Kerem Navot
Kerem Navot is an Israeli NGO that was established to "challenge the systems and policies that enable ongoing dispossession of Palestinians from their land in the West Bank."
Kerem Navot is an Israeli NGO that was established to "challenge the systems and policies that enable ongoing dispossession of Palestinians from their land in the West Bank."
Founded in 1997 by Jeff Halper, a former Professor at Ben-Gurion University, the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), describes itself as a "non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories". The scope its advocacy and lobbying extends much further, however. As documented in previous NGO Monitor reports, ICAHD uses its funding (including 472,000 from the EU in 2005) to campaign against the two-state solution, promote boycotts and divestment, uses terms such as "apartheid", and grossly distort the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, ICAHD often recites statistics on the numbers of Palestinian homes demolished in the West Bank without sources making independent verification of ICAHDs allegations impossible. ICAHDs claims that Israeli planning and development policies are founded in racism are opinions based on ideology, and of no validity beyond this.
The European Union (EU) provides substantial funding to highly politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict through various funding mechanisms. Due to the highly complex and poorly coordinated nature of EU aid and to the lack of a consolidated database differentiating between NGOs and other types of organizations, it is impossible to determine the exact amount or proportions of EU funding to civil society organizations.
The EU's funding, through the Partnership for Peace program, of a project implemented by Palestinian and Israeli NGOs is a perfect example of an EU-funded project blatantly contradicting EU policies.
Gerald Steinberg outlines the issues behind the recent NGO Wars, delineating the anti-Israel activities being carried out by European-funded NGOs in Israel.