On Tuesday NGO Monitor, a watchdog group monitoring the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), called on European funders of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) to exercise greater care in funding the organization in light of Israel’s declaring the organization illegal due to IRW’s support of Hamas.

According to a statement released by NGO Monitor:

In light of the Israeli ban, NGO Monitor has written to these funders to determine what mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that funding or cooperation with IRW has not been linked to terrorist activities or incitement to violence.

Indeed, the evidence from numerous previous cases suggests that European governments do not generally employ sufficient due diligence before entering into a financial relationship with NGOs. The intense secrecy surrounding European grants to NGOs highlights these concerns. The allegations regarding funding to IRW demonstrate the need for an independent, immediate, comprehensive, and transparent review by IRW’s donors and supporters.

The Times of Israel reported last week that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared the organization illegal, banning it from operating in Israel and the West Bank, “following a tip from the Shin Bet security service and a recommendation from Israeli courts.”

“This is an additional financial source for Hamas, and we don’t intend to let it run and assist terror activity against Israel,” Ya’alon said. “This is another step in our measures against Hamas in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and in the pressure we are applying on it, the goal of which is hurting the leaders and members of the organization, as well as its civilian infrastructure, which forms the basis of the organization’s activity among the [Palestinian] population.”

In 2006, the Gaza project director of IRW was arrested by Israeli forces and later deported, after admitting to transferring money to Hamas institutions. Iyaz Ali, a Pakistani-born British national, told Israeli interrogators he was aware of the nature of these organizations, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

In The Woman Who Makes Jihadis Squirm, published in the February 2014 issue of the Tower Magazine, editor David Hazony profiled Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, whose organization, The Israel Law Center, uses existing laws “to seek damages not only from the terrorists themselves, but also from states that sponsor terror (and can be sued under U.S. law), banks that funnel terrorist money (and are therefore aiding and abetting terror), and corporations that do business with terrorist entities.”