I'lam

Profile

Country/TerritoryIsrael
Websitehttp://www.ilam-center.org/en/
Founded2000
In their own words"By engaging in research, education, and activism with a media focus, we strive to contribute to the advancement of Israel’s Palestinian community, strengthening the professional capacities of Arab media personnel and promoting the human rights of the Palestinian Arab Community in Israel."

Funding

  • In 2016, total income was NIS 709,217; total expenses were NIS 927,895.
  • Donors include the European Union, Open Society Foundation, Ford Foundation, Hanns Seidal Foundation, Welfare Association, Hebert Quandt Stiftung, and Human Rights Association. (See table below for further funding information.)
  • Received a grant of €488,098 from the European Union (European Neighborhood Instrument) for a project (2016-2019) titled “Building Strategic Capacity: Empowering Civil, Political and Emerging Constituencies in Palestine and Israel.” The project is co-implemented by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) and PalThink for Strategic Studies (PalThink).
    • ORG’s main project on the Arab-Israeli conflict, The Palestine Strategy Group, published a strategy report that supports “resistance in all its forms including the growing global movement for boycott sanctions and divestment” (emphasis added). Dr. Husam Zomlot, part of ORG’s Middle East Team and co-founder and coordinator of its Palestine Strategy Group, claimed in an interview on BBC (BBC Interview, 20 Aug 2014 from 39:21) that “They [Israelis] are fabricating all these stories about beheading journalists in Iraq… it happened somewhere else in Iraq, as if they are fabricating also the story of the Holocaust, that it happened in Europe, not the story itself, but the reason why they are doing this, and using so many other examples, to justify their murder of a nation.”
    • PalThink’s 2015 Meet the Youth initiative focused “on strengthening the Palestinian youth and their engagement in civic and political life in Gaza,” by inviting Hamas’ Basem Na’im and the PFLP’s Kayed al-Ghoul to speak with teenagers.
      • In a January 2016 article, al-Ghoul called for increased terrorism against Israelis, stating that “The armed resistance is a major form of resistance for the Palestinian people. It must be expanded and put to good use…”
      • In June 2016, Na’im tweeted “V dangerous! #Israel Rabbi call 2 poison the water in the #WestBank 2displace Palestinians from their land #BDS” as part of a false libel against Israel, reminiscent of a classical antisemitic canard.
  • Received a grant of €365,803 from the European Union (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) for a project (2017-2019) titled “The Creation of the Freedom Protection Council: Ensuring democratic space for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Israel.”
    • According to the project’s strategic action plan, the council was founded out of a “burning need in Israeli society,” which—according to the council—is “rapidly deteriorating away from basic democratic and liberal values.”
    • One of the council’s stated goals is to “fight against these dangerous trends” being advanced by the “messianic-nationalist right” government currently in power.
  • According to as-of-yet unauthenticated documents leaked from the Open Society Foundation, since 2003, I’lam has received nine grants from OSF totaling $1,083,000.

Activities

  • I’lam’s stated mission is to “[harness] the right to freedom of expression and the strength of the media to advance a more democratic, open and just society.” I’lam uses highly politicized language to demonize Israel, promotes boycott campaigns, and engages in political advocacy against Israel.

Anti-Israel Activities

  • I’lam rhetoric includes accusations of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” “collective punishment,” “war crimes,” and “racism.”
  • Regularly claims that the Israeli police and the IDF target Palestinian and foreign journalists.
  • I’lam facilitates a project titled “Monitoring Expressions of Incitement and Racism” which “sets out to monitor central media outlets in Israel on a daily basis…in a weekly report describing instances of incitement and racism to expose the Israeli media’s coverage of Palestinian citizens.”
  • I’lam condemns Israel’s monitoring of Palestinian social media accounts, explaining that the Israeli unit “arrest[s] activists under the pretext that their publications through social networks indicate that they may have the ‘intention’ to carry out ‘terrorist attacks.’” I’lam erases the context of Palestinian terrorism and ignores Israel’s right to defend itself and its civilians.
  • In April 2018, Director of I’lam Amal Jamal stated that “Israel has traded on the claim that the occupation is temporary. But clearly, that is no longer tenable. So, Israelis will have to choose. There can one sovereign state for everyone living here, or there can be apartheid.”
  • In April 2018, to mark 50 years “since the fateful war of 1967,” Jamal contributed to a book titled Moment of Truth: Tackling Israel-Palestine’s Toughest Questions which focused on questions such as “Has Israel’s settlement enterprise made a Palestinian state impossible? Can the Palestinian leadership end the occupation? Is Israel’s rule in the Palestinian territories a form of apartheid? Could the US government force Israel to withdraw?”
  • In December 2016, Jamal spoke at the Centre for Palestine at the SOAS University of London on the topic of “1967 Bypassing 1948: A Critique of Occupation Studies in Israeli Critical Theory,” discussing how “focusing on the occupation of 1967, critical Israeli studies of occupation minimize the impact of the Nakba and thus normalize the Israeli domination system in the 1948 areas, thereby indirectly rendering the Israeli colonization project and discriminatory policies in Arab populated areas legitimate” (emphasis added).
  • In September 2016, I’lam published a report titled “Future scenarios: Palestinian Arabs in the State of Israel” discussing the “unequal balance of power between Palestinian Arabs in Israel and the Jewish population, a result of historical domination and political persecution.” According to the report, many have chosen to boycott the State of Israel “because there is no legitimacy to the Israeli entity established after the Nakba” (emphasis added). The report further warns individuals not to “fall into the trap of Zionist hegemony or to tolerate the pretentious racial thought dominant in Israel today.”
  • In May 2015, I’lam organized a conference called “Nakba Media and Film and discourse” discussing how “the ‘Nakba’ itself continues to the present day, through racism and discrimination.”
  • In October 2014, I’lam hosted a debate on the topic of international law and whether it “does justice for the Palestinian resistance project.” While one side claimed that “international law is an essential means to achieve the resistance project,” the opposing side stressed that international law “does not support the Palestinians and their right to freedom… international law is fully subject to the balance of world powers, which works for the benefit of the occupation and Israel.”
  • In a 2014 report about the Nakba, I’lam accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and argued that “the practical meaning of the Nakba undermines the moral and ethical foundation of Zionism and, hence, of the State of Israel. It also implies the acknowledgment of stains of guilt for the deliberate process of ethnic cleansing the traces of which are still evident today.”
  • During the 2014 Gaza War, I’lam signed a joint written statement to the UNHRC “condemn[ing] Israel’s unlawful targeting of civilians,” which may “constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law and international criminal law and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The statement called on the UNHRC to “[e]stablish an independent, international commission of inquiry with the mandate to identify and investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed within the context of Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.”
  • In July 2014, I’lam hosted a debate on economic boycotts where one side “stressed that this boycott is not a boycott of Israel but rather a boycott of large Israeli companies, especially those who support the occupation, and that it is not a reactionary measure but rather a political project…that putting pressure on large companies would influence the government to change their policies and work to achieve equality and support the local Arab economy.”

Staff

Partners

  • Partners include The Global Network for Defending and Promoting Free Expression, Human Rights Responsive Media, Wafa Palestinian News & Info Agency, International Federation of Journalists, Mada Palestinian Center for Development & Media Freedoms, Article 19, Reporters without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, TransMedia, Freedom House, International Press Institute, and Pen International.
  • Listed among “Partners & Friends” on Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Foreign donations based on Annual Reports (amounts in NIS)

Donor201620152014
Open Society Foundation94,097529,300403,386
Hanns Seidal Foundation156,740186,438189,481
Switzerland17,008
Hebert Quandt Stiftung9,1411,390
Welfare Association33,804320,104
Oxford Research Group200,519
European Commission19,010
Ford Foundation38,870
Human Rights Association25,432

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