11.09.09
Posted in NIF, foreign workers at 1:49 pm by ngomonitor
Worker’s Hotline (Kav LaOved), grant of $59,625 from NIF in 2008
Kav LaOved aims to “protect and promote employment rights of disempowered workers.”
On October 28, 2009, Kav LaOved released a report on treatment of foreign workers:
“More than 90% of foreigners employed in the agricultural field work for more hours than permitted by law and are not fully rewarded for the overtime. Some 70% of those earn less than the minimum wage, a report drafted by the Worker’s Hotline organization which will be presented to the Knesset [] indicates…The report further describes the workers’ poor living conditions, as well as the revoking of vacations and passport delay by the employers. Since the beginning of 2009 some 10% of agriculture workers, 2,950 people, were injured during accidents at work.” (Report: Foreigners denied minimum wage, Yael Branovsky, Ynet, October 27, 2009)
According to the Jerusalem Post, the report was timed to “coincide with employers’ plans to push the parliament to allow more foreign agricultural workers into Israel.” (See also PMO director-general cancels meeting with farmers, Jerusalem Post, November 8, 2009)
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11.03.09
Posted in Military, NIF, New Generations at 6:19 pm by ngomonitor
On Friday, November 13, 2009, NIF’s New Generations will host a “Shabbat dinner and discussion” with Mohammad Bakri, the director of the controversial film Jenin, Jenin.
The false allegations in the movie – including accusations of a “massacre,” “mass graves,” and attacks on a hospital during the Jenin battle (2002) – have been widely refuted. Dr. David Zangen, from Hadassah Hospital, who was serving as the medical officer of the unit involved in the fighting, in which a number of Israeli soldiers were killed, highlighted the false claims and the demonization in Jenin, Jenin. Although the Israeli courts rejected the suit against Bakri, the judge concluded that Bakri did not act in good faith, in particular through accusations of “genocide” and “slaughter” in English subtitles, when these terms were not spoken by his interviewees.
The New Generations program which is hosting Bakri is directed by Hillit Zwich. Ben Murane (aka Kung Fu Jew, author of the Judaism Without Borders blog) is an associate in this program. The invitation refers to Bakri as an “award winning filmmaker” without mentioning Jenin, Jenin or the intense criticism surrounding this film.
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11.01.09
Posted in NIF, Religion, Women's rights at 2:38 pm by ngomonitor
Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), grant of $247,544 from NIF in 2008.
IRAC, a “veteran NIF grantee,” regularly brings petitions “against various ministries and municipalities,” aiming to “promote religious freedom, social justice, civil rights and government accountability.”
In a well-publicized case, IRAC fought against “Mehadrin” bus lines, where men sit in front and women in back.
“The petitioners include…the Israel Religious Action Center of the Progressive Movement. In the petition they wrote that the public bus companies operated segregated buses ‘in which the women are required to enter from the back door and sit in the back of the bus, while the men enter from the front doors and sit in front. Furthermore, the women are required to dress modestly. Women who oppose the arrangements that are imposed upon them and try to resist like the petitioners are humiliated and suffer from verbal harassment and threats of violence or are thrown off the bus.’”
A special committee convened by the Transportation Ministry concluded that such separation was permissible if voluntary, but coercion was not allowed. According to the Jerusalem Post, “The Israel Religious Action Center welcomed the report.”
“‘The committee accepted most of our arguments and determined that the operation of the ‘mehadrin’ lines contravened the law and that the separation of men and women in public transportation is humiliating and causes harm to women,’ said attorney Einat Horowitz, who is representing the organization in the High Court petition.”
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10.28.09
Posted in NIF at 9:36 am by ngomonitor
Rachel Liel, who is replacing Eliezer Yaari as CEO of NIF-Israel, had been the director of SHATIL, NIF’s “Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel,” since 1998.
Before joining NIF, Liel served in the Israeli government, as deputy director of Rehabilitation Services at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and as a social policy analyst in the Prime Minister’s Office.
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10.26.09
Posted in ACRI, NIF at 8:24 am by ngomonitor
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), grant of $812,912 from NIF in 2008
ACRI, NIF’s “flagship grantee,” regularly petitions Israeli courts on a wide range of policy issues, including allegations of discrimination against Palestinians. On October 22, 2009, the court agreed in a case involving a road that had been closed to Palestinians to prevent terror attacks.
The court ordered
“the state to cancel an order prohibiting Palestinians from driving on a road linking small villages near Hebron to the larger towns that provide them with vital services…”
However, ACRI felt the decision did not go far enough. (IDF must allow Palestinians to use ‘Israelis only’ road, Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2009):
“ACRI attorney Limor Yehuda… said that the court had ‘missed an opportunity’ to overrule the order on the grounds that it discriminated against Palestinians according to ethnic-national criteria. ‘The decision is problematic because of what it did not address: the lack of a categorical interdiction on the system of segregation and discrimination that is becoming more entrenched in the West Bank,’ said Yehuda. ‘The ruling did not address the legality of such an immoral and extreme practice.’”
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09.06.09
Posted in Israeli Arabs, NIF, Women's rights at 10:17 am by ngomonitor
Coalition of Women for Peace, $285,509 in grants from NIF in 2006-8
Mossawa, $517,642 in grants from NIF in 2006-8
On May 14, 2009, Coalition of Women for Peace (also funded by the EU) – which includes Machsom Watch, New Profile, and WILPF – along with Mossawa (also funded by the EU and Sweden) wrote to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund and called “upon the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.” This divestment letter accused a number of Israeli and international corporations of “provid[ing] specifically designed equipment for the surveillance and repression of Palestinian population through restrictions of movement and collective punishments.”
The Coalition of Women for Peace is also responsible for the “Who Profits?” divestment website, a project that tracks Israeli and international corporations that allegedly “are directly involved in the occupation”.
On September 3, 2009, Norway’s finance ministry announced that it “has excluded the Israeli company Elbit Systems Ltd. from the Government Pension Fund – Global.” Elbit Systems is a defense company, with expertise in “unmanned aerial vehicles, electro-optic technology and communication and surveillance equipment.”
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08.20.09
Posted in NIF at 11:28 am by ngomonitor
A crude email to donors signed by NIF-UK chair Nicholas Saphir, and sent by Ellen Goldberg, accused NGO Monitor of “lies” and “misrepresent[ations].”
For some reason, Mr. Saphir and Ms. Goldberg failed to provide even one example of inaccuracies in NGO Monitor’s fully sourced analyses of NIF and its grantees. NGO Monitor is always ready to “be challenged to prove their statements,” but the email’s dismissive language falls far short.
NGO Monitor reiterates our readiness to join a substantive public discussion of NIF’s policies, without crude slurs, and invites more donors and officials to read our systematic analyses. NIF-UK claims to “believe in” an “open, honest, and informed debate,” but Ms. Goldberg has always rejected invitations to hold such a debate at Limmud UK or elsewhere. The sooner NIF’s deeds match their words, the better for everyone.
Click here to read NIF-UK’s letter
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08.13.09
Posted in Women's rights at 2:22 pm by ngomonitor
Isha L’Isha, grant of $25,801 from NIF in 2008
Organizations goals: “Isha L’Isha, established in 1983, is the oldest grassroots feminist organization in Israel and one of the leading voices of women’s rights in the country.”
“Hedva Eyal, of the Isha L’Isha feminist organization pointed out that Israeli doctors were giving hormonal treatment to women who have had their eggs extracted abroad despite the fact that these women were not undergoing fertility treatments – an act that is medically unethical. According to Eyal, the egg extraction process is carried out in Cyprus and India. “It’s important that the new law includes a ban on giving hormonal treatment if there are no medical indications for it,” she said.” (“Health Committee pressures Litzman on egg bill,” Meital Yasur–Beit Or, Ynetnews.com, July 27, 2009).
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08.05.09
Posted in Israeli Arabs, NIF at 10:49 am by ngomonitor
Adalah, grant of $510,150 from NIF in 2008
How far is too far for NIF? Apparently, advocating for the end of Israel as a Jewish state is entirely legitimate, according to NIF.
Following an NGO Monitor op-ed in the UK’s Jewish Chronicle…
Ostensibly, Adalah’s purpose is laudable - the protection of rights for Israel’s Arab minority. But beneath the rhetoric of human and civil rights, Adalah promotes an extreme and dangerous agenda…in 2007, Adalah published a proposed “Democratic Constitution” for Israel, which calls for an end to Israel as a state with a specifically Jewish character. Under their plan, Jewish immigration to Israel would only be permitted for “humanitarian reasons” and Israel’s Jewish cultural framework would be replaced by an amorphous “democratic, bilingual and multicultural” state. Adalah shamelessly exploits human rights discourse to promote a plan that, if adopted, would spell the end of the Jewish state.
NIF-UK’s Chairman Mark Goldberg attempted to defend Adalah’s “Constitution” as “one of several visions of Israel’s future.”
Adalah’s proposed draft constitution is also one of several participating in Israel’s long-running public constitutional debate.
But Goldberg also stated, in apparent contradiction:
We at NIF believe in an Israel that is Jewish and democratic, and we support free expression of the various views, concerns and voices of our grantees - whether we agree with all their positions or not…
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07.29.09
Posted in NIF at 8:50 am by ngomonitor
The debate on NIF’s decisions to fund radical Israeli political groups has intensified with the controversy over Breaking the Silence. Uriel Heilman’s blog (“New Israel Fund’s red lines,” July 24, 2009) discusses the gap between what NIF officials say and what they actually do with donor funds.
Heilman notes that many NIF grant recipients:
“practice or advocate for things that are anathema to many Jews and Israel supporters (and NIF supporters) — such as calling for divestment from Israeli companies, eliminating Israel’s Jewish character and criticizing the Israel Defense Forces. Some of NIF’s grantees advocate positions the NIF itself finds objectionable.” (emphasis added)
In attempting to explain this strange policy, communications director Naomi Paiss refers to NIF as a “big tent organization”, which relies on Israeli law regulating non-profits for “red lines”. But Israeli law does not restrict the political and advocacy activities of NGOs, meaning that the small group of NIF officials which decides how to spend donor money apparently does not have any red lines or advocacy activities that are out of bounds.
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