For a few fussy euros more

By Cyrus G. Robati

(June 06, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The European Union's ballot box is often considered nothing more than a sheer mid-term national election and this week's vote is set to magnetise a record low turnout in some corners of the continent, where it seems the Euro-fold is turning more un-European than Europeans themselves. Despite or perhaps to tackle this public scepticism, we can expect the new parliament in conjunction with the Euro-fold's new Swedish Presidency to flex Europe's diplomatic muscles by joining or attempting to compete with President Barack Obama's attempts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace pact.

Although the Euro-fold sometimes struggles to speak with a unified diplomatic voice, as revealed at the recent United Nations anti-racism gathering in Geneva, on cases concerning Middle East peace, the Euro-line remains consistent. As a prominent part of the Quartet, the Euro-fold helped conceive and write the Road Map peace formula, with a two-state solution at its core.

Given this central plank of the Euro diplomacy, it is all the more shocking that significant euro-fold cash continue to be granted to non-government organisations and so-called civil society groups harping on enmity in the Middle East, and work against mutual acceptance. If the Euro-fold wishes to be viewed as an honest broker by Israelis, its leaders must primarily scrutinise the negative impacts of their own funding mechanisms in the region.

Among the numerous examples demonstrating this inconsistency is the Israeli registered NGO, Adalah, which received a string of Euro-fold grants, including the latest of over $600,000 (over €500,000). Ostensibly planned out for a project to promote legal access for Israel's Arab citizens, these funds allowed Adalah to focus other resources on its wider and pernicious agenda to strip Israel of its Jewish cultural and historical foundations.

In a world of over 50 Islamic societies, and 30 that are Christian in character, the concept of a Jewish state is scarcely exceptional. Yet, in March 2007, Adalah published a “Democratic Constitution” for Israel which far from encouraging cooperation between a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, argued that Israel should be stripped of all Jewish symbols and renege on its role as an unquestionable haven for Jewish refugees.

Beyond the funds themselves, Euro-cash has also afforded unwarranted legitimacy to Adalah and its plans, thereby adding to the friction in Israeli society. In January 2009, the European Commission published its latest list of grantees under the “Partnership for Peace” programme. From a total of over $669000 ( €4.8 million), over 50 percents of funds went to organisations whose outlook is counterproductive to promoting peace or to projects needing independent evaluation on the case.

Among the recipients is the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ) -- whose academic facade hides an extreme agenda which can only anger Israelis of every political hue.

This most recent grant of over $500000 (€375,000) follows a previous award of over $697000 (€500,000). The ARIJ has openly quizzed the legitimacy of the Jewish state, referring to it as a “risky assertion”. Earlier this year, the ARIJ assailed Israel's “apartheid plan” to “loot as much as possible of the Palestinian lands to fulfill its never ending colonialist and expansionist desires”. Far from being peace partners or bolstering co-existence, organisations that routinely demonise Israel and question its very existence can only add more ammunition to the conflict.

The evenhandedness with which the Euro-fold carefully attempts to craft its Middle East diplomacy stands in stark contrast to an anarchic NGO funding policy in the region. Worryingly, no public document exists that chronicle the Euro-fold's decision to renew funding for the likes of the ARIJ.

Did bulky backing for the ARIJ contribute to advancing peace and tolerance as envisaged in Euro-fold guidelines? Did substantial Euro-fold cash have any positive impact? Does anyone in the Euro-fold even know what was actually done with this and many other similar allocations? Euro- obfuscation ensures that we will apparently never know the answer.

This is hardly an isolated incident and nor is it an issue which should be confined to the concerns of Middle East observers. It is reflective of a wider accountability deficit within the Euro-fold that should worry all Euro taxpayers. Despite the tens of millions of euros provided annually by the Euro-public, any citizen wishing to discover which NGOs receive their hard earned cash will be confronted by a thick layer of bureaucracy and the discovery that no uniform framework containing this information exists. It is no wonder that MEPs have recently highlighted the deep crisis within the European Commission's internal monitoring body.

So long as the Euro-fold carries on keeping its head deeper in the sand over NGO funding, its image as peacemaker will diminish among Israelis, further sagging its influence, as well as its credibility as an effective administrator. An independent examination of the chaotic NGO funding system would go some way to strengthening the Euro-fold's management credentials and generating greater confidence among Euro-states.

-Sri Lanka Guardian