Gerald Steinberg 2 (2)To read the full interview, click here.

DGS: Until NGO Monitor was founded, there were no checks and balances on powerful and politicized NGOs, no mechanisms to examine their claims or challenge their influence. To provide that service, we place a high priority on credibility. At the most basic level, NGO Monitor is a research institute. Every publication is fully sourced — we include the links, texts and images related to the organizations on which we report. Of course, people with ideological agendas will come up with reasons to attack our work, but anyone with an open mind will be able to check all of our reports and decide for themselves.

Among dictatorships and non-democratic countries, the establishment of government-funded NGOs (GONGOs) is routine — in the days of Gaddafi, Libya ran a number of these. They were even accredited by the UN and gave out bogus “human rights” prizes. Hamas has a pseudo-NGO that was also voted in by the UN committee.

In democracies, and particularly in Europe, the tendency is to use foreign government funded NGOs (FONGOs) to promote interests and goals in a manner entirely inconsistent with the concept of a non-governmental organization. Groups like Oxfam International receive major funding from European governments under the label of “humanitarian aid” and similar frameworks. And dozens of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs are largely funded by European governments, in order to influence and even manipulate Israeli politics.