The Europeans are still playing a double game against Israel. Nine European governments last week issued a joint statement on six Palestinian NGOs that Israel designated as terrorist groups in 2021. In their statement, the governments said they have seen "no substantial evidence" to support Israel's allegations and will, therefore, "continue to cooperate with and support" these groups.

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According to Israel, these organizations are a network working under the guise of human rights groups but are actually an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Senior officials in these NGOs were involved in the murder of Rina Shnerb and raising funds for the terrorist organization. The foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden made it clear that from their perspective, there was nothing to prevent them from continuing to fund these NGOs.

Without getting into the question of what would constitute the "incontrovertible evidence" they seek, European governments should have stopped funding these NGOs far before Israel's declaration in 2021. There was already considerable evidence that these organizations and their employees have ties to the PFLP, and this alone should have given any reasonable government enough reason to pause and examine how their money was being used. For example, PFLP conferences were attended by the directors of these NGOs; their directors hired members of the terrorist organization – some of whom had already served time in Israeli prison – and more.

Following Rina Shnerb's murder, the Dutch government even published an independent report pointing to the ties between one of the organizations it funds and the PFLP. Meanwhile, in addition to their connections to terrorism, these NGOs are at the forefront of a campaign to de-legitimize Israel's existence. They spearhead boycott and defunding campaigns, propagate the apartheid lie, target Israel in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, accuse the IDF of war crimes, and paint the army as a killer and abuser of Palestinian children.

Three of these NGOs recently submitted a document to the UN committee investigating Operation Guardian of the Walls. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, the document is antisemitic as it equates Zionism to racism and even Nazism, claims the Zionist movement and its institutions imposed a "regime of colonialist settlement and apartheid on the Palestinian people," says Israel must revoke its laws of return, citizenship, and nationality, and essentially concludes that Israel doesn't have a right to exist.

The European Union and Western countries have been the primary lifeline for many Palestinian NGOs over the past 20 years. Every year, some 35 million euros are transferred to a small and exceedingly perennial group of select NGOs, including those that have been declared terrorist organizations. The blood libels against the Jews in the Middle Ages have been replaced by the reports and campaigns of these NGOs.

The governments of Europe are playing a double game. On one hand, its leaders call for cooperation with Israel, and on the other, they continue funding organizations that spread hate and de-legitimize its existence, mainly as a means of applying pressure and influencing its policies. It appears the claim that Israel failed to provide "substantial evidence" is just an excuse for the Europeans to continue rewarding their subcontractors in the region. After all, the connection between European governments and these NGOs is strong and co-dependent, so much so that they simply cannot stop funding those who promote de-legitimization or have ties to terrorism.

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The body coordinating the legal campaign in Israel is the "Norwegian Refugee Council" an international NGO listed in Israel under an "international humanitarian visa" approved by the Labor, Welfare, and Social Services Ministry. The organization is responsible for filing 600-800 cases a year to Israeli courts through Israeli and Palestinian political organizations and private lawyers. The group claims that between 2009-2014 it provided "legal representation in court on 4,069 cases," and its goals for 2018 are "1,162 new cases in the West Bank".

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According to a report by the research institute NGO Monitor, the EU and other European governments gave the Refugee Council, and through it to the local organizations, more than $20 million between 2016-2020. An official document of the British government claims that between 2013-2016 the British have transferred £1.4 million "directly for legal cases against house demolitions or evacuations. 2,541 evacuations or demolitions were delayed as a result."

European intervention is not limited to the funding of legal procedures. Official documents of various countries show an attempt to change Israeli policy and create facts on the ground in strategic areas, using the legal system. The program's goals include "litigation of cases that are of public interest and challenge Israeli policy, through Israeli courts and international bodies"; "change of policy and practices", and "a lobby in the EU and UN." The program is executed in coordination and tight cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, which directs the cases of illegal building to the organization and its partners.

The discussions in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the European-funded battle for land in Area C are the first and important attempt to deal with the issue, but it's only one example of many. Europe has for years funded radical groups disguised as humanitarian NGOs, involved in campaigns against Israel such as BDS and the campaign against it at the Hague.

The Europeans even fund organizations that are connected to the Popular Front terror group. Just recently it was revealed that a few senior officials from Palestinian "human rights" groups funded by Europe were charged with the murder of Rina Shnerb. The person accused of her murder and his commander in the terror cell acted as financial managers in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which is largely funded by Europe, under the title of humanitarian aid, to execute agricultural takeovers in Area C.

No country in the world would be willing to accept the fact that against any diplomatic norms, friendly governments would transfer millions of dollars to organizations trying to hurt it under the guise of aid and humanitarian groups. It's time the government and lawmakers act directly against these funding governments and parliaments, in order to bring a fundamental change in the policy of how groups are funded by European governments.

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While countries such as Great Britain and Germany, and international bodies such as the European Union adopted the definition, several bodies still reject it. One of them is the World Council of Churches, an organization of around 350 non-Catholic churches across the globe, which also consists of church-based aid organizations that represent the bulk of foreign humanitarian aid operations in Israel. For years now the WCC has been criticized for its use of anti-Semitic motifs, and at a recent conference, the council said that it rejects the IHRA's definition.

The WCC operates the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, which recruits activists abroad, sends them to Israel for three months and trains them to lead anti-Israel campaigns. This activity is often buttressed by expressions of anti-Semitism on the part of senior WCC officials and program activists, which together with their dissemination of anti-Jewish theology, violates the IHRA's definition.

Senior WCC officials view Israel as solely responsible for the "difficulties facing Christians in the Holy Land," while turning a blind eye to the many hardships faced by Christians in the Palestinian Authority. They reject the link between Israel and the Jewish people and use religious terminology to combat Christian support for Israel. WCC General-Secretary Olav Fykse Tveit, from the Church of Norway, compared the fight against Apartheid in South Africa to the "crisis in Israel and Palestine." The WCC also promotes the "Kairos Palestine" document, which posits that the West is compensating the Jews for their suffering in Europe at the expense of the Palestinians. The roots of terror, according to the document, lie in the human injustice caused by the "evils of the occupation." In response to a hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners in Israel, among them terrorist mastermind Marwan Barghouti, Tveit declared that "the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are political prisoners, and as Christians, we must remember that Jesus empathized with prisoners and called for their release."

Even disregarding the WCC's rejection of the IHRA's definition of anti-Semitism, the organization crossed the red line a long time ago. In essence, it is no different from many of the other extremist organizations focused on delegitimizing Israel under the guise of human rights causes. The WCC, however, isn't just any other organization; it is one of the most important bodies in the Christian world, its religious representatives work in Israel, and their claims against the Jewish state are accompanied by religious rhetoric.

The WCC reflects the tendency shared by many international aid groups to wrap their claims against Israel in anti-Semitic rhetoric, and by doing so contribute to exacerbating the phenomenon. A real change can only come when those who purport to promote human rights internalize the importance of the IHRA's definition – and adopt it.

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