A new report by pro-Israel NGO Im Tirtzu reveals that over the last five years, UN. encies have funneled at least $40 million to radical anti-Israel groups, some with terror ties. It also offers a prescription: a Taylor Force Act applied to the United Nations.

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Passed by Congress in 2018, the Taylor Force Act, named after a US war veteran and graduate student killed by a terrorist while visiting Israel, conditions US aid to the Palestinian Authority on its halting payments to terrorists. The PA puts such a high premium on these payments that its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in July 2018: "If we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs."

The law led the Trump administration to cut more than $200 million to the PA.

Eytan Meir, Im Tirtzu's director of external relations and development, tells JNS that a US law holding the UN accountable for funding malevolent NGOs will lead the United Nations to become more transparent and take greater care in its review of its "implementing partners," the UN's term of art for organizations to which it channels funds to carry out in-country projects.

The United States is the largest financial supporter of the United Nations, providing 22% of its financial support (China is a distant second with 12%). "Americans should know what their money is going toward. I think it would shock most Americans to learn that their tax dollars are going to terror-linked organizations," said Meir.

Ties to terrorism and the BDS movement

Anne Herzberg, legal adviser of NGO Monitor, said a UN Taylor Force Act is a "good idea."

"We've also suggested it in our reports that money to the UN should be blocked if it's going to be used for terror-linked partners," she tells JNS.

More than a third of the Palestinian groups (eight of 19) identified in the report, titled The United Nations' Funding of Radical Anti-Israel Organizations, have ties to terrorism. Virtually all of them support the BDS movement that calls for boycotts against Israel.

Meir notes that in July 2019, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution against BDS (398-17) with numerous US states passing their own anti-BDS laws. "It's the general consensus that BDS is not something that America supports. But then you have all this money going towards BDS."

To identify the nature of the NGOs receiving money, the report relied on work by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, whose February 2019 report Terrorists in Suits detailed the links between terror groups and anti-Israel NGOs. The ministry told JNS that it has brought attention to "the UN's financial support of Palestinian NGOs with ties to internationally designated terror organizations throughout the years. … The Ministry calls on the UN to cease any and all support it still provides to Palestinian 'human rights' NGOs which instead of protecting human life, seek to end it through their continued ties to terror groups."

Most of the NGOs on the list sound innocuous, like the Agriculture Development Association, Women's Affairs Center and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Yet all have been linked to promoting BDS. The last has ties to two terror groups, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). These three NGOs alone collected more than $5 million from UN agencies between 2016 and 2020.

"They all have nice names, but then you look into what they do. One of these groups is an environmental group; you think, 'Great, they want to improve the environmental situation in Gaza.' Then you go on their website and see their videos, and they're all dedicated to attacking Israel, to accusing Israel of everything under the sun, and that's essentially what all these groups are doing," said Meir.

Herzberg noted that the groups listed in the report support a one-state solution – that is, "Palestine" in place of Israel, meaning the United Nations is channeling money to groups that contradict its own position. "The UN framework is two states for two peoples, and I don't think any of those groups support that."

The United Nations channels funds to the NGOs primarily via three agencies: the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

The agencies are not always transparent about where they're sending the money they receive from donors, stated Meir, noting that OCHA is "the worst in documenting where things are going." The report includes a screenshot of a 2018 OCHA grant. Under "implementing partners" it lists "N/A" (not available). In some cases, OCHA listed the implementing partners but not how much money each received.

JNS reached out to all three agencies for comment but received no reply.

'The bigger issue is the Europeans'

Herzberg said it's important to point out that the UN agencies are not supplying the money. The UN agencies act more as a "clearinghouse," directing money from a donor to an ostensibly humanitarian project within the region. Sometimes, the money comes from a country, like Canada or the European Union, "which I think is really important because the funders are the people who need to be held accountable."

In most cases, UN agencies aren't picking the projects either, said Herzberg. They rely on a group called the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), described by OCHA as a "forum of humanitarian organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)." The HCT is comprised of UN agency heads and two NGO umbrella groups, one of which is the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO). PNGO refused to sign an anti-terror clause, which is a condition of U.S. government funding. In 2007, PNGO launched a boycott against USAID when the group introduced updated anti-terrorism procedures. Nine of the 19 groups listed in the Im Tirtzu report are members of PNGO.

OCHA's website description of PNGO is at odds with reality: "The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) seeks to support, consolidate and strengthen Palestinian civil society on the basis of the principles of democracy, social justice and sustainable development."

The Palestinians are basically the ones choosing the projects, says Herzberg, and they have no trouble working with terrorists. "Almost all the so-called human-rights NGOs – they're part of the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]. I think it was in the 1990s a deliberate strategy by the PFLP to set up these NGOs as a good way to do propaganda and perhaps also to funnel money to themselves."

Herzberg noted that the role of the United Nations is important because it gives the donor governments some plausible deniability: "Oh, it's a UN project" is a response to deflect criticism.

With the UN funding process ripe for reform, the question is whether the Biden administration will be open to a Taylor Force Act, particularly as it has rebooted funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the biggest source of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians and one that has been widely criticized for corruption.

Meir said it's unlikely, though Herzberg is more optimistic. "With UNRWA, they've wanted to increase the oversight. [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken made a speech about that not too long ago. And certainly, it's an issue for members of Congress. So I do think they'd be amenable to it."

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"The bigger issue is the Europeans. You could have US legislation, but a lot of the money comes from Europe and from individual European governments," said Herzberg. Even in Europe, which is so "wedded" to the idea of NGOS that "they don't even look at the outcome or the product of what they're funding," progress can be made through "naming and shaming," she added.

"When you actually expose how the money is being used to the parliaments back in Europe, people are usually pretty shocked," she said. "They just had no idea their money was going to those types of programs or counterproductive initiatives, and oftentimes, they've been very embarrassed because many of the groups have ties to terror groups."

Following such exposure, she continued, "generally, they start taking a closer examination, and that's a good way to end the funding."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The sum represents funds that Israel says the PA has used to pay the families of Palestinian terrorists who have been jailed or killed as a result of attacking Israelis.

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Israel maintains that the so-called "Martyrs Fund" rewards violence. The Palestinians say the payments are needed to help vulnerable families affected by the conflict with Israel.

Under past agreements, Israel collects customs and other taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and transfers the money to the Palestinian Authority. These monthly transfers, about $170 million, are a key source of funding for the budget of the PA, which administers parts of Judea and Samaria.

Israel last year passed a law deducting parts of these transfers that it said were supporting terrorists' families. Sunday's decision was a continuation of that policy.

In February, after Israel withheld $140 million, the PA said it would reject all transfers to protest the Israeli policy. But six months later, with the Palestinian Authority in a deep financial crisis, the sides worked out a deal to resume most of the transfers.

PA official Hanan Ashrawi denounced the latest Israeli move, calling it a "blatant act of theft and political extortion."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment.

The total amount of money withheld now equals some 6.8% of tax funds due to the PA. The full remittances make up around half of the budget of the PA.

"For too long, we allowed the PA to pay salaries to terrorists. That party is over," Deputy Defense Minister Avi Dichter said on Twitter.

The United States passed legislation last year to sharply reduce aid to the PA unless it stopped the stipends. The measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, was named after a 29-year-old American military veteran fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel in 2016.

Washington has further slashed hundreds of millions of dollars to humanitarian organizations and UN agencies which aid the Palestinians as it seeks to pressure PA President Mahmoud Abbas to come back to the negotiating table.

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The measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, was named after a 29-year-old U.S. military veteran, who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist while visiting Israel in 2016.

The act is intended to stop the Palestinians from paying stipends, referred to as "martyr payments," to the families of terrorists killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities. The payments can reach up to $3,500 a month.

Force's attacker was killed by Israeli police, and the terrorist's family receives such a monthly payment.

Over the weekend, the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC) and the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC) hailed the passing into law of the Taylor Force Act, which was written and introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado), a member of the CIVC.

"Passing this crucial bill sends a clear message to the Palestinian Authority that they must accept the Jewish state," said Lamborn. "The United States will not support measures that seek to harm our ally, Israel. I am pleased to work with the Israel Victory Caucus and our counterparts in the Knesset toward our common goals."

CIVC co-chair Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) was an original co-sponsor when the Taylor Force Act was first introduced in the House of Representatives. "As the Palestinians continue to undermine the Jewish state, we must now, more than ever, reaffirm our support for Israel," he said.

"This is a step in the right direction to end the conflict, and send a strong message that the United States will not provide aid to those who fund terrorists," he added. "I am pleased that this important policy was included in the omnibus signed by the president."

Similar legislation is currently moving forward in Israel, with a law drafted by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, a KIVC co-chair. The legislation has passed its first reading and is still pending approval in second and third readings.

"We congratulate Rep. Doug Lamborn and our colleagues in the U.S. on this important first step," MK Stern said. "We hope it will put an end to Palestinian incitement, violence and payments to terrorists. We have a similar law that passed its first reading in the Knesset and we are delighted to be working in parallel on such an important security issue that will save lives and contribute towards peace."

Another KIVC co-chair, Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, also talked about how the Israeli government was exploring ways of ending Palestinian payments to terrorists and their families, hailing party leader Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as a driving force in these efforts.

"It is extremely important that after decades of being rewarded and incentivized for its murderous and rejectionist activity, the Palestinian Authority is finally being told enough is enough," Forer said. "We are working with our colleagues in the U.S. to ensure that Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism will be roundly defeated, and the will of those who seek to perpetuate the conflict and continue the bloodshed is broken."

The Israel Victory Project, an initiative of the Middle East Forum (MEF), has helped in the creation of the two caucuses, which work closely together with the public and political spheres to raise awareness on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under a new paradigm. The initiative operates under the belief that a political settlement can be reached only once the Palestinian leadership ends its war of rejectionism to the very existence of Jewish sovereignty.

MEF Director Gregg Roman noted that "this bipartisan action is a step in the right direction to end the conflict by cutting off support to an entity that refuses to accept that Israel has won its war for independence."

"We will continue to work with our partners in Congress and Knesset to strengthen efforts to punish Palestinian rejectionism so that the conflict can end, and rejectionism becomes recognition."

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