Dutch stop funding Palestinian NGO, question Israeli charges

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Netherlands says it will stop funding a Palestinian civil society group recently outlawed as a terrorist organization by Israel. But it rejected Israel’s main claims about the group following its own audit. The Dutch government said on Wednesday it found no evidence the Union of Agricultural Work Committees had “organizational ties” to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing militant group. It also found no evidence the UAWC was involved in funding or carrying out terrorism, as Israel alleges. It nevertheless stopped the funding because it found evidence individual members were linked to the PFLP, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel and Western countries.