Click here for the Hebrew version of these materials

Memo to the Members of the Public Commission to Examine the Gaza Flotilla,

RE: NGO Monitor Research on the Events of the Gaza Flotilla 

Following the confrontation between the so-called “Free Gaza Flotilla” and the IDF, NGO Monitor published a series of research reports detailing the involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in coordinating the flotilla, as well as acts by NGOs aimed at delegitimizing Israel in the wake of that event.

Similar to legal cases against IDF officers in international courts, the flotilla and the subsequent publicity campaigns represent a form of “soft power” in the political war with Israel.

Disguising their politicized agenda behind the rhetoric of humanitarianism, these organizations broadcast photos of dead flotilla participants and portrayed armed activists as victims of IDF soldiers in an attempt to paint the soldiers as “war criminals” and “pirates,” and the military operation as a breach of international law.

The aggressive media campaign and demands for an international investigation were orchestrated by many of the same foreign-government-funded NGOs that used demonizing language to criticize Israel’s actions during Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin, the Second Lebanon War, and Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. These are the same NGOs that contributed to the biased Goldstone Report and lobby for its endorsement across the world.

I am attaching NGO Monitor’s research reports for reference in your investigation. I am also available to answer any questions regarding the funding and the activities of the organizations involved. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Professor Gerald M. Steinberg

President

NGO Monitor

 

Hebrew translations of the following NGO Monitor reports were sent to the Commission

  1. IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi) – Turkey 
  2. International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
  3. Lost at Sea: NGO Legal Distortions in the Wake of the Flotilla Incident
  4. NGO Campaigns and the “Free Gaza Flotilla”
  5. NGO Involvement in the Gaza Boat Flotilla