This video spreads the lie that reporters cannot enter Gaza.
The video excuses stone throwing, not mentioning that stones are lethal weapons.
"Credibility" of this video:
Produced by Bitselem. Funded by The New Israel Fund and European governments - in cooperation with Time Magazine.
Showing posts with label NIF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NIF. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A Call to Investigate the New Israel Fund
By Abraham H. Miller
Like every person who reads the Jewish Forward, I received an email solicitation on April 1, 2010, from Daniel Sokatch, chief executive officer of the New Israel Fund (NIF). If I want to save Israeli democracy from the threat of the ultra-orthodox and the settlers, the solicitation informs me, I should sign an email petition for Prime Minister Netanyahu.
No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, and I immediately thought about who would save Israel from Daniel Sokatch and the NIF.
The NIF and the NGOs it funds are under attack in the Israeli Knesset. Sokatch wants American Jews to pressure the Israeli government to call off its investigation of the relationship between the NIF‘s NGO recipients and the infamous Goldstone Report. This is an uphill struggle for NIF, since the loudest calls for investigation are from Kadima, the Israeli centrist party.
As someone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and has experienced firsthand the effects of Sokatch’s work here as the former CEO of the Jewish Community Federation, I strongly believe most of the members of this Jewish community would eagerly sign a petition that would encourage the Israeli government to pursue its investigation with all deliberate speed. If NIF is innocent of the accusations made against it, let it be exonerated within the democratic process it supports.
Sokatch was hired as CEO of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation because some community leaders believed that a person with an ultra-progressive agenda could mobilize donors who shared his views. These community leaders also believed that exposure to the real world of pluralistic community politics would mature a person with well-honed leadership skills who was perceived as highly intelligent and talented, but politically naive.
None of that happened. There really aren’t a lot of George Soroses out there, even in Berkeley, and people who spend their time railing against capitalism never seem to become terribly successful businessmen. But the biggest disappointment to some was that Sokatch, despite his obvious talents, seemed stuck in his ultra-progressive ideology.
Sokatch left his position at the Jewish Community Federation after only fourteen months. He might have been on his way to different pastures anyhow, but what seemed to seal his fate was last year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Directed by Peter Stein, a man with an Israel-bashing agenda sustained by a compliant board, the festival showcased the crudely crafted documentary Rachel - a piece of vicious anti-Israel propaganda. The film lionized Rachel Corrie, the International Solidarity Movement militant who recklessly got in the way of an Israeli bulldozer.
Stein malevolently added insult to injury by giving the stage to Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, who added to the propaganda value of the film and took a few softball questions from Stein that would have embarrassed even Larry King.
A substantial segment of the film’s audience was comprised of Israel-bashers who hurled anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic epithets at those who challenged the so-called “documentary.” Free speech did not escape the heckler’s veto that day.
Local Zionists demanded that the Jewish Community Federation, which contributes money to the film festival, do something about the outrage. Instead, Sokatch - who was also on the board of the festival - defended it.
A YouTube video of the event, narrated by popular San Francisco radio personality John Rothman, made the email rounds and further underscored the outrage. The video showed in graphic detail the crude behavior of the progressive Hitler Youth that had descended on the festival. Lawrence White, a prominent local physician, echoed the sentiments of many when he squarely placed the blame for the rift in our community on Daniel Sokatch for continuing to defend the showing of Rachel.
The film festival was not Sokatch’s only legacy. Recently, the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley passed a divestiture resolution against Israel. The resolution was sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, routinely described as the most vicious anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic, group on campus. The progressive Jewish student group, Kesher Enoshi, has worked hand-in-glove with Students for Justice in Palestine. For years, the pro-Zionist students have argued unsuccessfully that Kesher Enoshi had no place at Hillel because of Hillel’s pro-Zionist mandate.
The Jewish Community Federation is a substantial contributor to Hillel. Sokatch, as CEO of the Jewish Community Federation, was a supporter of both Kesher Enoshi and their place in Hillel. The NIF’s view of Kesher Enoshi was summed up to me by one of NIF’s local officers:
They are a group of wonderfully passionate people who are working out how to support Israel in a way consistent with their values. We should encourage their connection to Israel, which is all too rare.
The wonderfully passionate group with a connection to Israel worked with Students for Justice in Palestine to pass the divestiture resolution, and tried to overturn the student president’s veto of the resolution.
NIF’s support recently manifested elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay area, with Dalit Baum and theCoalition of Women for Peace (CWP) - an NGO supported by NIF. Baum, an Israeli, spoke in February at an event sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine. At the door, attendees were asked to sign a pledge that they would boycott Israeli goods. Subsequently, they were given a glossy brochure that asked for donations for the CWP, which were to be sent to the NIF’s Washington office.
The brochure soliciting contributions lists eleven CWP allies, such as Machsom Watch, which interferes with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints; Women in Black, which demonstrates against Israel’s right to self-defense; New Profile, which encourages desertion from the Israeli Defense Forces; and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a group that sponsors lectures by Anna Baltzer.
She argues that violence against Israel is a natural reaction to Israeli oppression of Arabs.
Investigative journalist Lee Kaplan, who attended the meeting, notes that Baum boasted of causing Israelis to lose billions in export and investment revenue, and that her campaign is directed not just at the territories but at Israel itself.
If you object to giving money to groups that propose to cripple the Jewish state economically and interfere with its security, and network with other such groups, then it might be appropriate to send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an email telling him that there is no greater antiseptic for a democratic society than the sunlight of public exposure, and no group should be immunized from it.
Investigate the New Israel Fund.
Abraham H. Miller is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Former Head of the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association.
See the original article at Pajamas Media
See this article at Israel Behind the News
Like every person who reads the Jewish Forward, I received an email solicitation on April 1, 2010, from Daniel Sokatch, chief executive officer of the New Israel Fund (NIF). If I want to save Israeli democracy from the threat of the ultra-orthodox and the settlers, the solicitation informs me, I should sign an email petition for Prime Minister Netanyahu.
No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, and I immediately thought about who would save Israel from Daniel Sokatch and the NIF.
The NIF and the NGOs it funds are under attack in the Israeli Knesset. Sokatch wants American Jews to pressure the Israeli government to call off its investigation of the relationship between the NIF‘s NGO recipients and the infamous Goldstone Report. This is an uphill struggle for NIF, since the loudest calls for investigation are from Kadima, the Israeli centrist party.
As someone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and has experienced firsthand the effects of Sokatch’s work here as the former CEO of the Jewish Community Federation, I strongly believe most of the members of this Jewish community would eagerly sign a petition that would encourage the Israeli government to pursue its investigation with all deliberate speed. If NIF is innocent of the accusations made against it, let it be exonerated within the democratic process it supports.
Sokatch was hired as CEO of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation because some community leaders believed that a person with an ultra-progressive agenda could mobilize donors who shared his views. These community leaders also believed that exposure to the real world of pluralistic community politics would mature a person with well-honed leadership skills who was perceived as highly intelligent and talented, but politically naive.
None of that happened. There really aren’t a lot of George Soroses out there, even in Berkeley, and people who spend their time railing against capitalism never seem to become terribly successful businessmen. But the biggest disappointment to some was that Sokatch, despite his obvious talents, seemed stuck in his ultra-progressive ideology.
Sokatch left his position at the Jewish Community Federation after only fourteen months. He might have been on his way to different pastures anyhow, but what seemed to seal his fate was last year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Directed by Peter Stein, a man with an Israel-bashing agenda sustained by a compliant board, the festival showcased the crudely crafted documentary Rachel - a piece of vicious anti-Israel propaganda. The film lionized Rachel Corrie, the International Solidarity Movement militant who recklessly got in the way of an Israeli bulldozer.
Stein malevolently added insult to injury by giving the stage to Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, who added to the propaganda value of the film and took a few softball questions from Stein that would have embarrassed even Larry King.
A substantial segment of the film’s audience was comprised of Israel-bashers who hurled anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic epithets at those who challenged the so-called “documentary.” Free speech did not escape the heckler’s veto that day.
Local Zionists demanded that the Jewish Community Federation, which contributes money to the film festival, do something about the outrage. Instead, Sokatch - who was also on the board of the festival - defended it.
A YouTube video of the event, narrated by popular San Francisco radio personality John Rothman, made the email rounds and further underscored the outrage. The video showed in graphic detail the crude behavior of the progressive Hitler Youth that had descended on the festival. Lawrence White, a prominent local physician, echoed the sentiments of many when he squarely placed the blame for the rift in our community on Daniel Sokatch for continuing to defend the showing of Rachel.
The film festival was not Sokatch’s only legacy. Recently, the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley passed a divestiture resolution against Israel. The resolution was sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, routinely described as the most vicious anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic, group on campus. The progressive Jewish student group, Kesher Enoshi, has worked hand-in-glove with Students for Justice in Palestine. For years, the pro-Zionist students have argued unsuccessfully that Kesher Enoshi had no place at Hillel because of Hillel’s pro-Zionist mandate.
The Jewish Community Federation is a substantial contributor to Hillel. Sokatch, as CEO of the Jewish Community Federation, was a supporter of both Kesher Enoshi and their place in Hillel. The NIF’s view of Kesher Enoshi was summed up to me by one of NIF’s local officers:
They are a group of wonderfully passionate people who are working out how to support Israel in a way consistent with their values. We should encourage their connection to Israel, which is all too rare.
The wonderfully passionate group with a connection to Israel worked with Students for Justice in Palestine to pass the divestiture resolution, and tried to overturn the student president’s veto of the resolution.
NIF’s support recently manifested elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay area, with Dalit Baum and theCoalition of Women for Peace (CWP) - an NGO supported by NIF. Baum, an Israeli, spoke in February at an event sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine. At the door, attendees were asked to sign a pledge that they would boycott Israeli goods. Subsequently, they were given a glossy brochure that asked for donations for the CWP, which were to be sent to the NIF’s Washington office.
The brochure soliciting contributions lists eleven CWP allies, such as Machsom Watch, which interferes with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints; Women in Black, which demonstrates against Israel’s right to self-defense; New Profile, which encourages desertion from the Israeli Defense Forces; and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a group that sponsors lectures by Anna Baltzer.
She argues that violence against Israel is a natural reaction to Israeli oppression of Arabs.
Investigative journalist Lee Kaplan, who attended the meeting, notes that Baum boasted of causing Israelis to lose billions in export and investment revenue, and that her campaign is directed not just at the territories but at Israel itself.
If you object to giving money to groups that propose to cripple the Jewish state economically and interfere with its security, and network with other such groups, then it might be appropriate to send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an email telling him that there is no greater antiseptic for a democratic society than the sunlight of public exposure, and no group should be immunized from it.
Investigate the New Israel Fund.
Abraham H. Miller is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Former Head of the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association.
See the original article at Pajamas Media
See this article at Israel Behind the News
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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
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
Crossing Red Lines; NIF and Israel
David Bedein
Special to the Jewish Week
This week, the battle in Jerusalem over the credibility of the New Israel Fund moved to the Knesset, where Israel’s elected officials will conduct what will likely be a spirited debate as to whether NIF poses a security risk to Israel. The debate follows the publication of the full text of the Goldstone commission, where NIF grantees such as the Rabbis for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Israel Committee Against Torture, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights and at least a dozen more NIF-funded groups collectively accused the government and the Israeli army of crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
This “war crime” accusation has become the trigger for a host of European countries that have threatened to prosecute Israeli politicians and Israeli reserve army officers for war crimes, if they were to step foot on their soil.
The New Israel Fund, in its defense, says it does not support those who demonize Israel or call for divestment or boycott of Israel, and that it will not assist those who advocate the “right of return” for Palestinians to reclaim land lost to them in 1948.
What the Knesset will examine, however, are a host of NIF grantees that violate these stated NIF policies, independent of the Goldstone controversy.
NIF funds the Coalition of Women for Peace, which recently hosted a conference in Jaffa, whose keynote speaker, Naomi Klein, issued a call for BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). CWP promoted the results of the event, declaring that “Klein’s public meetings, in Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa drew hundreds of people to hear her clear-eyed analysis of why it is time for a full boycott of Israel until the occupation ends, [until] Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have full and equal rights, and [until] the right of return for Palestinian refugees is fully realized under international law.”
CWP went a step further, calling on Norway to become the first Western government to divest from Israel as did NIF grantees Mossawa and Machsom [Checkpoint] Watch.
NIF grantee I’lam, the media hub of the Israeli-Arab community, consistently demonizes Israel and the Jewish people. Its Web site continues to promote the questionable claims of a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002 with the following report:
“The soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims, the Nazis’ survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel. The real Israel is not in the clean, lofty suburbs of Northern Tel Aviv.... It is not in the literary cafes and journalists’ clubs.... It is not its High Court. I saw the real Israel, its ugliness in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Monday, April 15, 2002. The rest remains decor for murder.”
I’lam’s claims of the Jenin massacre are still hosted on the NIF Web site.
Adalah, a key NIF grantee in the Israeli-Arab sector, expresses support for Sheik Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Israel’s Islamic movement, whose incitement against Israel is legendary. Salah claims that there was never a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and has called for an intifada to protect Al-Aqsa from a Jewish plot. Salah remains a member of the board of trustees of the “Union of Good,” an umbrella group that openly funnels seemingly charitable funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations. When Salah’s offices were shut down by the Israeli government in 2008, Adalah filed claims on behalf of Salah.
NIF grantee New Profile openly works to convince young Israeli citizens not to serve in the Israeli army.
NIF grantee Breaking the Silence distributes questionable and anonymous testimony regarding Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza.
NIF grantee B’tselem spreads the false notion to the media and, most recently, to the U.S. Congress that Israel has created a siege of Gaza that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis there, ignoring the 640 convoys of trucks that Israel dispatched into Gaza during 2009 alone. It is one thing to oppose the Israeli policy of blocking building materials and potentially lethal substances into Gaza. It is quite another matter to fabricate a humanitarian crisis and to claim that there is a lack of food and medical supplies in Gaza.
NIF grantee Zochrot openly supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return and “reclaim” the 531 Arab villages and neighborhoods that they lost in 1948, organizing tours to enable for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim former Arab properties where Israelis now live. Zochrot has gone so far as to issue a new map of the Tel Aviv area that depicts former Arab neighborhoods that can be reclaimed by Palestinians, even if that would mean displacing Israeli citizens.
In the Israeli Arab sector, NIF embarked on a five-year program, beginning in 2001, to help transform the identity of Israeli Arabs into a Palestinian national minority in Israel.
In that context, the NIF grantee Adalah, the Israeli-Arab legal group that played a pivotal role in the anti-Israel gathering in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 and in Durban II conference in April 2009, promotes the so-called Haifa declaration. Adalah openly declares that its goal is to replace Zionism as the basis of the state of Israel. The principal means of achieving that goal, according to the constitution proposed by Adalah, involves the implementation of the “right of return,” which Adalah would facilitate in the form of “family reunification.”
In the 1990s alone, Israel allowed 140,000 Palestinians to enter the country as a result of marriage. Yet the proposed Adalah amendment to the Israel Citizenship Law would allow for the flow of return en masse. Israel would no longer be a Jewish and democratic state, but a state that will disguise itself as being either “binational” or a “state of all its citizens,” but which, in practice, would become a Palestinian state.
According to Maariv journalist Ben Dror Yemini, “The New Israel Fund is part of the global deception campaign. [It] thinks it is OK to take part in the demonization campaign being staged by organizations whose goal is the elimination of Israel. It thinks it is OK to cooperate with the Goldstone commission, even though it was formed by an automatic majority of the benighted countries that control the UN Human Rights Council.... It does not deal with human rights but with denying one people’s right to self-determination.”
See this article at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
Special to the Jewish Week
This week, the battle in Jerusalem over the credibility of the New Israel Fund moved to the Knesset, where Israel’s elected officials will conduct what will likely be a spirited debate as to whether NIF poses a security risk to Israel. The debate follows the publication of the full text of the Goldstone commission, where NIF grantees such as the Rabbis for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Israel Committee Against Torture, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights and at least a dozen more NIF-funded groups collectively accused the government and the Israeli army of crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
This “war crime” accusation has become the trigger for a host of European countries that have threatened to prosecute Israeli politicians and Israeli reserve army officers for war crimes, if they were to step foot on their soil.
The New Israel Fund, in its defense, says it does not support those who demonize Israel or call for divestment or boycott of Israel, and that it will not assist those who advocate the “right of return” for Palestinians to reclaim land lost to them in 1948.
What the Knesset will examine, however, are a host of NIF grantees that violate these stated NIF policies, independent of the Goldstone controversy.
NIF funds the Coalition of Women for Peace, which recently hosted a conference in Jaffa, whose keynote speaker, Naomi Klein, issued a call for BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). CWP promoted the results of the event, declaring that “Klein’s public meetings, in Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa drew hundreds of people to hear her clear-eyed analysis of why it is time for a full boycott of Israel until the occupation ends, [until] Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have full and equal rights, and [until] the right of return for Palestinian refugees is fully realized under international law.”
CWP went a step further, calling on Norway to become the first Western government to divest from Israel as did NIF grantees Mossawa and Machsom [Checkpoint] Watch.
NIF grantee I’lam, the media hub of the Israeli-Arab community, consistently demonizes Israel and the Jewish people. Its Web site continues to promote the questionable claims of a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002 with the following report:
“The soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims, the Nazis’ survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly. This is the true image of Israel. The real Israel is not in the clean, lofty suburbs of Northern Tel Aviv.... It is not in the literary cafes and journalists’ clubs.... It is not its High Court. I saw the real Israel, its ugliness in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Monday, April 15, 2002. The rest remains decor for murder.”
I’lam’s claims of the Jenin massacre are still hosted on the NIF Web site.
Adalah, a key NIF grantee in the Israeli-Arab sector, expresses support for Sheik Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Israel’s Islamic movement, whose incitement against Israel is legendary. Salah claims that there was never a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and has called for an intifada to protect Al-Aqsa from a Jewish plot. Salah remains a member of the board of trustees of the “Union of Good,” an umbrella group that openly funnels seemingly charitable funds to Hamas-affiliated organizations. When Salah’s offices were shut down by the Israeli government in 2008, Adalah filed claims on behalf of Salah.
NIF grantee New Profile openly works to convince young Israeli citizens not to serve in the Israeli army.
NIF grantee Breaking the Silence distributes questionable and anonymous testimony regarding Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza.
NIF grantee B’tselem spreads the false notion to the media and, most recently, to the U.S. Congress that Israel has created a siege of Gaza that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis there, ignoring the 640 convoys of trucks that Israel dispatched into Gaza during 2009 alone. It is one thing to oppose the Israeli policy of blocking building materials and potentially lethal substances into Gaza. It is quite another matter to fabricate a humanitarian crisis and to claim that there is a lack of food and medical supplies in Gaza.
NIF grantee Zochrot openly supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return and “reclaim” the 531 Arab villages and neighborhoods that they lost in 1948, organizing tours to enable for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim former Arab properties where Israelis now live. Zochrot has gone so far as to issue a new map of the Tel Aviv area that depicts former Arab neighborhoods that can be reclaimed by Palestinians, even if that would mean displacing Israeli citizens.
In the Israeli Arab sector, NIF embarked on a five-year program, beginning in 2001, to help transform the identity of Israeli Arabs into a Palestinian national minority in Israel.
In that context, the NIF grantee Adalah, the Israeli-Arab legal group that played a pivotal role in the anti-Israel gathering in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 and in Durban II conference in April 2009, promotes the so-called Haifa declaration. Adalah openly declares that its goal is to replace Zionism as the basis of the state of Israel. The principal means of achieving that goal, according to the constitution proposed by Adalah, involves the implementation of the “right of return,” which Adalah would facilitate in the form of “family reunification.”
In the 1990s alone, Israel allowed 140,000 Palestinians to enter the country as a result of marriage. Yet the proposed Adalah amendment to the Israel Citizenship Law would allow for the flow of return en masse. Israel would no longer be a Jewish and democratic state, but a state that will disguise itself as being either “binational” or a “state of all its citizens,” but which, in practice, would become a Palestinian state.
According to Maariv journalist Ben Dror Yemini, “The New Israel Fund is part of the global deception campaign. [It] thinks it is OK to take part in the demonization campaign being staged by organizations whose goal is the elimination of Israel. It thinks it is OK to cooperate with the Goldstone commission, even though it was formed by an automatic majority of the benighted countries that control the UN Human Rights Council.... It does not deal with human rights but with denying one people’s right to self-determination.”
See this article at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
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