Foreign governments and foundations have provided millions of dollars to marginal anti-Zionist groups in Israel. Photo: Twitter
NGO-Monitor
More than $27 million of foreign donations flowed into the bank accounts of radical NGOs in Israel during 2012-14, the leading Israeli watchdog monitoring NGO activity disclosed in a new report published today.
Of special concern, said NGO Monitor in its report on the financial activities of NGOs as submitted to the Israeli government’s registrar for non-profits, are those organizations “involved in polarizing activity and advocacy in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
These groups, the report said, represent the local arm of the international campaign against Israel, and “are directly or indirectly active in BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns, lawfare, delegitimization, demonization, and lobbying against the state of Israel, including involvement in the Goldstone report, the UN fact-finding commission on the Gaza War (2014- ‘Schabas’ commission), and campaigns concerning the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
Among these organizations are left-wing activist groups like B’Tselem, which campaigns against Israeli policy in the West Bank and which accused the IDF of committing war crimes during the summer 2014 war in Gaza, and Breaking the Silence, a small group of former IDF officers who present themselves as lifting the veil on the true nature of Israel’s military actions.
Some of these groups are openly anti-Zionist and advocate the elimination of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. Of special note here is Zochrot, an Israeli- NGO that advocates for the return of Palestinian refugees and the dismantling of Israel, which received over $250,000 between 2012-14 from taxpayer-funded humanitarian foundations and organizations from Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Finland.
Under the terms of the 2011 “NGO Transparency Law” passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Israeli NGOs are required to promptly submit records of donations received.
“No other democracy in the world is permeated by such massive political funding from other countries under the facade of ‘civil society organizations,’” Professor Gerald Steinberg, the President of NGO Monitor, told The Algemeiner. “Previously top secret, the reports provided under this law give the Israeli public the vital information necessary to assess the scale of this externally directed influence, particularly from Europe. And European taxpayers and their representatives can now see what, if anything, these programs designed to manipulate Israeli democracy have accomplished.”
Implementing the reporting system required by the law, however, has not been without significant problems, some stemming from government inefficiency, others from lack of NGO compliance with the law’s provisions.
“Many political advocacy NGOs that regularly receive funding from foreign governments did not submit quarterly reports at all,” NGO Monitor’s report said. “It is unknown whether they did not receive foreign government funding during the reporting period, whether they have failed to act in accordance with the law, or whether they did not report due technical issues in the reporting system.”
NGO-Monitor
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, stated, “This law strengthens the central democratic principle of transparency, and sheds light on the processes through which foreign governments channel funds to selected Israeli civil society organizations. The real-time information provided by this legal framework enables the Israeli public to have a fact-based and informed public debate regarding the involvement of foreign governments in the Israeli public discourse. Over the past few years, more and more NGOs have begun submitting reports disclosing their foreign government funders.”
Quarterly reports reveal the funding sources of NGOs active in campaign against the right of the Jewish nation to sovereign equality, regardless of its borders. “Zochrot”, a radical Israeli NGO which advocates for a “return” of Palestinian “refugees” and the dismantlement of Israel, received NIS 2,374,139 of indirect funding from Belgium, Ireland, Germany and Finland. “Who Profits,” a leader in BDS campaigns and was registered as a non-profit association in 2013 after separating from the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), reported NIS 841,040 in indirect donations from the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, and Ireland.
As the NGO Monitor analysis has shown, in previous years some NGOs did not comply with the law and did not submit reports. This is indicative of the need to improve enforcement by the Ministry of Justice and the Registrar of Non-Profits. Groups that regularly receive foreign funding and do not submit reports may be violating the transparency requirement.
In addition, a number of political groups that seek to influence Israeli political processes are not registered in Israel do not operate transparently. Steinberg added, “At a time when Israeli public discourse is focused on the influence of foreign funding on Israeli civil society, the importance of implementing this law is highlighted. The Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits must enforce the existing regulations so that the Israeli public is able to stay informed regarding the numerous foreign government mechanisms that are behind many politicized civil society organizations.”
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