The EU-funded, Partnership for Peace, aims to "strengthen the capacity for conflict resistance and empower marginalized parties as well to build trust between Israelis and Arabs by increasing regional cooperation." In response to this, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network, a body representing 135 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, condemned the demand for collaboration between Palestinian NGOs and Israeli NGOs, saying it was "an attempt to involve civil society organizations in nationally unacceptable normalization with the occupation and its institutions, giving the impression that normal relations exist between the occupation and the people living under occupation."