The Netherlands has suspended funding for the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) after an investigation found individuals’ links to an EU and US-designated terrorist group.
The UAWC, which provides hands-on aid to Palestinian farmers, is one of six Palestinian civil society groups that Israel labeled as terrorist organizations in October over accusations of being affiliated with the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
It issued a statement in which it said it was “shocked” and “saddened” by the Dutch government’s decision, which was welcomed by Israel.
It stressed that “this is the first time a government ends its funding for Palestinian civil society based on political conditionality.”
In a letter to the Dutch parliament, the government said 34 employees of the UAWC were shown to be active in the PLFP from 2007 to 2020, during which the UAWC received Dutch funding.
It conducted an investigation and found links “at an organizational level,” yet it did not find any financial connections or “organizational unity with or control by the PFLP.”
It also found that 12 UAWC employees held leadership positions with both UAWC and PFLP over the same period.
The government considered the large number of board members of UAWC with a dual mandate “particularly worrying.”
In July 2020, the Dutch ministry for foreign trade and development cooperation had ordered a review following the arrest of two Palestinian employees of the organization.
The now-former employees were accused by Israel of being responsible for an August 2019 roadside bomb attack that killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl in the West Bank. They received part of their salaries from the Dutch-funded overhead costs.
