Open Society Foundations (OSF)

Profile

Country/TerritoryUnited States

Activity

Funding

  • In 2020, total budget was $1.2 billion and “is organized under 7 regions and 10 themes.”
    • $34.3 million was allocated to programs in the Middle East and North Africa.

OSF Funding to Political NGOs

Political Advocacy

  • OSF runs a program titled “Palestinian Rule of Law Awards” to provide scholarships for law students from the West Bank and Gaza to study in the United States and Central European University. As of 2022, the program has funded over 60 law students. 
  • OSF has published articles by B’TselemAl-Haq, Breaking the SilenceAdalah, and Gisha as part of its “Grantee Spotlight” page.
    • In October 2016, Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haqpromoted the decision to label all products from Israeli communities built over the 1967 ceasefire line adopted by the EU, ostensibly calling for the eventual boycott of all Israeli products.
    • In June 2016, OSF shared a report entitled “The Occupation’s Fig Leaf: Israel’s Military Law Enforcement System as a Whitewash Mechanism” prepared by B’Tselem. The report claims that “Palestinians have been living under an Israeli military regime that has wrongfully killed, injured, and abused them.”
  • OSF granted an unknown amount of money to the political activist Michael Sfard to write his book, The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights. Sfard is involved in highly political NGOs (many of them getting money from OSF) and campaigns against Israel, including lawfare.
    • In February 2018, OSF hosted the book launch with Sfard and Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, discussing “Has a generation of legal action against the occupation actually served to bolster its legitimacy?”
  • The “Open Society Justice Initiative,” which claims to “foster accountability for international crimes, combat racial discrimination… address abuses related to national security and counterterrorism.” was asked by Adalah to “prepare a memorandum for the UN Human Rights Council’s follow-up Fact-Finding Committee” (to the “Goldstone Report”). The resulting report alleged that “the Israeli investigations to date have not complied with international or comparative standards,” and that delays “violate[] international law and taint[] the independence and effectiveness of any subsequent inquiry.”

Funding to NGOs 

All grant information was taken from the Grant Database on Open Society Foundation’s website.  

GranteeAmountAward Date
+972 Magazine$300,0002019-2021
Adalah$500,0002020
$400,0002017-2019
Al-Haq$800,0002020-2023
$8,9102019
$700,0002017-2019
Al Mezan$600,0002019-2022
Al Qaws$120,0002020-2022
$100,0002018-2020
Amnesty USA$30,0002020-2022
$150,0002019-2020
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)$100,0002020-2022
$100,0002018-2019
B'Tselem$420,0002019-2021
Breaking the Silence$200,0002019-2021
$200,0002017-2019
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)$100,0002020
$100,0002019-2020
Center for Constitutional Rights$350,0002020
$34,0002019-2021
Education for Just Peace in the Middle East-U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation$300,0002018-2020
EuroMed Rights$1,500,0002018-2021
Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders (EMHRF)$240,0002020-2022
$710,0002019-2021
European Council on Foreign Affairs (ECFR)$136,3042019
European Middle East Project (EUMEP)
$100,0002020-2022
Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP)$140,0002020
$140,0002019
Gisha$180,0002020-2022
$180,0002018-2020
Grassroots Jerusalem$100,0002019-2021
Human Rights Watch$75,0002020
I'Lam$100,0002020
International Commission of Jurists$593,0002020
Ir Amim$140,0002020-2022
$140,0002018-2020
Kayan$275,0002020-2022
$200,0002018-2020
Mada al-Carmel$200,0002019-2021
Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA)$400,0002020-2022
$300,0002017-2019
New Israel Fund$500,0002020
$1,000,0002019
Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)$910,0002020-2022
$1,470,0002019-2021
Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI)$200,0002020
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)$50,0002020
$99,9242018-2020
Rights Forum$25,0002020
Telos Group$350,0002018-2020
War on Want$358,4692020-2021
$108,3652019-2020
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom$200,0002019-2021

Appendix 1

imagesoros leak2Soros, Israel, George Soros, Open Society Foundations

All Articles about Open Society Foundations (OSF)

Further Reading