred to pay unidentified "organizations" and "individuals."

Patten and many of the MEPs constantly deny that EU funds have been misused. They refuse to acknowledge that the PA leadership is corrupt and uses its aid money to fund terror, choosing instead to grant the PA ever more aid...

The EU's moral standing and fiscal accountability are also questionable. For the ninth year running, the EU Court of Auditors refused to approve the EU's €100 billion annual budget because the auditors could not account for 90 percent of the funds to the PA. The MEPs claimed that it was not the EU but the IMF and the CIA that supervised the PA budget. But the IMF has publicly denied this responsibility many times, and there is no evidence that the CIA has had anything to do with EU funds to the PA.

As for evidence that aid money was used to pay homicide bombers, Swoboda insisted that "there is no proof that any terrorist acts they committed were ordered by the PA — they may have been acting alone. Only if the DNA of the suicide bombers will match the DNA of those who received euros will we accept it as evidence."
[...]
In the meantime, the Belgian police announced that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), together with Belgian and German police, began investigating the payment of EU aid money to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — one of Yasser Arafat's Fatah terrorist groups, listed by the EU as a terrorist organization.

It seems that the stronger the evidence of EU complicity in funding Palestinian terrorism, the stronger is the MEPs' refusal to acknowledge their role. Their anti-American and anti-Israeli attitudes explain their willingness to give ever more funds to Arafat while pressuring Israel to compromise its national security. Moreover, the EU continues to support other Islamist terror organizations dressed as NGOs, such as Hamas, that operate throughout Europe.

Further aid payments should cease until the PA explains how it spent more than $6 billion in aid during the last decade, and returns the missing funds to the Palestinian people. But, incredibly, the World Bank last week gave an additional $15 million in aid to the PA, and, over the weekend, the EU awarded the PA $40 million for "reforms and emergency economic aid."

History gives us little reason to think the PA will stop funding terrorism. Maybe it's time to hold European donors legally accountable for the return on their investment.

From:EuroCash
What does the Palestinian Authority do with European money?
By Rachel Ehrenfeld

A Palestinian Civil Police Development Programme (PCPDP) has recently been produced cooperatively by the Civil Police and EU COPPS and will soon be available in Arabic. The 3-year Programme consists of both Transformational and Operational Plans which lay the basis for the urgent delivery of badly needed equipment and training that will enable the police to patrol the streets effectively and deliver better services to the Palestinian people as well as fundamental organizational change. Objectives include maintaining safety and security for all citizens, reducing crime and the fear of crime, and securing public confidence in the rule of law and the police.

Physical needs include vehicles, communications equipment, office equipment, and infrastructure repair. The PCPDP will serve as a blueprint for building a modern, democratic and accountable police service and as a framework for donor assistance.

Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark are the EU Member States currently providing financial assistance, training and specialized equipment under EU COPPS. Norway is cofunding a Police Communications Project with Denmark to enhance communications capacity in Gaza and build new infrastructure in the West Bank.

From: EU COUNCIL SECRETARIAT FACTSHEET

Previous NGO-Monitor analyses have documented the politicized approach and bias present in EMHRN reports. Their latest 21st October press release describes the findings of a delegation sent by EMHRN to the Gaza strip in October 2005. The mission was hosted by EMHRN member PCHR, an NGO with an almost exclusively political and politicized sphere of activity (even extending to support for the boycott and prosecution of Caterpillar Inc. in early 2005 ) despite its claim to be an “independent Palestinian human rights organization.” Co-sponsored by the Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation (ICCO) in the Netherlands, the mission included representatives of the International Commission of Jurists - Sweden (ICJ-Sweden) (whose bias is well documented), the Bruno Kreisky Foundation, Austria and EMHRN Denmark. All of these organisations were part of the working group that contributed to the condemnatory report by EMHRN on “A Human Rights Review on the EU and Israel 2003-2004” which accused Israel of “systematic human rights violations” and violation of “international humanitarian law,” and the EU of “actually facilitat[ing] Israel’s violations of international human rights and humanitarian law”.

From:NGO Monitor 10 November 2005:
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN):Discrepancy Between Mission and Actions Continues

As an aside: For the next case of AMERICAN flag burning read this:

Jerusalem Cloakroom #86
In spite of US foreign aid, Arafat has remained Saddam's staunchest ally, declaring that "any offensive against Iraq is an offensive against the Palestinian People" (Al-Quds Palestinian daily, May 4, 2000). He has strengthened ties with Iran, Libya, Sudan and Afghanistan, undermining the stability of the Hashemite regime in Jordan, claiming sole representation of all Palestinians (two-thirds of Jordan's population), and facilitating Russia's reassertive profile in the region. Arafat has harbored Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and has drafted to his security forces Palestinian terrorists implicated in the murder of 12 US citizens. The PLO has condemned US pursuit of Osama Bin-Laden, who is a major shareholder of the PLO telecom company (PalTel). Burning Ol' Glory and anti-US (and anti-Jewish) incitement have become a routine ritual in PLO-controlled areas, favorably reported by Arafat's controlled media.

The PLO's massive abuse of human-rights has been highlighted by the oppression of the Christian minority, causing a massive emigration (Bethlehem used to be 80% Christian and is now 80% Moslem!), transferring land from Christians to Moslems, and erecting mosques next to existing churches.

US foreign aid to the PLO was appropriated in return for commitments made and systematically violated by the PLO, following the accords of Oslo, Cairo, Hebron, Wye and Sharm el-Sheikh. The PLO has tolerated expansion of Hamas infrastructure, has exacerbated anti-Israel incitement (Mein Kampf is a best seller!), has proliferated illegal firearms, has increased its security forces to 50,000 (beyond the specified 20,000!) etc.