Special Report: The influence of New Israel Fund organizations on the Goldstone Report

The influence of New Israel Fund organizations on the Goldstone Report

COMMISSIONED AND TRANSLATED BY THE "IM TIRTZU" ORGANIZATION, http://imti.org.il/en

Executive Summary

The Goldstone Report, published in September 2009, seriously harmed the international image of the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the gravity of the report's impact in his December 23, 2009 address to the Knesset plenum: "There are three primary threats facing us today: the nuclear threat, the missile threat and what I call the Goldstone threat… Goldstone has become code for a much broader phenomenon: the attempt to negate the legitimacy of our right to self-defense. It didn't just start now.

The international campaign against Israel has gone on since the Durban Conference in 2000 and since the attempt in 2003 to condemn the security fence that has protected Israeli children – but is condemned just the same – in The Hague… We all have a real problem here. Ehud Olmert speaks on campuses in the United States, and he's denounced as a war criminal. Defense Minister Ehud Barak – they want to arrest him in London. And there's a warrant out against Tzipi Livni, the Opposition leader. You all know the truth in your hearts. This is an all-out offensive, not just against one Israeli government or another."1

Israeli President Shimon Peres similarly denounced the Goldstone Report: "The report essentially grants legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing, while ignoring the obligation and the right of every country to defend itself, something which is explicitly stated in the UN charter."2

The aim of this study is to examine the level of involvement of New Israel Fund organizations in the formation of the Goldstone Committee Report.

The New Israel Fund is a capital fund that invests in and supports hundreds of radical leftist organizations that operate in various fields. The fund operates on two levels: first, as an incubator for new organizations, granting them professional services in their various activities, and second, as a financial backer for organizations that “grew up” with the fund, as well as others that did not.

The New Israel Fund is registered in the United States and its current president is former left-wing Knesset member for the Meretz party, Prof. Naomi Chazan. According to figures published by the fund, since its inception the fund has distributed over $140 million. Beyond the sponsorship that the fund grants organizations supported by it (which are referred to on the fund’s website as “the fund’s organizations,” the fund publicizes the activities and achievements of the organizations in the many articles that appear on its website.

In April 2009 the Goldstone Committee began its work, under the auspices of the UN. The decision to appoint the committee was preceded by heavy international pressure on the UN, including from NIF organizations. The Goldstone Committee sought the assistance of many NGOs as sources of information and confirmation for establishing its arguments and findings, including 16 organizations from among the New Israel Fund’s organizations: Adalah; Breaking the Silence; B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel; Yesh Din; Physicians for Human Rights; Gisha; Bimkom; Rabbis for Human Rights; Itach – Women Lawyers for Social Justice; Other Voice and organizations in the Coalition of Women for Peace (New Profile, Machsom Watch and the Who Profits from the Occupation project).

An analysis of the Goldstone Report reveals that the weight of the reliance of the report’s authors on New Israel Fund organizations, out of all the Israeli sources, was 42%. A more detailed analysis of the data reveals that among the Israeli organizations mentioned in the report, and on whose publications Goldstone bases his accusations against the IDF and Israel, there are some that contradict the report's allegations in their publications, or which have a neutral stance toward the allegations. Fully 92% of the quotes from Israeli organizations that support the claims against Israel come from organizations funded by the NIF. Without the NIF's publications, Goldstone would have nothing on which to base most of the claims made by Israeli organizations. This is a staggering example of a self-propelled process: the very organizations that pressed for the establishment of the commission provided the testimonies used by the Goldstone commission to justify its claims against the IDF and Israel, and most of these organizations are supported by the NIF.

The New Israel Fund organizations stand out not only relative to the Israeli sources and organizations that contributed to the claims against the IDF and Israel, but also relative to the general information sources on which the report relied (14%). Furthermore, foreign media sources and organizations quoted in the report themselves quote New Israel Fund organizations to support their arguments against Israel. Thus the citations backing up the testimonies of those sources effectively reiterate the claims of the New Israel Fund organizations, but this time are quoted in their name.

The fund’s financial reports show that the New Israel Fund organizations that contributed to the international damage caused by the Goldstone Report received monetary support from the fund in the years 2006-2008 totaling $7,805,226 (almost $8 million!).

In recent years Israel has been increasingly accused of war crimes, and this allegation has become a type of new weapon among leftist organizations, whose aim is apparently not only to protest but also to undermine the fighting spirit IDF soldiers and officers.

The direct and indirect effects of these organizations' activities include the international denunciation of Israel; anti-Israel demonstrations around the world; demands to prosecute IDF officers in a number of European countries; pressure from the UN and various countries to halt the fighting; economic sanctions against Israeli companies; suits for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and expressions of anti-Semitism in the wake of Israel's defamation around the world.

In effect, a small group of leftist organizations that is financed by identical foreign sources has created international pressure that is seriously harming Israel in the diplomatic arena and challenged Israel's legitimate right to self-defense in the future. The foreign funding finances the activities of organizations that incite Israelis against the IDF and the State of Israel.

It should be stressed that while the declared "noble" intentions of most of these organizations are to fight for "social justice" and "human rights" throughout all the years during which thousands of missiles were fired against the residents of Sderot and the residents of northern Israel, aimed deliberately at innocent Israeli civilians, hardly a word was heard from the organizations.

It is also astounding that while the New Israel Fund organizations were partners to the international defamation of Israel and the IDF, via the Goldstone Report, the NIF was operating joint programs with the Jewish Agency and various government ministries. These programs
included:
• Active Citizenship, a high school program run jointly by the NIF and the Education
Ministry.3
• Fans for the Prevention of Violence in Sports, a program run jointly by the NIF, the Culture
and Sports Ministry and the Internal Security Ministry.4
• A joint project with the Jewish Agency to promote the social integration of Ethiopian
immigrants via vocational training and social advocacy programs. 5
• The Birthright program, run jointly by the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency. 6

The current study presents a survey of the 16 NIF organizations and shows their substantial influence on the Goldstone Report and the crystallization of the accusations against Israel and the IDF.

Furthermore, an analysis of the research material reveals that the joint actions of some of the organizations funded by the NIF was intended not only to protest against IDF actions, but also to coordinate international activities against Israel, resulting in serious damage to Israel's image around the world and the impairment of the IDF's ability to defend Israel during times of military conflict. 40% of the evidence on which the Goldstone Report based its arguments originated in publications of NIF (14%) and Palestinian (26%) organizations. Without the NIF, over 90% of the claims against Israel that were based on Israeli publications would not have been in the report.

View the full report HERE at Israel Behind the News

Bedein responds to NIF claims against Bedein in the Jewish Week

NIF is claiming that there are factual errors in Crossing Red Lines; NIF and Israel


1. We have never funded Zochrot or New Profile, never. Not
donor-advised, not Ford, not nobody.

2. We haven¹t funded Coalition for Women for Peace since 2006.

3. Adalah had no involvement with the so-called ³Durban2² conference,
NIF signed the Magenta Principles objecting to any anti-Israel agenda at
that conference and we refused to fund any attendance or participation
there. If Saleh is a client of Adalah¹s, that by no means equates to
agreeing with his agenda; were that so, every criminal defense lawyer in New
York city could be held liable for his client¹s questionable views.

4. MOST IMPORTANT, WHAT IS BEDEIN¹S SOURCE FOR THE LIST OF NIF GRANTEES
ACCUSING ISRAEL OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY DURING GAZA.

====================

15 Feb 2010
POB 71098, BEIT AGRON, JERUSALEM ISRAEL

David Bedein
Director, Israel Resource News Agency & The Center for Near East Policy Research Ltd

RESPONSE TO REBUTTAL FROM THE NIF

Publicly available records from the New Israel Fund and from NIF constituent agencies can easily refute the four claims of the NIF.

Zochrot, which advocates the right of return for Palestinian refugees to homes that they left in 1948, is featured on the NIF's Shatil web site
(1)
This past week, after the Jewish Week revealed NIF support of Zochrot, that “url” mysteriously disappeared. However, a search in the “Cache” of deleted web sites did resurrect the Zochrot url on the NIF Shatil website.

In addition,Zochrot itself publicly expresses appreciation to the NIF's Shatil organization for helping Zochrot with their fund raising. (2)

Contrary to the NIF claim that NIF stopped funding the Coalition of Women for Peace in 2006, financial statements issued by the New Israel Fund show that NIF continued to provide substantive funds to the Coalition of Women for Peace in 2007 and 2008. (3)

New Profile, which receives its funding from the Coalition of Women for Peace, actively campaigns and counsels young people against enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces, and is prominently featured on at least six places on the NIF Shatil website. (4)

Why would NIF claim that NIF funded Adalah played no role in the Durban II conference in Geneva last April, when, in fact, a representative of Adalah joined representatives of other Israeli Arab organizations in a vociferous lobby against Israel. (5)

At the same time, it would be surprising if NIF did not know that NIF grantees Adalah and the Coalition of Women for Peace's constituent groups issued public letters that reached the Goldstone Commission which accused Israel of war crimes (6) and that The Rabbis for Human Rights, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Breaking the Silence, all funded by the NIF, set up a GazaWar website which accused Israel of war crimes. (7)

It would also be surprising if NIF did not read the testimonies before the Goldstone Commission of more than 15 NIF grantees who alluded to Israeli war crimes in Gaza. (8)

The NIF prides itself in transparency and in the fact that its constituent agencies operate in the open.

That very transparency helps a reporter to critique the NIF's activities in the public domain.

This should be a time of “heshbon nefesh” for the NIF to reconsider policies and positions adopted by some NIF supported groups who choose to demonize Israel, instead of playing games of denial.

It is one thing for the NIF to criticize Israeli policy. It is quite another matter for the NIF to demonize Israel.

FOOTNOTES:

1. http://www.shatil.org.il/organization/1687
This is the recovered link:
http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=4sccauu79puke

.2. http://zochrot.org/images/Zoc_AR07eng_final.pdf
“Eitan Bronstein, the director, also arranged to receive supervision from Tamar Oversky, an organizational consultant from Shatil. With the increase in Zochrot’s budget, a number of ideas are being considered to improve how we track expenditures on activities”.

3. http://tinyurl.com/ydpd2js

4. http://www.shatil.org.il/organization/859
http://www.shatil.org.il/organizations/by_field/14
http://www.shatil.org.il/organizations/by_field/20
http://www.shatil.org.il/org”anizations/by_field/15?page=4
http://www.shatil.org.il/sites/tzedek/organizations
http://www.shatil.org.il/organizations/by_area/122?page=3 http://www.shatil.org.il/modaot/867

5. The Adalah's annual report states that “Adalah Board member, Fouad Sultani, participated as an observer in the Durban Review Conference (DRC)held in Geneva in 4/09. His participation was supported by the UN. Badil, Al-Haq and Adalah wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to express our disappointment and concern that the DRC neglected the victims of severe racial discrimination, in particular the Palestinians...” http://www.adalah.org/eng/intladvocacy2009.php

6. www.cihrs,org/English/News System/Articles/673

7.http://www.politicalgroove.com/showthread.php?12939-Open-Letter-to-Israeli-Soldiers-Jews-call-to-stop-War-Crimes


8. pp 29-60 of “The Influence of New Israel Fund Organizations on the Goldstone Report” , which can be found at:
http://israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/NIFGoldstone.pdf

Special Report: Inside Adalah - The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel (The Center for Near East Policy Research)

Inside Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel

by Arlene Kushner

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Adalah, an Israeli-registered non-profit, non-governmental organization, claims to
work on behalf of the human rights of Israeli Arabs. Many fair-minded persons – eager
to see equitable treatment for Israeli Arabs within Israeli society and lacking
information on how Adalah and the New Israel Fund operate – support the work of this
organization..

Buried within its stance as a non-partisan human rights organization, is the agenda of Adalah: Highly partisan and deeply politicized, Adalah seeks to delegitimize Israel and ultimately to destroy it as a Jewish state.

Utilizing rhetoric that echoes the positions of radical Palestinian groups, it:
· exhibits a total failure of objectivity
· willfully misrepresents facts
· levels unfounded and highly pejorative charges against Israel
· defends groups and individuals that are sworn enemies of Israel or have
connections to these enemies

Advancing a position founded on a spurious claim of the collective (as versus
individual) human rights of Israeli Arabs, Adalah promotes the position that the Jewish nature of Israel is inherently discriminatory. Thus, it has proposed a constitution for Israel that would strip away Jewish components and permit the “return” of Palestinian refugees.

In the course of its work, Adalah issues press releases, petitions the courts of Israel and makes presentations to international bodies. Most egregious has been its active participation in the Durban I Conference of 2001, which deteriorated into a forum for vituperrious Israel-bashing; Adalah will be participating in the run-up to this conference, scheduled for April 2009.

In various venues – including Durban – Adalah has charged or participating in
charging Israel with:
· grave breeches of international humanitarian law
· war crimes
· willful killing
· racism
· apartheid
· ethnic cleansing

See the full report: Inside Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel