EU money funds Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews, NGO says
02 February 2010
The British advocacy group 'TaxPayers Alliance' has presented reports claiming that European Union development aid funding for the Palestinian Authority is partly used to disseminate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic narratives in Palestinian schools and news media. The NGO said European foreign aid provided to the Palestinian Authority “create[s] a responsibility to ensure that the Palestinian Authority does not misuse its budget.”
At a press conference in Jerusalem, Matthew Sinclair, director of research of the TaxPayers' Alliance, gave some recent examples of incitement in the Palestinian territories. Last Friday, a Palestinian imam had said Jews were "the enemy of humanity" and called for the fight against them in order "to kill them." His sermon was broadcast on the Palestinian Authority’s official TV channel (see related news story).
Sinclair emphasized that this was an issue for British and European taxpayers because the UK government and the European Union provided the Palestinian Authority with tens of millions of dollars every year. "This is an issue that starts from Western taxpayers interests," Sinclair said. Referring to the Palestinian population, he said: “We are looking at a population where 42 percent are under the age of 15. You have a huge younger generation whose views are going to shape the situation for a long time.”
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, who participated in the press conference, highlighted how international funds provided to the Palestinian Authority were being directly used for incitement and hate education. "Everyone talks about Hamas, which is obvious, but the PA, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas also engage in incitement and have created a 'culture of hate'," Ayalon said. "The Fatah Constitution still calls for the eradication of the State of Israel and this was reaffirmed during the recent Fatah conference [in Bethlehem].”
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