LETTER TO THE EUROPEAN UNION – STOP FUNDING HAMASThursday 26/10/2023

The Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), led a coalition of over 40 organizations in a campaign to cut off all European Union funding to
Hamas.

Read the full letter here: 

“Hamas has mastered the graft of converting humanitarian aid into material support for terrorism,”
said Uri Morad, Director of International Law & Public Diplomacy for the Jerusalem Institute of
Justice (JIJ). “Hamas taxes the shipments at the border, confiscates a portion to sell for profit on the
black market, flagrantly steals humanitarian assets like fuel and food and even digs up humanitarian
projects like water and sewage pipes to make rockets.”
JIJ advocacy efforts were joined by prominent Israeli, European, and North American organizations
committed to countering terrorist efforts, including NGO Monitor, International Legal Forum, Shurat
Hadin, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Maccabi Europe, and the National Jewish Assembly.
This push comes after weeks of conflict within the EU over its financing of Palestinian organizations.
On October 9th, EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi declared that the EU would place its entire 691
million euro Palestinian development portfolio under review before issuing new payments. His
decision was suddenly reversed only five hours later, at a time when Hamas terrorists were still
butchering Israeli civilians in Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Be’eri. Two days later, the European
Commission announced that it would triple its funding to Gaza without implementing any new
controls to ensure the money does not end up in the hands of Hamas. The European Parliament then
intervened on October 19th, demanding better financial oversight of EU funding to the Palestinians.
Hamas is not alone in making cynical use of humanitarian funding for the purpose of advancing
terrorism. In December 2019, the Israel Security Agency arrested a 50-person terror network
operating in the West Bank, allegedly responsible for a bomb attack that killed a teenager earlier that
year. The arrestees included three senior employees of NGOs that received generous EU funding –
Walid Hanatsheh, Ubai Aboudi, and Iteraf Hajaj. Their organizations had received an EU grant of
€699,236 despite their ties to the PFLP terrorist group.
“The EU is the biggest Western funder of Palestinian organizations, and it already knows that a
substantial amount of its donations end up in the hands of terrorists,” said Flavia Sevald, CEO of JIJ.
“To shovel three times more money into the hands of Hamas, without any new controls, after they
live-streamed their sadistic butchery, simply defies all logic.”

Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ) is an Israeli human rights NGO with consultative status before the
United Nations.