Statement by EU Spokesperson on the Listing of Six Palestinian Organizations as Terrorist Organizations (Non-UN Document)

 

This is a non-United Nations document. The United Nations provides these documents only as a convenience for reference purposes, and the inclusion of a document does not imply the endorsement of its content by the United Nations.

Brussels, 28/10/2021 – 17:14, UNIQUE ID: 211028_25

The European Union is proud of its continued support to civil society that contributes to peace efforts and confidence building between Israelis and Palestinians.

The EU takes very seriously the listing of six Palestinian organisations by Israel’s Ministry of Defence. These listings have far-reaching consequences for the organisations in political, legal and financial terms. We will be engaging Israeli authorities for more information regarding the basis for these designations. The EU has never and will never finance or support any terrorist organisations. It exercises maximum diligence to avoid any such situation and takes such allegations extremely serious. If substantiated evidence were to be provided that any beneficiary has made an inappropriate use of EU funds, the EU would take action to recover these funds. Past allegations of the misuse of EU funds in relation to certain Palestinian CSO partners have not been substantiated.

A thriving civil society and respect for fundamental freedoms are corner stones of open democracies. Civil society is an essential contributor to good governance, human rights, international law, democratic values and sustainable development in the EU, in Israel, Palestine and elsewhere.