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
The journalist Christopher Caudwell has just published a new book chronicling the now familiar Islamic takeover of Europe. One wonders why Great Britain and the Netherlands and in fact many countries of Europe do not direct their funds and their energies to dealing with their own ‘Moslem problem’ instead of seeking to aggravate Israel’s.
Escapist Altruism is apparently a major form of political cowardice.
What is your evidence that Human Rights Watch accepted donations from Saudi individuals? I have seen reference of a meeting, but I have not seen any evidence that anyone donated money. While this story seems to be traveling around the blogs – no one seems to have identified a donor or any funds being collected.
The Arab News article that describes the event is here: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=122880&d=26&m=5&y=2009
It is true that the article does not mention a specific contribution, although it does quote Sarah Leah Whitson of HRW describing the organization’s activities to ‘document’ Israeli ‘war crimes’ to the appreciative audience.
The host of the gathering was Emad bin Jameel Al-Hejailan, a Saudi businessman close to Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal.
Whitson claimed <http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47685> that the group “didn’t walk away with any checks” but the Arab News article quotes the appeal for funds that was made.
A great deal has been written about this, including back-and-forths between Whitson and Kenneth Roth of HRW and Jefferey Goldberg of the Atlantic, the Wall St. Journal, etc.
The bottom line is this: Is it likely that they left Saudi Arabia “without checks?”
My understanding from the few of the people who were at one of the events is that Whitson presented on the Israel work, in addition to the organization’s work on Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya, elsewhere in the region, and on Hamas’ abuses. Why do you assume that everyone living in Saudi Arabia would only write checks for the Israel work? My review of HRW’s annual report suggests that the organization receives well over half of it’s funding from US donors. Based on this thinking, you must believe that all of the US donors fund only research outside of the US? Yet, HRW has a vibrant US program as well. Go figure.