Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen. Photo: Wikimedia

JNS.org – During meetings in Ramallah Thursday, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen announced $8.3 million in new Danish state funding for an organization that funds anti-Israel groups.

According to official Danish government documents, the state funding will go to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (HR/IHL Secretariat), an organization funded by Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Secretariat operates from Birzeit University, near Ramallah.

According to the watchdog group NGO Monitor, a hefty portion of the Secretariat’s budget is appropriated to anti-Israel organizations that incite violence, glorify terror, champion the BDS movement, seek to indict Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court, and make spurious charges of Israeli “apartheid” and “war crimes.”

Netanyahu met with Samuelsen on Wednesday, telling the visiting minister that Palestinian incitement is the main culprit for the absence of Israeli-Palestinian peace. The prime minister urged Denmark to stop funding radical Palestinian organizations.

“The decision of the Danish minister of foreign affairs to make this one of his visit’s priorities is alarming,” said Olga Deutsch, director of NGO Monitor’s Europe Desk. “That this decision was made without in-depth public hearings in the Danish Parliament is inconsistent with democratic practice and good governance. Danish Members of Parliament should debate whether Danish taxpayers should transfer their hard-earned money to organizations that incite violence, glorify terror, and promote blatant anti-Semitism and BDS.”