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[Excerpts:]

"Why do the media back claims by non-governmental organisations with their own agendas?"

"But the veneer of respectability which NGO status confers is also a gift to the Western media. It allows the press to quote findings as if they were holy writ when NGOs often have a political agenda of their own. Some of the best-funded NGOs which bring attitudes to issues are actually paid for by subvention from the Western democracies."

"Concerns about the integrity and financing of NGOs led to the creation of NGO Monitor, dedicated to holding accountable "human-rights NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict". Its most recent bulletin, notes Amnesty International, has condemned Israel for military responses to terror – without any of the condemnations being based on original research. It also, says NGO Monitor, put out a "misleading" press release, picked up by Western media outlets, relating to the death of a Reuters cameraman in Gaza."