Grants

• According to the New Israel Fund (NIF) 2010 financial report, published at the end of July 2011, NIF authorized grants worth approximately $16.4 million in 2010. This is a significant decrease from 2009, when $19.9 million was authorized (17% decrease).
• Approximately 26% of 2010 funding ($4.3 million – see chart below) went to highly politicized groups involved to varying degrees in delegitimization campaigns.
• In September 2010, NIF published new funding guidelines, declaring, in part, that groups working “to deny the right of the Jewish people to sovereign self-determination within Israel, or to deny the rights of Palestinian or other non-Jewish citizens to full equality within a democratic Israel” will “no longer be eligible” for funding. NIF also issued various statements expressing opposition to anti-Israel “lawfare” and BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions).
• The 2010 grants do not reflect any apparent changes or implementation of the guidelines.

NIF authorized grants for political advocacy NGOs engaged in delegitimization campaigns in 2009-2010
For detailed analysis of the activities and agendas of each group, see http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngo_index.php?letter=A

Details

2010 NIF grants that violate stated funding guidelines and policies

Adalah – authorized $475,950 in 2010.

• Rejecting Jewish self-determination: Adalah’s “Democratic Constitution” (2007) calls for replacing the Jewish state with a “democratic, bilingual and multicultural” framework and for a redefinition of the “symbols of the state,” and would restrict Jewish immigration solely for “humanitarian reasons.” According to NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch, this constitution is one example of activities that violate NIF guidelines.
• Lobbying for pressure against Israel: In February 2011, lobbied the EU to “Raise its concerns regarding the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel at the highest political level, as well as in all bilateral relations with Israel…Condition the upgrade of its relations with Israel, including any new bilateral agreement, on tangible improvements in the human rights situation in the OPT and in Israel.”
• Sanctions: In lobbying for the Goldstone Report and its recommendations, particularly in UN and European frameworks, Adalah issued a press release urging governments to “re-evaluate their relationship with Israel.”
• Apartheid rhetoric: Officials wrote and edited large portions of a May 2009 pseudo-academic study that refers to “a colonial enterprise which implements a system of apartheid.” The report delegitimizes Israeli self-defense measures as “inhumane act[s] of apartheid…perpetrated in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another.”  The publication was published in conjunction with Al Haq, a Ramallah-based NGO whose General Director, according to the Israeli Supreme Court, is a “senior activist” in the PFLP terror organization.
• Lawfare: In 2009, submitted an affidavit to a Spanish court, supporting the Palestinian Center for Human Rights’  attempt to have seven Israeli officials arrested for “war crimes.”
• Defending those convicted of security offenses: Labeled convicted Hezbollah spy Amir Makhoul “a political activist and human rights defender,” and implied that his arrest was linked to “attacks against human rights organizations in Israel working to defend Palestinian rights” (May 10, 2010). Adalah lawyer Abir Baker, who was defending another individual engaged in contacts with Hezbollah, told a reporter that the case should be seen “in the context of efforts by Israel to limit the right of Arab citizens to strengthen cultural and political ties to the rest of the Arab world. Several of Israel’s Arab political parties, including the one Mr. Said belongs to, have been trying to inform the Arab world about the minority’s campaign for democratic reforms to end Israel’s status as a Jewish state…Israel wants to make us invisible” (September 22, 2010).

Mada al-Carmel – authorized $100,000 in 2010.

• Rejecting Jewish self-determination: Mada al-Carmel claims that there is a “Palestinian consensus within the Green Line against accepting the legitimacy of the Jewish State… The global spread of political discourse of two states for two peoples – a Palestinian state and a Jewish state – is regrettable” (December 2009).
• The organization co-authored the “Haifa Declaration” (2007), which calls for a “change in the definition of the State of Israel from a Jewish state” and accuses Israel of “exploiting” the Holocaust “at the expense of the Palestinian people.”
• Demonizing graphics: Mada al-Carmel, along with Women against Violence and the Arab Forum for Sexuality were part of the international “One Day One Struggle” campaign (November 2009). Publicity included a poster portraying an Israeli soldier reaching suggestively toward a Palestinian woman, alongside the caption: “Her husband needs a permit to touch her. The occupation penetrates her life everyday!”
• In contrast to Mada al-Carmel, which maintained its level of funding, the 2010 grant for Women against Violence was $88,000, down from $322,000 in 2009. Arab Forum for Sexuality did not receive funding in 2010.

Coalition Women for Peace (CWP) –  authorized $20,130 in 2010

• BDS: CWP is a leader of anti-Israel global BDS campaigns, primarily through its “Who Profits?” project, “an online database initiated in response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel.” BDS campaigns target Israeli banks, the Danish security company G4S, and the Israeli high-speed train.
• Apartheid: CWP organized an Israel Apartheid Week event in Jaffa (March 16, 2011) entitled “Life and Struggle in Apartheid.”
• The information published in the 2010 Financial Report contradicts multiple public statements by NIF officials claiming NIF funding for CWP ceased in 2008-9.

Other NGOs

• As documented in the table above, grants to Association for Civil Rights in Israel, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, HaMoked, Gisha, Ir Amim, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel increased in 2010.
• These NGOs were highly active in promoting the Goldstone Report and campaigning for international pressure against Israel.
• For more details, see www.ngo-monitor.org.

Additional analysis

• Shatil, NIF’s operational arm in Israel, provides “consulting and training in organizational development, advocacy, media and PR, coalition building, resource development and volunteer management,” and runs its own campaigns. Shatil receives millions of dollars annually from NIF.
• Some of the larger donations to major NIF grantees, such as Adalah, appear to be multiyear grants. The NIF financial report does not provide details.