Europe conditional on aid to Palestinian bodies in disengagement from terrorist organizations • The PLO opposes: "The fight against the occupation - not terrorism" • Arikat condemned the restrictions

• Palestinians in campaign to cancel European conditioning // Photo: Islands Nose. times

The Palestinians embarked on a broad public and political campaign to persuade the EU to withdraw from its decision to grant financial aid to Palestinian organizations and institutions, avoiding any contact with terrorist organizations.

"The Palestinian National Campaign for Conditional Financing" has gained momentum in the past two weeks, after the European Union first introduced a substantial change to the funding of Palestinian bodies, according to which any cooperation with terrorist organizations would result in a unilateral cessation of EU funding.

The Palestinian campaign to abolish European conditioning is based on the argument that "the fight against Israeli occupation" is not terrorism, and that the bodies included in the European terror list are political parties in every respect. Thus, in a letter sent by Omar Alcarot, Director General of the Center for Human Rights - Haimaya, based in Gaza, to the President of the European Parliament and to the European Foreign Ministers, expresses wonder at the new condition for European grants.

In the letter, which was copied from "Israel Today", Al-Qarot claims that "we feared as a Palestinian civil society that this condition would be abused against the Palestinians by decisions of the Israeli courts, which will serve as a basis for preventing funding for projects." Ten days ago, Saib Erekat, the PLO's executive committee, also made a formal letter to the European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Defense, Joseph Burrell, demanding that the EU re-examine the new financing conditions.

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Eriqat condemned the new restrictions, explaining that a number of organizations included in the EU terror list are "Palestinian political parties", so he says the restrictions mean an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political and civil activity and infringe on "Palestinian people's rights enshrined in international law". A ministry official on strategic issues says that "Erekat's referral shows that the top echelons on the Palestinian side are involved in this campaign."

Prior to the launch of this bond, 134 Palestinian organizations promoting de-legitimization and boycotts against Israel have approached the EU representative in the Palestinian Authority, Thomas Nickelson, in a joint letter claiming that terrorist organizations declared "the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" and Hamas are in fact "political parties" And that they are not ready to act as a "police officer" of the EU.

"The new conditioning is an important and welcome step for Israel," says Olga Deutsch, vice president of NGO Monitor, which has been involved in contacts with the EU on the issue of preventing European funding for terrorist organizations. "The worrying thing is that the EU finds itself in negotiations with the Palestinians on the conditioning clause. This conditioning should be self-evident. Negotiations for it contribute to legitimizing the discourse on terrorism.