19 May 2005:
"WAR ON WANT" ESCALATES POLITICAL ASSAULT ON ISRAEL

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War on Want, a registered "charitable" organization claiming to "fight global poverty", has launched a new round of the ongoing political campaign to boycott and isolate Israel globally. This public relations effort appears timed to reinforce the academic boycott and a parallel the HRW/ISM-led campaign in the U.S.

As demonstrated in previous NGO Monitor analyses of War on Want, its leaders advance their fringe political goals under the guise of a charity. WoW was formerly headed by British MP George Galloway, currently implicated in the "oil for food" scandal with close ties to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. WoW routinely uses hate rhetoric such as "apartheid", "slavery", and "a heavyweight beating a child" in its assault against Israel, while accusing Israeli leaders of attempting to simulate the aftermath of a natural disaster for Palestinians. Repeating terms used routinely by the radical Palestinian NGO network regarding refugee claims and calls on Israeli citizens to refuse military service, War on Want's program seeks to undermine the survival of the State of Israel and its right to defend itself.

Like the other elements in the movement to demonize Israel, War on Want's latest campaign focuses on the security barrier, which it calls "the world's biggest prison". WoW's incitement makes no mention of the terrorism that has killed over 1000 Israelis (mostly civilians), and which highlights the moral rationale of this defensive response.

Following the standard pattern, War on Want repeats the messages of other members in the extremist NGO network, such as the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC), PNGO, BADIL, Electronic Intifada, www.stopthewall.org, etc.

On the basis of these "sources" alone, WoW's alleges that Israel's security barrier "is destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state, because Palestinian land is being divided into ghettos." Other false allegations include electrification of the barrier, "with watchtowers and sniper positions every few hundred metres." In several instances their website unsettlingly features a photo of a Swastika inside the Star of David, reflecting the fundamentally immoral comparison of Israeli self-defense with the Nazi Holocaust. In a similar assault, WoW blames Israel for a lack of sufficient healthcare facilities in Palestinian towns, going on to proclaim that "the Wall is part of an on-going attempt to make life unendurable for Palestinians."

Highlighting its fraudulent abuse of the "charity" banner, War on Want acts as if the concept of human rights does not apply to Israelis. Instead, this assault justifies terror and brutality, claiming that the violence "is a result of Palestinian anger and desperation at the situation they have suffered." The campaign presents figures on Palestinian casualties, while failing to mention Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. And War on Want adopts traditional antisemitic libels (such as "poisoning the wells") in repeating allegations that the Israel Defense Forces targets Palestinian water sources "as a form of collective punishment". Similarly, in WoW's distorted image, Israel alone is to blame for the "seemingly endless downward spiral of violence".

Towards the end of this statement, which is the antithesis of its official charitable mandate of combating poverty and world hunger, WoW's leaders recognize their vulnerability. In an awkward attempt to hide the evidence, they ask: "What's this got to do with Poverty?" The answer they present is that "the Palestinians' poverty is deeply political" - a telling reflection of the primacy of their radical ideological agenda. When it comes to the Middle East, WoW exploits the charitable status to promote its extremist position.

War on Want Urges Sanctions Against Israel

18/05/2005
By Bernard Josephs
Jewish Chronicle

A LEADING communal executive has voiced fears that British charities are being swept along by a tide of anti-Israel sentiment.

Board of Deputies director-general Jon Benjamin said this week that, while it was legitimate to raise funds for impoverished Palestinians, there was a growing tendency among charitable organisations to target Israel “for special condemnation.”

Concerns were sparked by a War on Want campaign calling for sanctions against Israel and urging action against Caterpillar, the American-based corporation which sells bulldozers to Israel.

“War on Want certainly has a politicised stance on Israel,” Mr Ben-jamin argued.

A report produced on Caterpillar by the charity was sent to an influential Church of England committee, which met on Monday to discuss whether to recommend that the Church sell its nearly £200,000-worth of shares in the firm.

But the chairman of the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group, the Venerable Ian Russell, would not disclose its findings. “The people who have made representations to us have a right to know before they read it in their newspapers,” he told the JC.

In a message to the government, War on Want accused Britain of shying away from imposing economic pressure on Israel, “trusting instead in a policy of close engagement to exert influence.”

The War on Want view was that the government should press for the suspension of the EU-Israel Asso-ciation Agreement, under which Is-raeli goods have preferential access to European markets. By its “violation of Palestinian human rights,” Israel was in breach of the accord.

War on Want chief executive Lou-ise Richards maintained that failing to introduce sanctions against Israel would be seen “as a betrayal of the Palestinian people.”

In its report on Caterpillar, the charity claimed that the company’s “armed bulldozers have been responsible for the destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes, schools, wells and olive groves.” Its machines had also been used to construct Israel’s “separation wall.”

Caterpillar’s stance is that it cannot police the use of its equipment worldwide and that “comments on political conflict” in the Middle East are “best left” to governments.

War on Want is involved in a “Free Palestine” demonstration in London on Saturday, together with organisations including the National Union of Teachers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for the Palestinians.