THE HAGUE, 26/10/07 - The Centre for Information and Documentation about Israel (CIDI) says United Civilians for Peace (UCP) "is guilty of a one-sided political agitation against Israel and plays a polarising role in the public debate on the Middle East." UCP is a partnership of NGOs subsidised by the Dutch government.

UCP was set up in 2001 by parties including development aid organisations ICCO, Cordaid, Novib and IKV-Pax Christi, who together spend hundreds of millions of euros of Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders' budget. But according to CIDI, "the activities of the organisation raise questions about the foreign policy of Europe and the Netherlands and makes no constructive contribution whatever to the creation of a peaceful, fair outcome of the Palestine-Israeli conflict."

Earlier this year, the Protestant aid organisation KerkinActie withdrew from UCP "due to its anti-Israeli position," according to CIDI. This decision prompted the "in-depth investigation" the results of which CIDI sent to the Lower House and the foreign and development cooperation ministries yesterday.

"UCP says it is pro-human rights without making a distinction on origins." But the report concludes that "the real reason for the existence of UCP is to operate a purely political and one-sided lobby against Israel."

"If Palestinian human rights are violated by Palestinians, this is not interesting to UCP, but it is if this is done by Israel. UCP and the participating organisations persistently call for sanctions against the Jewish state. But if the Iranian nuclear programme is raised, they trivialise this with the argument that the Ayatollah regime needs a nuclear weapon in order to survive. By its multiple actions against the 'wall' between Israel and the West Bank, UCP never mentions the most important reason for its existence: to prevent attacks. But a rap group, which compares Israel with the Nazis in one of its songs, was welcome last year at a festival organised by UCP."

ICCO, Cordaid, Oxfam-Novib and IKV-Pax Christi supply UCP's budget of 450,000 to 500,000 euros a year. CIDI "finds it incomprehensible" that the four organisations "who are largely financed by the Development Cooperation ministry, put money and manpower intended for relieving need into lobby activities and political agitation against Israel."