EU tells Palestinians to check if funds are going to terrorists

A senior European Union official says he asked the bloc’s representative in Israel and the Palestinian territories to investigate whether any EU funds are benefiting terrorists or their supporters.

“I asked both the heads of delegations in Tel Aviv but also in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they will have to look deep, and if there is any concern — any concern — we will act immediately,” Olivér Várhelyi, the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, says at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

“There is no terror financing from EU funds, as long as there are EU funds that will not be happening, this will not be tolerated, and if it happens, it will be rectified. And I will see to it myself that it is done and delivered,” adds Várhelyi, a Hungarian national.

Earlier this month, Brussels and Jerusalem argued over the EU’s ostensible funding of terrorists and their supporters, after the bloc’s envoy to the Palestinian territories said in a letter that individuals affiliated with or supportive of terrorists organizations are not automatically ineligible for EU support. The EU insists that it careful vets all recipient of aid and makes sure no funds are going to supporters of terrorism.

— Raphael Ahren