NGO Monitor Digest (Vol. 4 No. 3) 15 November 2005
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CONTENTS: |
- NGO MONITOR'S ANALYSES OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR
NGOs
- SWISS AGENCY FOR DEVELOPMENT & COOPERATION
(SDC); REPORT AND SDC RESPONSE
- UK DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
(DFID)
- CIDA: CANADIAN REACTIONS TO NGO MONITOR REPORT
- WILL REFORMS AT THE UNITED NATIONS LEAD TO A REVIEW
OF THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICIZED NGOs?
- UPDATE: IS THE NGO-LED DIVESTMENT EFFORT LOSING
SUPPORT?
- HRW'S BROADENED MIDDLE EAST AGENDA CONTINUES
- EURO-MEDITERRANEAN HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK (EMHRN):
DISCREPANCY BETWEEN MISSION AND ACTIONS CONTINUES
- NGO MONITOR IN THE NEWS
- NGO NEWS UPDATES
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NGO MONITOR'S ANALYSES OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR NGOs
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SWISS AGENCY FOR DEVELOPMENT &
COOPERATION (SDC): REPORT AND SDC RESPONSE |
In response to
NGO Monitor's report "Analysis
of NGO Funding: Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation
(SDC)", the SDC's Gaza & West Bank office wrote that
"SDC and the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly
reject the unobjective and anchorless critique" by NGO Monitor.
NGO Monitor's answer noted that SDC had not responded to the
detailed evidence presented in the report, and its attacks on
the integrity and accuracy of NGO Monitor's report were without
merit.
Read
Correspondence>>> Click
here to read the French translation of the report,
provided by Coordination intercommunautaire contre l'antisémitisme
et la diffamation (CICAD)
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ANALYSIS OF NGO FUNDING:
UK DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DFID) |
DFID is the "part
of the UK Government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries
and works to get rid of extreme poverty". In the Middle East,
DFID claims to reduce Palestinian poverty by encouraging development,
but significant funding goes towards politicised NGOs that campaign
on external agendas as opposed to internal development, and
use their status to demonize Israel.
Read
Article>>>> |
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WILL REFORMS AT THE UNITED NATIONS
LEAD TO A REVIEW OF THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICIZED NGOs? |
Significant reforms
and re-examination of UN procedures and policies are taking
place, with widespread implications for links between this body
and the influential NGO network. Although the anti-Israel bias
in the UN has been less pronounced in 2005 (see Warren Hoge,
"U.N.
Is Gradually Becoming More Hospitable to Israel", New
York Times, October 10, 2005), the pro-Palestinian agenda,
propelled by the NGO network remains strong.
Read Article>>>>
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UPDATE:
IS THE NGO-LED DIVESTMENT EFFORT LOSING SUPPORT? |
| In the October
digest, NGO Monitor reported on developments in the anti-Israel
divestment campaign, including four conferences
held by Sabeel in which representatives of other politicized
NGOs, including KAIROS and ICAHD director Jeff Halper, also
participated. These conferences generated significant opposition,
particularly the Toronto conference (see "CIDA: Canadian Reactions
to NGO Monitor Report" above), and led some analysts to discern
a decline in the influence of these NGOs and in support for
divestment. According to Besser (see below) "a Chicago conference
by one of the Palestinian Christian groups that has played a
major role in several divestment votes [Sabeel] failed to generate
much interest, suggesting its influence may be waning."
Michele Chabin and Stewart Ain, "Christian
Capital", The Jewish Week, October 28, 2005
James D. Besser, "'Turning
Point' Seen In Divestment Campaign", The Jewish Week,
October 14, 2005
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HRW'S BROADENED
MIDDLE EAST AGENDA CONTINUES |
Responding to
ongoing criticism of a biased and politicized agenda in the
Middle East, the activities of Human Rights Watch in 2005 continue
to reflect a changed emphasis, as seen in the following developments.
Read
Article >>>> |
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EURO-MEDITERRANEAN HUMAN RIGHTS
NETWORK (EMHRN): DISCREPANCY BETWEEN MISSION AND ACTIONS CONTINUES |
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In conflict
with its goal to “support and publicize the universal
principles of human rights,” the Euro-Mediterranean
Human Rights Network (EMHRN) is continuing to fund and publicise
the work of NGOs that selectively exploit human rights terminology
for partisan political objectives. Members such as the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al
Mezan still use EMHRN to demonize Israel, at the expense
of genuine campaigns to protect Palestinian human rights.
This biased approach brings EMHRN into conflict with the policies
of the EU as expressed by the Quartet.
Read Article>>>>
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NGO MONITOR
IN THE NEWS |
NGO Monitor was
cited in media reports from across the political spectrum in
the past month. The New York Jewish Week quoted NGO Monitor
in its article on the involvement of Christian groups in divestment
campaigns against Israel. Other NGO Monitor reports were referenced
in a Frontpagemagazine.com article criticizing Norman Finkelstein’s
new book and cited in the academic journal Israel Affairs in
an article on political radicals in Israeli universities. NGO
Monitor was also attacked in the pro-Palestinian Electronic
Intifada for promoting accountability of “human rights”
NGOs and in Counterpunch, where ICAHD director Jeff Halper inveighed
against NGO Monitor’s reports. (Among other errors, Halper
referred to this project as “an off-shoot of the NGO Watch,”
operated by the American Enterprise Institute. For the record,
NGO Monitor has no connection with the AEI project.)
Read
Article>>> |
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NGO MONITOR
NEWS UPDATES |
- Gerald M. Steinberg, "The
'Yasser Arafat War' is over", The Jerusalem Post,
November 6, 2005
- IRIN News, "SYRIA:
Palestinian refugees complain of persecution and seek to
leave", Reuters AlertNet, October 20, 2005
(CPT)
- Alexander Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky, "Academics
against Israel", The Jerusalem Post, October
19, 2005
- Gerald M. Steinberg, "The
myth of international law", The Jerusalem Post,
October 15, 2005
- Robbie Sabel, "The
ICJ Opinion on the Separation Barrier: Designating the Entire
West Bank as 'Palestinian Territory'", Jerusalem
Viewpoints, No. 535, October 2, 2005
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