NGO Monitor Analysis (Vol. 2 No. 5) 15 January 2004

A storm is brewing regarding the refusal of Palestinian NGOs to sign a USAID funding application document condemning terrorism.

On 8 January 2004, USAID added new guidelines to the standard grant application, 'Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing,' binding signatories “not to promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state, nor… make sub-grants to any entity that engages in these activities.” One of the appendices forbids cooperation with groups it defines as tied to terrorism, including many Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades (the armed wing of Fatah), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The largest Palestinian NGO umbrella organization, however, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Network (PNGO), comprising 92 Palestinian NGOs, including high profile groups such as the Red Crescent, has categorically refused to sign the USAID-sponsored document. PNGO members prefer to forego USAID funding, that amounted to approximately $1 billion for the West Bank and Gaza between 1993 and 2002.

The Palestinian NGOs claim they are forbidden to sign the certification because of a stipulation in Palestinian law that foreign assistance may only be accepted if there are no strings attached. However, it is clear from the highly political activities of many of these groups, including those that pledge a commitment to universal human rights principles and apolitical standards in their mission statements, that their refusal to condemn terror and violence stems from ideology.

Indeed, PNGO is urging its members to seek alternative funding from Europe and Japan, which do not require a similar pledge.

USAID insists the policy is not particular to Palestinian NGOS and AID missions worldwide require that certification. Following the considerable evidence of inappropriate and immoral politicization of the label 'human rights' among PNGO members LAW, PCHR, Al-Haq and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, published in NGO Monitor, we welcome the USAID move. This step together with similar guidelines in the Ford Foundation is the beginning of a process to instiute greater accountability among human rights NGOs and will serve to promote higher human rights standards.