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Recently, criticism has fallen on the New Israel Fund (NIF), a US-based Jewish organization that has funded such groups as Breaking the Silence [BTS], the Mossawa Centre, Adalah, etc.

Everyone knows how BTS has made unverifiable claims that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and broadcast them to the media. But the Israeli Arab (or as they now prefer to be called, ‘Palestinian Arab in Israel’) organizations that the NIF funds are perhaps not so familiar.

NIF President Larry Garber says

We are also proud of the support we provide to Israeli Arab groups that advance civil rights in the courts and in the Knesset, and through grass-roots action. These groups, working with partner civil rights organizations that have emerged within Israel’s Jewish majority, continually advance the cause of equality on behalf of a minority that the Israeli government itself admits faces serious discrimination.

If in fact these groups actually were concerned with civil rights as we understand them — voting rights, allocation of public funds, discrimination in housing and employment, etc. — then there would be no basis for criticism.

But in fact the ‘Palestinian Israeli’ interpretation of ‘civil rights’ goes far beyond this.  Mossawa articulated it clearly in “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel” (2006) in which it called for the replacement of the Jewish state with a ‘state of its citizens’, elimination of the Law of Return for Jews and addition of one for Palestinian Arabs, the creation of a ‘consensual system’ of government in which the Jewish majority and Arab minority would have equal power, the assumption of full responsibility by the state for the ‘nakba’ [catastrophe of 1948] and compensation of Arab victims thereof, changing the flag and the national anthem, recognition of Arabs as an ‘indigenous cultural group’ with full rights of citizenship but also ‘international care, protection, and support’, etc.

In simple terms, Mossawa calls for the replacement of the Jewish state of Israel with — something else, something that would shortly become yet another Arab state in the Mideast. Should Jews support this?

Another group supported by NIF is Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. In 2007, Adalah presented its version of a “Democratic Constitution” for Israel. In the intoduction, Adalah begins by demanding that

The state of Israel must recognize, therefore, its responsibility for the injustices of the Nakba and the Occupation; recognize the right of return of the Palestinian refugees based on UN Resolution 194 [understood by Arabs as return of any ‘refugees’ who choose to do so — ed]; recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; and withdraw from all of the territories occupied in 1967.

They also present several options for providing the Arab minority with a veto over all decisions of the Knesset. There is lots more, but the adoption of this constitution would clearly mean the end of the Jewish state.

I previously wrote about the youth organization “Baladna” [our land!]  which teaches Palestinian nationalism to young Arab citizens of Israel.  They too are supported by NIF.

I can’t end this piece without mentioning another Jewish organization that the NIF funds, Machsom Watch. Here is some of what NGO Monitor said about this group:

The Israel-based Machsom Watch monitors and disseminates reports on Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, with the ultimate aim of “ending the occupation.” Machsom Watch publications regularly omit the context of terror and employ human rights terminology, “apartheid” rhetoric and emotive and politically charged language that contribute to the demonization of Israel.  In many cases, their allegations are either inaccurate or unverifiable….

Machsom Watch reports often deviate away from describing events at the checkpoints. Through omission of context, use of pseudo-legal terminology and emotive language, many reports become a platform for the author’s radical political views…

Machsom Watch reports regularly omit the context of terror and claim that the presence of checkpoints is arbitrary, unrelated to the security situation and created solely to disrupt the Palestinians’ daily lives, hinder their business and humiliate them.

I’ve only touched on a few examples. There are more. Although not all of NIF’s grants are to groups and projects which are inimical to the Jewish state, enough of them are that this agency must be considered hostile to it.

Technorati Tags: New Israel Fund, Breaking the Silence, Mossawa Centre, Adalah, Baladna, Machsom Watch

News item:

British spokesman Martin Day said in an interview in Dubai with Al-Arabiya television last week that the British government was “taking practical steps towards freezing settlement activities.”

“For instance,” Day said, “we finance projects aimed at halting settlement activities. One of these projects seeks to build new Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and save Palestinian houses from demolition.”

In addition, Day said in an Arabic interview, “we also finance organizations that monitor settlement activities.”

He further stated that “products from the settlements do not enjoy preferential custom duties that we offer to products coming from Israel. In light of this, we can say that we are taking effective and practical steps against settlement activities…”

Karen Kaufman, the British Embassy’s spokesman in Tel Aviv, said … that the British government was “not involved in the actual construction of new Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.”

“The UK is spending £450,000 over 4 years to support projects in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that help Palestinians better understand and effectively use the Israeli planning laws to gain permission both retrospectively for existing homes, and prospectively for new homes on their side of the Green Line,” she said.

Of course interference in internal affairs of sovereign states is an everyday thing on the part of ‘great powers’ and even formerly great ones like the UK, but what is surprising is the way they openly admit it.

The point is obviously to show contempt for the sovereignty of the Jewish state built on land that they once controlled. The Brits never did get over the way those uppity Jews didn’t allow them to hand it all over to the Arabs that they so admired, after they’d gotten tired of the idea of the Jewish National Home that foolish old Balfour had gotten them into.

They did their best by lopping off some 80% of the mandate and giving it to the Arabs in the form of Transjordan, and then they tried to finish the job by equipping, training and leading the Arab Legion during the War of Independence. If it hadn’t been for the Legion the Jews certainly would have been able to hold the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and Gush Etzion in 1948.

But the British aren’t the only Europeans that are paying to subvert the state of Israel. As everyone knows, there are a multiplicty of non-profit organizations that seem to live only to bash Israel and collect ‘evidence’ for ‘lawfare‘ — the use of the mechanisms of international law to harass a nation as part of a wider assault which may also have diplomatic and military components.

Recently, the Israeli group “Breaking the Silence” has been in the news for presenting ‘testimony’ from IDF soldiers of Israeli ‘war crimes’. Such ‘testimony’ has so far been presented in anonymous form to the media, so that it cannot be checked but do damage nevertheless. Legal claims will undoubtedly follow. Guess who funds “Breaking the Silence?”

On Wednesday, Breaking the Silence released a report including testimonies from 26 unnamed soldiers who participated in the campaign and which claimed that the IDF used Gazans as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorous shells over civilian areas and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction.

On Thursday, military sources and NGO Monitor – a Jerusalem-based research organization – raised suspicions regarding Breaking the Silence’s setup as a nonprofit limited company and not an amuta, or nonprofit organization. The difference is that an amuta is required by law to publicly declare the identity of its donors. A limited company is not always required to do so…

In response to the claims, Breaking the Silence presented the Post with its donor list for 2008. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv gave the organization NIS 226,589; the Dutch Embassy donated €19,999; and the European Union gave Breaking the Silence €43,514. — Jerusalem Post [my emphasis]

Of course this is only the tip of the iceberg. Another recent example is the fund-raising done by Human Rights Watch in Saudi Arabia, where it received funds from individuals connected with the regime. There are many such organizations, each with their  own specialty, and each receiving funds directly or indirectly from governments who wish to delegitimize Israel and in particular, hamstring her ability to defend herself.

Nothing seems quite so ironic as Israel’s enemies talking about Israel Lobbies and Zionist conspiracies, while in fact — to borrow a turn of phrase used by Hillary Clinton during her husband’s presidency — there is a vast anti-Israel conspiracy targeting the Jewish state.

Technorati Tags: Israel, anti-Zionist conspiracy