The True Face of the New Israel Fund

It is a “similar experience,” he said, to the one faced by the families from neighborhoods like Silwan, where minors are “often taken from their beds at night with no explanation.” He concluded by saying that “Israel is creating the conditions for a terrible reality and cannot wash its hands fully of the consequences.” Nice, isn’t it? Both sides kidnap minors.

Last week, NGO Monitor published an analysis of the annual financial reports of the New Israel Fund, focusing on the funding authorized to political advocacy organizations that, to varying degrees, are involved in delegitimization campaigns against Israel. This adds up to some $4 million dollars in 2012 and $3 million in 2013.

There is almost no political front where the NIF cannot be found. Despite its protestations, the NIF is a huge left-wing political organization — the root of the actions of many radical organizations — that wants to change Israel’s character and destiny as the national home of the Jewish people.

Israel is seeking compromise regarding the Negev Bedouin claims (which have not been proved in court), and is offering unprecedented gifts. Rest assured you will find organizations funded by the NIF involved in propaganda efforts against the Prawer-Begin plan — which inflame the Bedouin and increase their demands — including slurs against Israel abroad. Three organizations involved in the Bedouin campaign received funds from the NIF. Funding for the organization Rabbis for Human Rights rose by about 1,000 percent — more than $250,000 in 2013 alone. Bimkom and the Negev Coexistence Forum also received a generous increase in funding.

Extremist organizations that oppose all that is dear to the majority of Israeli society are regularly funded by the NIF. In 2013 alone: Machsom Watch (Women’s Fund for Human Rights) received $118,788, Israeli Social TV (Syncopa Community) received $39,000, Mossowa received $191,477, Breaking the Silence received $83,993, Physicians for Human Rights received $71,380, Plus 972 received $31,378, Ir Amim received $95,131 (and about $280,000 in 2012), Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah received $32,550 (and about $98,000 in 2012), B’Tselem received $107,048 (and about $333,000 in 2012), Adalah received $70,948 (and about $357,000 in 2012), Hamoked, the Center for the Defence of the Individual, received $14,800 (and about $175,000 in 2012), and the list goes on. Incidentally, Hamoked last week filed a “legal objection” to the demolition of the home of the terrorist who murdered Israel Police Commander Baruch Mizrahi.

Don’t get too excited by the pleasant-sounding names. They have nothing to do with morals. “Human rights” was long ago made into a code name for denying the right of the Jewish people to their own state and to defend themselves. In his book “Financing the Flames,” Edwin Black showed how the Ford Foundation and the NIF fuel a culture of terror and violence in Israel. A decade ago, Black conducted research on the American Ford Foundation and revealed its involvement in funding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organizations that took part in the infamous Durban Conference in 2001, a conference that claimed to combat racism, but instead, primarily targeted the Jewish state.

In an online interview with Mida, Black said that when he was asked to monitor the Ford Foundation, he discovered that 10 years earlier, Ford had stopped supporting the Durban groups and started supporting the NIF. According to him, “This is a natural progression: NIF can do the same work it did in the Durban organizations, but with one distinct advantage — it has a Star of David on its front door, thus allowing it to operate efficiently, while covering the public’s eyes.”

An analysis of the NIF’s activities reveals that a large part of its support is considered legitimate — this way, it was recently able to host, for instance, a well-known MK who promotes settlement in Judea and Samaria and the Basic Law: Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, and more, showing a constructive image of community service, while, on the other hand, doing the heavy lifting to obstruct these initiatives and to work against settlement in Judea and Samaria (Molad, the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, known for its “research” against the settlements, received $736,000 from the NIF in 2013), against the Judaization of the Negev and Galilee, against Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and for its transformation into “a state of all its nationalities.”

What should we do? First, establish an alternative Zionist foundation. At the same time, we must expose the hidden intentions of the NIF and warn against “innocent” social action that is designed to lend legitimacy to the radical political activism that fuels the engines of hate against Israel and the settlements.

The True Face of the New Israel Fund