• The decision was approved by a majority of EU member states.
• Hungary voted in opposition.
• The EU, the Palestinian people’s largest donor, withheld 215 million euros for more than six months after Hungarian EU commissioner.

The European Union has decided to unfreeze funds allocated to six Palestinian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that the Israeli security establishment accused last year of having links with ‘terrorist’ Palestinian organisations.

The decision was approved by a majority of EU member states. Hungary voted in opposition.

Despite the vote, the EU Commission in Brussels did not announce the unfreezing of the funds.

An official statement urged Palestinian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to continue to rely on the EU for funding for their own programmes.

The EU, the Palestinian people’s largest donor, withheld 215 million euros for more than six months after Hungarian EU commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, attempted to garner support for a condition requiring the Palestinian Authority to remove “anti-Israel content” from school textbooks.

Israel has waged a campaign against six Palestinian NGOs, including the Addameer Association for Human Rights, the Palestinian Women’s Union, the Agricultural Committees Union, the Besan Center for Research and Development, Al-Haq for Human Rights, and the International Movement for the Defense of Palestine’s Children, since last October.

Israel accused these organisations of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist Palestinian group that has been involved in anti-Israeli resistance for decades.

France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and Sweden voted in favour of resumption of funding.

The EU member states said in a statement that they would resume working with the six Palestinian non-governmental organisations.

They also stated that they had received no information from Israel to support the allegations levelled against those specific NGOs.

The existence of a strong, safe, and free civil society in Palestine would reinforce democratic values and eventually lead to a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis, according to the statement.

In response to the EU decision, Saad Ziyada, media spokesperson for the Union of Agricultural Committees in Gaza, told RFI that the organisation was overjoyed.

“UAWC welcomes the recent statement issued by nine European countries in support of the falsely labelled Palestinian civil organizations by the Israeli government in an attempt to undermine their work and their legitimacy.