The UK government says that it strongly opposes the discrimination against Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s infamous agenda item dedicated solely to condemning the Jewish state. To its credit, the UK last year voted against all on-sided resolutions introduced under the rubric, Agenda Item 7.
However, while it fight bias with one hand, with the other hand London is funding numerous campaign groups that actively contribute to the singling out of Israel under Agenda Item 7, through their regular submissions supporting the one-sided debates and mechanisms generated under that Item.
This UK-funded support for Agenda Item 7 includes the following:
• UK-funded Adalah participates in Item 7 through oral and written statements; contributed to, and or supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the 2018 Commission of Inquiry into the “march of return” border confrontations; the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict; the 2013 report of the UNHRC’s biased Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli settlements, paragraph 96 of which served as the basis for the UNHRC’s Resolution 31/36 which led to a UN blacklist against Israel’s leading banks, supermarkets, utilities and other companies; and the infamous Goldstone report on the 2009 Hamas-Israel war, key findings of which were later retracted by Judge Goldstone himself. The UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) supports Adalah via Christian Aid: in the last two years, DFID granted Christian Aid GBP 10 million; Adalah received some GBP 30,000 from Christian Aid UK.
• UK-funded World Council of Churches contributes to the singling out of Israel in Item 7 through oral and written statements. The UK’s DFID supports the World Council of Churches via Christian Aid: in the last two years, DFID granted Christian Aid GBP 10 million, and from 2015 to 2018, World Council of Churches received GBP 387,311 from Christian Aid UK.
• UK-funded B’Tselem contributed to and supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the 2013 report of the UNHRC’s biased Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli settlements, paragraph 96 of which served as the basis for the UNHRC’s Resolution 31/36 which led to a UN blacklist against Israel’s leading banks, supermarkets, utilities and other companies; and the infamous Goldstone report, key findings of which were later retracted by Judge Goldstone himself. The UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) supports B’Tselem via Oxfam GB: from 2014 to 2017, Oxfam GB received GBP 138.8 million from DFID, while Oxfam GB granted approximately GBP 224,000 to B’tselem and four other Israeli NGOs that criticize Israel, between 2013 and 2017.
• UK-funded Yesh Din contributed to and supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the 2018 Commission of Inquiry into the “march of return” border confrontations, the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict, the 2013 report of the UNHRC’s biased Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli settlements (Paragraph 96 of that report served as the basis for the UNHRC’s infamous resolution 31-36 calling for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to create a database of companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – a product of the antisemitic BDS movement), and the infamous Goldstone report, key findings of which were later retracted by Judge Goldstone himself. The UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) supports Yesh Din via Oxfam GB and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). From 2014 to 2017, Oxfam GB received GBP 138.8 million from DFID. Between 2013 and 2017 Oxfam GB granted approximately GBP 224,000 to five Israeli NGOs operating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Yesh Din. In 2018/19 alone, DFID granted GBP 4.3 million to CAFOD which provides funding to Yesh Din and other politicized NGOs.
• UK-funded Defense for Children International (DCI) regularly contributed to, and or supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the 2018 Commission of Inquiry into the “march of return” border confrontations, the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict, the 2013 report of the UNHRC’s biased Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli settlements (Paragraph 96 of that report served as the basis for the UNHRC’s infamous resolution 31-36 calling for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to create a database of companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – a product of the antisemitic BDS movement), and the infamous Goldstone report, key findings of which were later retracted by Judge Goldstone himself. The UK supports DCI via UNICEF. In 2017, DCI received USD 20,552 in UK funding through UNICEF for a project titled “Preventing and mitigating conflict-related violence in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.”
• UK-funded Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) regularly participates in Item 7 through written and oral statements; contributed to the biased and one-sided 2018 Commission of Inquiry into the “march of return” border confrontations. In addition, NRC partners with other politicized Palestinian NGOs which similarly participate in Item 7 and contribute to one-sided UN reports under Item 7, such as Al Mezan Center and Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The UK’s DFID contributed more than GBP 5 million to NRC in 2017-2018 for NRC’s Information, Counseling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) project through which it supports politicized litigations in Israeli courts and international mechanisms.
• UK-funded Gisha contributed to the biased and one-sided 2018 Commission of Inquiry into the “march of return” border confrontations. The UK supports Gisha with direct funding; contributed to, and or supported the infamous Goldstone report. UK government funding to Gisha totaled more than GBP 163,000 during the last three years.
• UK-funded Hamoked contributed to, and or supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict and the Goldstone report. The UK supports Hamoked with direct funding. UK government funding to Hamoked in the last two years totaled approximately GBP 46,000.
• UK-funded Physicians for Human Rights contributed to, and or supported various one-sided UNHRC reports and mandates, including the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict and the Goldstone report. The UK supports Physicians for Human Rights with direct funding. UK government funding to Physicians for Human Rights in the last two years totaled approximately GBP 95,000.
