RAMALLAH, Jan 11 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine yesterday slammed the Netherlands’ decision, to halt financial aid to a Palestinian NGO, blacklisted by Israel.
In an official statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said, it summoned the Netherlands’ representative, Kees van Baar, to express opposition to the “unjust and biased” decision to halt aid to the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), that operates in the West Bank and Gaza.
“The decision would negatively and directly affect tens of thousands of families with income based on agricultural activities, and thousands of acres of agricultural land in the areas threatened to be seized by Israel,” the statement said.
Undersecretary of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, Amal Jadou, informed van Baar that the Dutch government must withdraw its decision, “which is a dangerous precedent in undermining the work of civil society institutions,” according to the statement.
The UAWC was outlawed by Israeli Minister of Defence, Benny Gantz, in Oct last year.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry announced last Wednesday that, it had decided to cut off funding to the UAWC after finding some of its members were affiliated with the militant group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
