Press releases
AJC Transatlantic Institute Welcomes the European Commission’s New Policy to Condition Funding to the Palestinian Authority on Reforms
Brussels – 19 July 2024
The AJC Transatlantic Institute welcomes today's announcement by the European Commission to condition for the first time its financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority on substantive reforms, specifically overhauling its education and social security sector, fighting corruption, and advancing the rule of law.
“This is a good and long-overdue first step in the right direction, a position AJC has long advanced. If we want to see any chance for peace, the antisemitic incitement in Palestinian textbooks must finally end, just as the salaries for convicted terrorists, which the Palestinian Authority badly disguises as ‘welfare payments,’ must finally cease,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Brussels-based EU Office, the AJC Transatlantic Institute. “We thank Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Olivér Várhelyi, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, for this important decision. However, it is now up to the Commission to diligently implement this new policy. We need close supervision and strict enforcement of the conditionality principle to ensure that EU money never again helps fund the indoctrination of Palestinian children and the support of terrorists. We also urge EU Member States to adopt the same conditionality principle in their funding to the PA to ensure that all European financial assistance to the Palestinians is compatible with the EU’s declared policy goals of pursuing peace and a negotiated two-state solution,” Schwammenthal continued.
In 2021, an EU-commissioned study by the Georg-Eckert-Institute confirmed that Palestinian schoolbooks promote antisemitism, incitement to hatred, and glorifying terror. AJC has long urged the EU to condition some of its funding to PA on reforms in the textbooks. For many years, the PA has also misused a substantial part of its budget to pay salaries to convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons, indexing the payments to the gravity of their crimes.
A recently released poll by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey research, led by leading Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, showed that two-thirds of Palestinians support the October 7 massacres. According to the survey, 75% of Palestinians also support the performance of Hamas during the ongoing war.
International Media Cover TFI Call for EU Funding-Cut to Palestinian Authority over Incitement in Textbooks
On 7 October, a cross-party group of 21 Members of the European Parliament from 15 countries have urged the EU to partially withhold funding to the Palestinian Authority until Ramallah ends its antisemitic incitement in school textbooks.
Citing the most recent research(link is...
Over 20 MEPs Demand EU Funding-Cut to Palestinian Authority over Incitement in Textbooks
Brussels, 7 October 2020 – A cross-party group of over 20 Members of the European Parliament from 15 countries have urged the EU to partially withhold funding to the Palestinian Authority until Ramallah ends its antisemitic incitement in school textbooks.
Citing ...
The Road to Arab-Israel Peace No Longer Runs Through Ramallah
This month’s historic White House signing ceremony for peace agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain showed how conventional wisdom about the Middle East is crumbling before our eyes and a new regional peace doctrine is unfolding. AJC Managing Director of Global Communications Avi Mayer argues in Newsweek that the Abraham Accords are a “wake-up call to Palestinians who have long been led to believe that Arab leaders will sacrifice their own national interests on the altar of Palestinian rejectionism.”
UAE-Israel Peace: Europe Must Put Aside its Outdated Thinking
The recent news of a U.S.-brokered historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates was electrifying. Moderate Arab states have much to gain from partnering with the Jewish state--from Jerusalem’s expertise in cyber-security and technology to counter-terrorism. AJC CEO David Harris reflects in Europe’s largest circulation newspaper BILD on the accord’s implications for the EU’s Middle East policy and urges Brussels to embrace the new regional dynamics reflected in the UAE-Israel deal.
AJC Troubled by EU Funding for NGOs with Terror Links, Calls for EU Parliament Hearing
Brussels, 7 May 2020 – The AJC Transatlantic Institute is deeply troubled by a statement from a European Union official affirming that EU funding would continue to Palestinian NGOs even if they employed terrorists or their supporters. In light of these revelations, the AJC Transatlantic...
Happy Birthday Israel!
The Jewish state celebrated its 72nd birthday this week. AJC CEO David Harris writes in this powerful essay about the history and meaning of Israel’s miraculous journey. The establishment of the state in 1948 was the fulfillment of its envisioned role as home and safe haven for Jews from around the world. Forced to fight wars and terrorism from day one, Israel’s wholehearted embrace of democracy, its impressive scientific, cultural, and economic achievements are all the more remarkable.
TFI Statement on EU-Israel Cooperation to Battle Coronavirus
Brussels, 27 April 2020
The Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) group calls for stronger EU-Israel and transatlantic cooperation on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world fights a deadly disease that knows no borders, it’s incumbent upon the family of Western...
Can Europe Strengthen its Energy Security in the EastMed?
Israel’s discovery of vast gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean is a potential game-changer for EU energy security. A seven billion Euro pipeline connecting the Jewish state with Europe could diversify the continent’s energy supplies. But not so fast - Turkey and Russia could still torpedo the project. To discuss how Brussels can advance the pipeline, Counterpoint host Michael Sieveking is joined by Cypriot Member of the European Parliament Costas Mavrides and Israeli energy consultant Gina Cohen.
UNRWA is an Obstacle to Peace
Foreign policy pundits were quick to declare U.S. President Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan dead on arrival. Whatever its shortcomings, the roadmap shines a much-needed light on the self-perpetuating Palestinian refugee problem embodied in UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Writing in New Europe, AJC Transatlantic Institute Deputy Director Michael Sieveking argues that Europe can play an important role in reforming the troubled body.
Leading MEPs Call for EU Sanctions Against Iran
The Jerusalem Post reported that two leading lawmakers from the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) - the cross-party caucus promoting EU-Israel-U.S. ties - called for EU sanctions against the Iranian regime. Austrian MEP and TFI Chair Lukas Mandl said the downing of the Ukrainian passenger jet killing all 176 on board crossed a “red line.” One of TFI’s Vice Chairs, Petras Auštrevičius of Lithuania, demanded Tehran be held accountable “for its terrorist activities that threaten also Europe and our key regional ally, Israel.”