Israel probes claims of EU ‘interference’ in national election

Date: 16/07/01

By David Cronin

Israel has launched an official probe into claims that the EU interfered illegally in its domestic politics by allocating funds from a €5-million support programme for the peace process to groups opposed to the right-wing Likud party.

The country's state controller, Eliezer Goldberg, announced the investigation following complaints by members of national parliament, the Knesset, that the Union sought to influence the outcome of the 1999 general election, in which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) was defeated by Labour's Ehud Barak.

Under Israeli law, organisations may not use funds obtained from outside the state for electoral purposes.

The Knesset members have seized on an internal European Commission document, reporting on the success of the "People to People" programme, aimed at fostering better relations between Arabs and Jews.

The document, seen by European Voice, states that one of the beneficiaries was the Peace Now organisation, which received a €400,000 EU grant in the late 1990s. According to the paper, the project would work on the "public education" of Russian immigrants in Israel, thereby focusing on a "social group that traditionally has anti-peace views and votes Likud". Israeli deputy Michael Kleiner has urged the government to recall the country's EU ambassador in protest at the revelations, which first surfaced in the Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv. "The one rule that democracies must respect is that you don't intervene in the political process of other countries," said Kleiner.

He also claimed that the news indicates the Union is increasingly more favourable to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat than to Israel. "There is no logical explanation why Europe is so biased towards Arafat. My only conclusion is that Europe is pushing a new form of anti-semitism."

But Gunnar Wiegand, spokesman for External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, rejected the charges. "We do not accept claims we're meddling in Israel's internal affairs. We were simply supporting NGOs [non-governmental organisations], working for human rights. This is something we do worldwide as we want to support the peaceful resolution of conflicts."

Another Commission official explained that most of the Jewish community groups who favour the peace process espoused left-wing views. The Union could not avoid giving money to them, he added, if it wanted to promote non-violent conflict resolution at grassroots level.

Mossy Raz, a former director of Peace Now, defended the EU's role. There was nothing wrong in helping groups that campaigned against Netanyahu because he had expressed "inappropriate views" about the peace process, argued Raz, who has been a deputy for a leftist party, Meretz.

Other Union donations provoking the ire of the Israeli right include a €250,000 award to the Four Mothers movement, which has advocated withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon, and a grant to the Ir Shalem group.

This is the second time in recent months that EU funding for projects in Israel and the Palestinian Authority has proved contentious. In April, European Voice reported on MEPs' concerns over aid for Palestinian school books, some of which carry anti-Jewish messages.

Although none of the Commission's €180-million annual funding for the Palestinian Authority is used for such material, money from some member states is known to have been used for text books in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel has launched an official probe into claims that the EU interfered illegally in its domestic politics by allocating funds from a €5-million support programme for the peace process to groups opposed to the right-wing Likud party.