Major Victory in Battle to Hold Funders Accountable

JERUSALEM – In response to reports that the German government-funded “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future (EVZ)” Foundation announced it will stop funding the Israeli NGO Zochrot, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, released the following statement:

This is a significant victory in the battle to hold funders accountable for their support of NGOs involved in demonization. Zochrot, a radical Israeli NGO, supports the Palestinian claim to a “Right of Return” – which has no legal basis and would end the existence of Israel as the Jewish nation-state – endorsed the violent “Free Gaza Flotilla,” and falsely accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “forcible displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people.”

EVZ’s decision is recognition that such immoral funding is entirely opposed to its declared mission of compensating slave laborers of the Nazi regime. The hate-filled attacks against Israel, which were enabled by EVZ funding, also make a two-state solution based on coexistence more difficult.

We urge EVZ and other taxpayer-funded German organizations to undertake a complete and independent examination of their partners, to ensure that these activities are consistent with their missions and do not abuse the language of peace in order to promote hatred and potential violence

In October 2011, numerous news stories detailed EVZ funding for German and Arab-Israeli student programs that incited Israel-hatred and “included elements of Holocaust denial.” In particular, EVZ funds contributed to a program that brought Hajo Meyer, a highly controversial anti-Israel activist, to speak to students.

For more information on EVZ, see NGO Monitor’s factsheet.