DesetPeace
February 20, 2010 at 10:31 am (Activism, Democracy, Extremism, Free Speech, Hasbara, Israel, zionist harassment)
Also read THIS Ynet report to see what the zionists are saying about the NIF….
“The Brightest Spot in Israeli Democracy”
As many of you now know, the New Israel Fund is under attack from those seeking to weaken Israel’s democratic foundation by equating the legitimate and necessary work of human rights groups with disloyalty to Israel.
The scurrilous campaign falsely accuses NIF of working to weaken Israel by supporting human rights, and personally demonizes NIF president and former Deputy Knesset Speaker Naomi Chazan, in a manner many commentators have likened to historic anti-Semitic propaganda. The comprehensive media campaign, which began three weeks ago with an exclusive article in Ma’ariv and a spate of advertisements in major Israeli dailies grotesquely caricaturing Professor Chazan with a horn on her head, was designed by the architect of the anti-disengagement settler organizations and is being spearheaded by Im Tirtzu, a right wing organization with strong ties and shared funding with extreme branches of the settler movement.
While we were shocked by the virulence of the accusations, we were not surprised by the attack itself. It is part and parcel of an extraordinarily heavy-handed backlash against democratic values that has become all too evident in the last year. The real agenda is to de-legitimize the New Israel Fund, shut down the human rights organizations we fund, and marginalize the progressive values for which we stand as “anti-Israel.”
Regular readers of NIF News understand this attack as the latest in what appears to be a coordinated attempt to stifle dissent. The arrest of the executive director of our flagship grantee, ACRI, at a peaceful demonstration…the interrogation of the director of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center for her role in leading egalitarian women’s prayers at the Western Wall…violent attacks on Israeli judges …threatened Knesset legislation requiring loyalty oaths and other measures targeted to the Arab minority and progressive organizations in general…the list unfortunately goes on.
The actual “research report” produced to tie NIF to the Goldstone report has now been thoroughly debunked by us and the media (e.g. Forward and JTA.) Timed to capitalize on the Israeli public’s anger at Goldstone, the report erroneously reported that more than 90% of the Goldstone negative allegations about the IDF were sourced to Israeli human rights groups supported by NIF. In reality, less than 14% of the report’s citations were attributed to groups funded by NIF, and the vast majority of Goldstone’s most controversial conclusions originated in official statements by the Israeli military and political leadership. (A new source-by-source report under preparation by NIF-Israel indicates that NIF-funded groups actually provided less than 2% of the Goldstone material on Gaza.) And our funding for these organizations comprises less than 10% of our overall grant-making. But because these human rights groups work on the most complicated and sensitive issues in Israel, they attract more than their share of controversy.
The truth is that the New Israel Fund supports Israel’s most reputable and internationally-respected human rights groups. These groups fulfilled their mission by carefully monitoring and reporting on the Gaza operation – and provided reports that have been utilized by the IDF, the Goldstone Commission, and others. In turn, it is the task of an independent inquiry to assess these reports and put them in context. Indeed, these human rights groups were also among the first to declare the need for an independent Israeli inquiry into the events of Gaza.
Many leaders of the Jewish community, in Israel, the U.S., and elsewhere around the world, have spoken out against the defamation of the New Israel Fund. A proposed Knesset inquiry into NIF and the organizations it supports was defeated, thanks in no small measure to hundreds if not thousands of NIF supporters who contacted the Prime Minister’s office in Israel. Israeli leaders across the political spectrum voiced opposition to the idea of a political witch-hunt against progressive civil society, although the original sponsor and his political allies have publicly vowed to continue his attempts in the Knesset.
What We Will Do…and What You Can Do to Help
Even before the specific attack on NIF, we committed ourselves to new initiatives in Israel on the issues of highest concern, including human rights, anti-racism and defending democracy against those who conflate self-examination and social justice with Israel’s real enemies. We will need your support to expand what have become critically important programs, and initiate new ones.
As you may know, the New Israel Fund has never spent resources on “building its brand” – every dollar not spent on basic operations goes to fund positive social change in Israel. But now, we hope you will share our alarm at the bold attempts by authoritarian extremists, in government and out, who publicly declare the need to stifle criticism, muzzle and defund organizations critical of various aspects of Israeli society, and even outlaw legitimate expressions of speech and conscience.
And so we will not be silent.
As columnist Gershom Goremberg recently wrote:
“So the fight here isn’t over funding. It’s about free speech. For several decades, the brightest spot in Israeli democracy has been the growth of groups independent of the government and political parties that promote civil rights and social equality…The New Israel Fund has helped these and many other groups financially. In the process, it has given liberal Diaspora Jews a way to contribute to Israel’s future — without schizophrenically acting as liberals at home and jingoists in Israel.”
In the coming days and weeks, we will ask the supporters of the New Israel Fund to speak up and speak out – in your synagogues and temples, in the pages of your local newspapers, at your Hillel, on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. We will ask that you educate and recruit your friends and family to understand the issues at stake in Israel, bring these concerns to your communities and participate in building the Israel we all know to be possible.
For thirty years, NIF has founded and funded progressive civil society in Israel. We and our organizations are proud of our accomplishments and we will not yield to those who confuse building a better and society with anti-Zionism and other inflammatory catch-phrases. And with your help, we will continue and succeed in building the Israel of which we all can be proud.
An opinion from one of the few ‘voices of sanity’ left at the Jerusalem Post…..BY DAVID J. FORMAN
While one may legitimately disagree with some of the organizations in Israel that NIF supports, it is well known for its aid to some of the most creative, progressive and socially-minded NGOs in the country.
Most stories in the news have a brief shelf-life. Even the tragedy in Haiti has faded from the world’s consciousness after dominating the media for a number of weeks. But there are other events that drag on, including those that at first glance seem insignificant. In Israel, we are experts at flogging a dead horse, belaboring a particular news item ad nauseam. Such is the lingering coverage of the radical right-wing Im Tirzu’s frontal assault on the New Israel Fund (NIF) and its director, Dr. Naomi Chazan.
Indeed, Im Tirzu is guaranteeing that the story be kept alive as they now have produced inflammatory billboards: “Exposure: Naomi ‘Goldstone’ Chazan’s NIF stands behind the Goldstone Report,” thus inciting a vicious atmosphere. Further breathing life into the issue is the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee setting up a sub-committee to examine how foreign foundations sponsor Israeli organizations. Kadima’s Otniel Schneller, former secretary-general of the Yesha Council and former deputy speaker of the Knesset, has announced that he is working to reach a broad consensus to probe the conduct of NIF and its Israeli grantees.
As the founding chairperson of Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), I can categorically state that RHR might never have gotten off the ground if it were not for the funding it received from NIF at the incipient stages of the organization’s formation. I am proud of the work of RHR and grateful for NIF’s continued support.
With the dismissal of Dr. Chazan as a columnist for The Jerusalem Post earlier this month, I am caught in a dilemma. I understand the reason for the termination of her column. It’s difficult to imagine any newspaper extending a free hand to one of its writers who, at the same time, is suing it. However, the Post, along with Yediot Aharonot and Maariv, do need to answer for printing an advertisement with classic anti-Semitic overtones, like the one that demonized Dr. Chazan.
I have written for the Post for more than 25 years; for the past four years, I have written a bi-weekly column in the Magazine, switching every other week with Dr. Chazan, my ideological colleague. Some of the articles I pen are acutely critical of Israel. At no time has anything I’ve written ever been censored. Given the fact that the Post’s international readership is so wide, what I write can certainly be used as political fodder for Israel’s detractors.
NOT ONLY do I identify with Naomi Chazan, but also with the goals of NIF. She and NIF have become the foci of Im Tirzu’s witch hunt, which has made the bogus allegation that NIF is actively involved in undermining the Jewish state. Im Tirzu would have us believe that Israeli NGOs funded by NIF supplied 92% of the negative accounts of Israel in the Goldstone Report. Regarding RHR, I know for a fact that this is a libelous assertion.
Im Tirzu has not provided any credible evidence to support its outrageous assertion; but history has shown, particularly for us Jews, that the bigger the lie, repeated often and loud enough, the more it becomes believable. Sadly, the present government provides fertile ground for the organization’s accusations. Fearful of a possible revolution of Im Tirzu’s sympathetic ministers like Lieberman, Yishai, Landau and a host of other xenophobic characters in the government, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has remained embarrassingly silent. As for Labor Party representatives in the coalition, they have said nothing. Once again, they have proven to be a spineless pack of hypocrites willing to violate any and all principles to maintain their cabinet seats.
The hypocrisy extends to Ronen Shoval, the force behind Im Tirzu. He questions NIF’s funding process; who gives to NIF; and which Israeli NGOs receive moneys from it. He sees no contradiction with Reverend John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) donating $100,000 to Im Tirzu. This is the same John Hagee who has frequent anti-Semitic outbursts: Hitler carried out the will of God to return the Jews to Israel in accordance with the biblical promise. . . The Holocaust took place because Jews rebelled and renounced their true God. Their disobedient behavior is the reason for anti-Semitism and the persecution Jews have suffered throughout the ages.
Apparently, this does not disturb Shoval who told Haaretz last week: “We are not financially well off enough to say ‘no’ to money, even if the source doesn’t perfectly match our own personal views.” That logic should apply to NIF. While one may legitimately disagree with some of the organizations in Israel that NIF supports, it is well known for its aid to some of the most creative, progressive and socially-minded NGOs in the country; many of which have become essential watchdogs to protect Israel’s democratic values, not to mention its support of environmental projects, minority rights, immigration, religious pluralism and the economically deprived.
Im Tirtzu has succeeded in wreaking havoc, creating a snowball effect, whereby NIF and Naomi Chazan felt compelled to bring a legal suit against The Jerusalem Post, which in turn forced the Post to let her go. It is simply unfair that the Post’s editor David Horovitz – who did not even see the ad before it appeared in the paper, and for whom I have great respect – should have been compromised.
Im Tirzu has placed not only the Post, but also other Israeli and Diaspora institutions between a rock and a hard place. Using innuendo and intimidation, the organization threatens the basic tenets of democracy.
Protesting by stopping to write makes good sense. Yet, I refuse to capitulate to Im Tirzu’s ongoing bullying. As long as the Post allows me editorial freedom, I will continue to express critical opinions on the social, political and religious dynamics in Israel when I deem it necessary. I can only hope that those within our government, as well as within the Diaspora Jewish community, will stand up to Im Tirzu’s continuing witch hunt so they do not fall victim to Pastor Martin Niemrs warning about the silence of German intellectuals during Word War II:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade-unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
The writer is a Reform rabbi, author, lecturer and ongoing contributor to
The Jerusalem Post Magazine.
River to Sea
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