Switzerland has decided to cease funding a Palestinian organization due to its ties to terrorism, the SonntagsZeitung has reported.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry will no longer support the Ramallah-based Human Rights International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, which has also received funding from several other European countries, because the group in turn funds another NGO which engaged in the glorification of terror when it named a youth center after Dalal Mughrabi.
In June both the Netherlands and Norway recently broke off support for the center.
Mughrabi, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, took part in a 1978 massacre of 38 Israelis known as the Coastal Road massacre.
Until an internal investigation into the Human Rights International Humanitarian Law Secretariat next month, no further funding will reach it, the SonntagsZeitung wrote.
Swiss government promised in June to implement a stricter review process when deciding on the funding of Palestinian organizations, after lawmakers raised concerns that tax money is making its way into the pockets of anti-Semitic groups, the RFJ broadcaster reported.
Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter said that he would “take a series of measures” designed to prevent groups that incite hatred or anti-Semitism from receiving support. He added that he did not believe any such groups, including ones supporting boycotts of Israel, were receiving such aid. This marks a stark departure from Bern’s prior policy of silence on the issue.
