New Israel Fund
Encyclopedia
The New Israel Fund is a U.S.
based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.
and human rights, religious tolerance
and pluralism
, and closing the social
and economic
gaps in Israeli society, especially those among Jews and Arabs.
, Chicago
, Miami, Los Angeles
, San Francisco, Canada
, the United Kingdom
and Switzerland
. The New Israel Fund is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit philanthropic organization in the U.S., and in Israel is listed as a "foreign corporation" there, according to the Israel Registrar of Companies and Non-Profits.
In 2011, NIF received 4 stars from Charity Navigator
, the highest possible rating.
and the San Francisco Jewish Federation
. Rachel Liel, formerly director of SHATIL, became Israel Executive Director on November 1, 2009. Naomi Chazan
, former Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset
, is the volunteer president of NIF, and at its July 2011 board meeting, Brian Lurie, former Executive Director of the San Francisco Federation and Executive Vice-President of the UJA, was named president-elect. The board consists of more than 25 experts, community leaders and activists, academics and philanthropists from Israel, the U.S. and the U.K.
Other board members include Ambassador Martin Indyk
, Peter Edelman
, Franklin Fisher, and Talia Sasson.
and civil society
groups in Israel.
The fund's grantees include the Adva Center
, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel
, the Green Environment Fund, the Israel Religious Action Center
, the Israel Women's Network, the Masorti
Movement, the Forum for Freedom of Choice in Marriage, Adalah
, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem
, the Coalition for Affordable Housing, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
, Yesh Din
, Kav LaOved
, and the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights
.
NIF's action arm, SHATIL (lit. "seedling") is an internationally-recognized capacity-building organization that trains nascent NGOs in organizational growth and management. SHATIL has six offices in Israel and employs more than 100 professionals.
In September 2010, NIF published guidelines defining who is eligible to receive its grants on its website for the first time.
NIF mobilized more than 1,000 rabbis from around the world to sign a statement condemning the torching. The torching was reported to be a part of the Price tag policy
. The NIF-backed statement was presented on October 6 by a delegation of dozens of rabbis and peace activists to the imam
of the mosque.
, an Israel
i non-governmental organization
, has criticized the NIF for its support of groups that NGO Monitor regards as having an anti-Zionist agenda. In 2011, NGO Monitor accused NIF of supporting Israeli non-profits that "reject the legitimacy of Israel as Jewish democratic state, and are active in boycott and similar campaigns."
Chemi Shalev, writing for Haaretz, alleged that charges of this sort against the New Israel Fund are not made in good faith. He wrote: "But these organizations comprised only a miniscule part of the NIF’s activities, as everyone knows, including, I suspect, the NIF’s accusers. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that the campaign against the organization has much less to do with whether the NIF is or is not assisting the Palestinians and more to do with what they are doing to help Israelis.
NGO Monitor's claims were denied by the former President of the NIF, Peter Edelman
, who described NGO Monitor's criticism as "un-democratic and un-Jewish" and "inherently and fundamentally flawed." Larry Garber, former Executive Director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Yaari, NIF's former Israel Director wrote an op-ed for the Jerusalem Post that if Israel accepted the accusations of NGO Monitor, "Israel's credibility—and, more important, the nation's morality—will suffer."
, accused NIF of supporting Israel NGOs that provided information to the United Nations report
on the Gaza War. The UN inquiry, with which Israel refused to cooperate, and the subsequent report accused both the State of Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip
of violating international human rights law
and international humanitarian law
during the conflict. Im Tirtzu alleged that 16 Israeli NGOs, that received approximately US$ 7.8 million from NIF during 2008 and 2009, served as 14% of the sources for the commission. NIF acknowledged that some fund recipients cooperated with the UN inquiry, but they estimated that 1.3% of the citations in the UN report originated from reports by organizations supported by the New Israel Fund. A fund spokesperson said the human rights groups were just doing their jobs and that NIF did not necessarily endorse their positions.
Im Tirtzu placed newspaper advertisements depicting NIF's President Naomi Chazan with a horn sprouting from her forehead, for which they were heavily criticized. Gershon Baskin, writing in the Jerusalem Post, accused Im Tirzu of using an "anti-Semitic motif" as part of a "witch-hunt" that "is reminiscent of the darkest days of McCarthyism.", and the Jerusalem Post canceled her regular opinion column. The Zionist Organization of America stated that it supported the criticisms. The CEO of the fund described Im Tirtzu's actions as an attempt to stifle dissent. Naomi Chazan dismissed Im Tirtzu's case as baseless and accused them of attacking the principles of democracy and the values of Israel's declaration of independence. NIF described Im Tirtzu as a "radical right-wing movement whose funders include the John Hagee Ministries and the New York Central Fund, both of which fund settler groups." John Hagee
Ministries (JHM), "expressed deep displeasure" with Im Tirtzu after its campaign against the New Israel Fund and announced the cessation of its funding.
A report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
(JTA) challenged Im Tirzu's allegation, saying that, "according to Im Tirtzu’s own study, 16 NIF-affiliated groups comprise just 14 percent of all the sources for the Goldstone report." JTA also reported that "the 16 NGOs named in (the Im Tirzu) report are a small portion of the more than 300 groups funded by the NIF, many of them having to do with building infrastructure, assisting immigrants, and defending the rights of women, the disabled and religious and ethnic minorities."
The Im Tirzu allegations also resulted in the postponement of a visit to Australia by Naomi Chazan due to political pressure from the local Zionist Federation. Martin Indyk
, the Australian-born former US Ambassador to Israel and Board Member of the NIF, defended the NIF from these criticisms in an opinion piece directed at the Australian Jewish Community, saying that "From the first laws to defend children's rights to equity in land sales, from Israel's first rape crisis centers to its first comprehensive law protecting the disabled, from the passage of Clean Air laws to Freedom of Information laws, NIF plays a unique role as the driving force behind positive social change in Israel and the defense of the human rights for all its citizens. And it does so not just for Israeli Arabs but for every disadvantaged sector of Israeli society, from orthodox women trapped by the Agunah
, to Ethiopian immigrants struggling against discrimination, to Bedouin villages seeking government funding for basic infrastructure." In June 2011, Naomi Chazan was welcomed in Australia for the founding of NIF's new Australian affiliate, which has already attracted broadbased support in the Australian community.
(BDS) campaign. It has stated that it does not support global BDS and will not support organizations with BDS programs but that its policy allows NIF the discretion to "engage in dialogue with an important organization that signs one letter supporting divestment rather than summarily dismissing them". Naomi Paiss, Director of Communications described the campaign as "a tactic that embodies the message that Israel cannot and will not change itself, and for that reason, we think it is inflammatory and counter-productive". Jeffrey Goldberg
, writing in The Atlantic, criticized NIF for not defunding grantees that "support BDS, even incidentally", describing it as a "bright-line" issue. The NIF does not fund organizations with BDS programs, and removed the Coaliton of Women for Peace from its list of authorized donor-advised organizations in early 2011, which led to a heated response by CWP. Naftali Balanson, writing a response to Paiss' article in Zeek, says that "even if BDS messaging were improved and there was no backlash among “besieged” Israelis, BDS would still be immoral and inherently wrong."
Alana Goodman, writing in Commentary
in March 2011, questioned the clarity of NIF's funding guidelines and alleged NIF was "funding two groups that are organizing an 'Israel Apartheid Event' at Tel Aviv University." Both groups mentioned in the Commentary article have been removed from NIF's list of authorized donor-advised organizations, and NIF no longer accepts donor-advised funding on their behalf.
provided five-year grants worth $20 million each to NGOs in Israel through the New Israel Fund. The foundation was the focus of criticism because most of its donees are liberal. The foundation adopted new, stricter funding guidelines after the World Conference against Racism in Durban in 2001, when many of its recipients supported resolutions that equated Israeli policies with apartheid. At the beginning of the second five-year grant, the Ford Foundation said it would not renew its grants to Israeli NGOs, which had provided roughly one-third of the New Israel Fund's donor-advised giving, citing its policy of creating sustainable funding, which is also being applied to much of its NGO funding worldwide.
diplomatic telegram were revealed via Wikileaks
, stating that Hedva Radovanitz, then Assistant Director of NIF Israel, said "she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic."
NIF denied that these comments "reflect the policies or positions of the New Israel Fund." Its CEO responded that "New Israel Fund’s dedication to an Israel that is both Jewish and democratic could not be clearer."
Radonavitz later released a statement complaining that her comments hadn't been accurately reported, but also confirming that she resigned from the NIF due to disagreements with their policy directions and guidelines .
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.
Ideology
NIF describes itself as "the leading organization committed to democratic change within Israel" and its objective as "social justice and equality for all Israelis." It views Israel as the "expression of the right of self-determination of the Jewish people and as a democracy dedicated to the full equality of all its citizens and communities." It advocates for civilCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and human rights, religious tolerance
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
and pluralism
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...
, and closing the social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
and economic
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
gaps in Israeli society, especially those among Jews and Arabs.
Organization
NIF's headquarters are in New York City. The NGO also has offices in Jerusalem, Washington, DC, BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Miami, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, San Francisco, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The New Israel Fund is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit philanthropic organization in the U.S., and in Israel is listed as a "foreign corporation" there, according to the Israel Registrar of Companies and Non-Profits.
In 2011, NIF received 4 stars from Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
, the highest possible rating.
Leadership
In October 2009, Daniel Sokatch became the new CEO of the New Israel Fund, after working as the executive director of the Progressive Jewish AllianceProgressive Jewish Alliance
The Progressive Jewish Alliance was founded in 1999 by Jewish Angelenos who broke away from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Jewish Congress. They sought to assert an authentic progressive Jewish presence in the campaigns for social justice in Southern California, home to the United...
and the San Francisco Jewish Federation
Jewish Federation
A Jewish Federation is a confederation of various Jewish social agencies, volunteer programs, educational bodies, and related organizations, found within most cities in North America that host a viable Jewish community...
. Rachel Liel, formerly director of SHATIL, became Israel Executive Director on November 1, 2009. Naomi Chazan
Naomi Chazan
Naomi Chazan is an Israeli academic and politician. Chazan is president of the New Israel Fund.-Biography:Naomi Chazan was born on November 18, 1946, in Jerusalem. Her parents were Avraham and Zina Harman...
, former Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
, is the volunteer president of NIF, and at its July 2011 board meeting, Brian Lurie, former Executive Director of the San Francisco Federation and Executive Vice-President of the UJA, was named president-elect. The board consists of more than 25 experts, community leaders and activists, academics and philanthropists from Israel, the U.S. and the U.K.
Other board members include Ambassador Martin Indyk
Martin Indyk
Martin Sean Indyk is Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Indyk served as United States ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration. He is known as the framer of the U.S...
, Peter Edelman
Peter Edelman
Peter B. Edelman is a lawyer, policy maker, and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Edelman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father worked as a lawyer and his mother worked as a home-maker...
, Franklin Fisher, and Talia Sasson.
History
The New Israel Fund was established in 1979 and has seed-funded most progressive social change groups in Israel. Since its inception the fund has provided over US $200 million to more than 800 organizations. NIF was the first major Jewish organization to work extensively with Arab citizens of Israel.Grantees
In 2008 it contributed about US$30 million to human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
groups in Israel.
The fund's grantees include the Adva Center
Adva Center
-History:Adva was founded in 1991 by activists from three social movements: the movement for equality for Mizrahi Jews, the feminist movement, and the movement for equal rights for Arab citizens. The director of the center is Barbara Svirski and its chairman is Yossi Dahan.-Objectives:Adva Center...
, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
, the Green Environment Fund, the Israel Religious Action Center
Israel Religious Action Center
The Israel Religious Action Center also known as IRAC, was established in 1987 as the public and legal advocacy arm of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. It is located in Jerusalem, Israel. IRAC aims to defend equality, social justice, and religious pluralism within Israel, through the...
, the Israel Women's Network, the Masorti
Masorti
The Masorti Movement is the name given to Conservative Judaism in Israel and other countries outside Canada and U.S. Masorti means "traditional" in Hebrew...
Movement, the Forum for Freedom of Choice in Marriage, Adalah
Adalah
Adalah means justice and denotes The Justice of God. It is among the five Shia Principles of the Religion.The Shias believe that there is intrinsic good or evil in things, and that God commands them to do the good things and shun the evil...
, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
, the Coalition for Affordable Housing, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel is an Israeli human rights organisation specifically dedicated to combating torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment...
, Yesh Din
Yesh Din
Yesh Din is an Israeli human rights group providing legal assistance to citizens of the Palestinian territories. Its name comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning “there is law”...
, Kav LaOved
Kav LaOved
Kav La'Oved is an Israeli non-profit association, founded in 1991. Its objective is to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers...
, and the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights was founded in 1986 by a small group of doctors who believed the unique scientific expertise and authority of health professionals could bring human rights violations to light and provide justice for victims...
.
NIF's action arm, SHATIL (lit. "seedling") is an internationally-recognized capacity-building organization that trains nascent NGOs in organizational growth and management. SHATIL has six offices in Israel and employs more than 100 professionals.
In September 2010, NIF published guidelines defining who is eligible to receive its grants on its website for the first time.
Gender Segregation
In January 2011, the Israeli High Court ruled that publicly–funded buses cannot enforce a policy of gender segregation. IRAC, a grantee of NIF, initiated the legal efforts to integrate the bus lines. NIF-backed efforts against gender segregation in public spaces included a Chanukah candle-lighting to protest gender segregation at the Western Wall plaza.Social Justice Protests
In the summer of 2011, as hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to call for social justice, NIF was the only major American Jewish organization to support the protestors. NIF reportedly raised $35,000 on behalf of the demonstrators. NIF also organized a petition signed by nearly 4,000 people in support of the protesters. The petition was published in the Israeli edition of the International Herald Tribune.Response to Mosque Arson
In October 2011, following the arson of a Mosque in the Galilee village of Tuba-ZangariyyeTuba-Zangariyye
Tuba-Zangariyye or Tuba az-Zanghariyya is a Bedouin town in the North District of Israel that achieved local council status in 1988. It was formed by the merger of two villages, Tuba and az-Zangariyye. Populated by the Bedouin tribe of El Heib, Tuba is situated near Kfar Hanassi, overlooking the...
NIF mobilized more than 1,000 rabbis from around the world to sign a statement condemning the torching. The torching was reported to be a part of the Price tag policy
Price tag policy
Price tag policy is, according to B'tselem, the name given to "acts of random violence aimed at the Palestinian population and Israeli security forces" by radical Israeli Jewish settlers, who, according to the New York Times "exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security...
. The NIF-backed statement was presented on October 6 by a delegation of dozens of rabbis and peace activists to the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
of the mosque.
NGO Monitor
Since 2003, NGO MonitorNGO Monitor
NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...
, an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
, has criticized the NIF for its support of groups that NGO Monitor regards as having an anti-Zionist agenda. In 2011, NGO Monitor accused NIF of supporting Israeli non-profits that "reject the legitimacy of Israel as Jewish democratic state, and are active in boycott and similar campaigns."
Chemi Shalev, writing for Haaretz, alleged that charges of this sort against the New Israel Fund are not made in good faith. He wrote: "But these organizations comprised only a miniscule part of the NIF’s activities, as everyone knows, including, I suspect, the NIF’s accusers. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that the campaign against the organization has much less to do with whether the NIF is or is not assisting the Palestinians and more to do with what they are doing to help Israelis.
NGO Monitor's claims were denied by the former President of the NIF, Peter Edelman
Peter Edelman
Peter B. Edelman is a lawyer, policy maker, and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Edelman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father worked as a lawyer and his mother worked as a home-maker...
, who described NGO Monitor's criticism as "un-democratic and un-Jewish" and "inherently and fundamentally flawed." Larry Garber, former Executive Director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Yaari, NIF's former Israel Director wrote an op-ed for the Jerusalem Post that if Israel accepted the accusations of NGO Monitor, "Israel's credibility—and, more important, the nation's morality—will suffer."
Im Tirzu
In January 2010, a Zionist extra-parliamentary group, Im TirtzuIm Tirtzu
Im Tirtzu is a Zionist extra-parliamentary group based in Israel. Its name is based on a phrase by Theodor Herzl – "אם תרצו, אין זו אגדה" or "If you will it, it is no dream."-NIF report:...
, accused NIF of supporting Israel NGOs that provided information to the United Nations report
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, was a team established in April 2009 by the United Nations Human Rights Council during the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate alleged violations of international...
on the Gaza War. The UN inquiry, with which Israel refused to cooperate, and the subsequent report accused both the State of Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
of violating international human rights law
International human rights law
International human rights law refers to the body of international law designed to promote and protect human rights at the international, regional and domestic levels...
and international humanitarian law
International humanitarian law
International humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus that comprises "the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It...
during the conflict. Im Tirtzu alleged that 16 Israeli NGOs, that received approximately US$ 7.8 million from NIF during 2008 and 2009, served as 14% of the sources for the commission. NIF acknowledged that some fund recipients cooperated with the UN inquiry, but they estimated that 1.3% of the citations in the UN report originated from reports by organizations supported by the New Israel Fund. A fund spokesperson said the human rights groups were just doing their jobs and that NIF did not necessarily endorse their positions.
Im Tirtzu placed newspaper advertisements depicting NIF's President Naomi Chazan with a horn sprouting from her forehead, for which they were heavily criticized. Gershon Baskin, writing in the Jerusalem Post, accused Im Tirzu of using an "anti-Semitic motif" as part of a "witch-hunt" that "is reminiscent of the darkest days of McCarthyism.", and the Jerusalem Post canceled her regular opinion column. The Zionist Organization of America stated that it supported the criticisms. The CEO of the fund described Im Tirtzu's actions as an attempt to stifle dissent. Naomi Chazan dismissed Im Tirtzu's case as baseless and accused them of attacking the principles of democracy and the values of Israel's declaration of independence. NIF described Im Tirtzu as a "radical right-wing movement whose funders include the John Hagee Ministries and the New York Central Fund, both of which fund settler groups." John Hagee
John Hagee
John Charles Hagee is an American founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, a non-denominational charismatic megachurch with more than 19,000 active members...
Ministries (JHM), "expressed deep displeasure" with Im Tirtzu after its campaign against the New Israel Fund and announced the cessation of its funding.
A report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world. The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and...
(JTA) challenged Im Tirzu's allegation, saying that, "according to Im Tirtzu’s own study, 16 NIF-affiliated groups comprise just 14 percent of all the sources for the Goldstone report." JTA also reported that "the 16 NGOs named in (the Im Tirzu) report are a small portion of the more than 300 groups funded by the NIF, many of them having to do with building infrastructure, assisting immigrants, and defending the rights of women, the disabled and religious and ethnic minorities."
The Im Tirzu allegations also resulted in the postponement of a visit to Australia by Naomi Chazan due to political pressure from the local Zionist Federation. Martin Indyk
Martin Indyk
Martin Sean Indyk is Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Indyk served as United States ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration. He is known as the framer of the U.S...
, the Australian-born former US Ambassador to Israel and Board Member of the NIF, defended the NIF from these criticisms in an opinion piece directed at the Australian Jewish Community, saying that "From the first laws to defend children's rights to equity in land sales, from Israel's first rape crisis centers to its first comprehensive law protecting the disabled, from the passage of Clean Air laws to Freedom of Information laws, NIF plays a unique role as the driving force behind positive social change in Israel and the defense of the human rights for all its citizens. And it does so not just for Israeli Arabs but for every disadvantaged sector of Israeli society, from orthodox women trapped by the Agunah
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
, to Ethiopian immigrants struggling against discrimination, to Bedouin villages seeking government funding for basic infrastructure." In June 2011, Naomi Chazan was welcomed in Australia for the founding of NIF's new Australian affiliate, which has already attracted broadbased support in the Australian community.
BDS
NIF is opposed to the global Boycott, Divestment and SanctionsBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions refers to a campaign first initiated on 9 July 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause ".....
(BDS) campaign. It has stated that it does not support global BDS and will not support organizations with BDS programs but that its policy allows NIF the discretion to "engage in dialogue with an important organization that signs one letter supporting divestment rather than summarily dismissing them". Naomi Paiss, Director of Communications described the campaign as "a tactic that embodies the message that Israel cannot and will not change itself, and for that reason, we think it is inflammatory and counter-productive". Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa...
, writing in The Atlantic, criticized NIF for not defunding grantees that "support BDS, even incidentally", describing it as a "bright-line" issue. The NIF does not fund organizations with BDS programs, and removed the Coaliton of Women for Peace from its list of authorized donor-advised organizations in early 2011, which led to a heated response by CWP. Naftali Balanson, writing a response to Paiss' article in Zeek, says that "even if BDS messaging were improved and there was no backlash among “besieged” Israelis, BDS would still be immoral and inherently wrong."
Alana Goodman, writing in Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
in March 2011, questioned the clarity of NIF's funding guidelines and alleged NIF was "funding two groups that are organizing an 'Israel Apartheid Event' at Tel Aviv University." Both groups mentioned in the Commentary article have been removed from NIF's list of authorized donor-advised organizations, and NIF no longer accepts donor-advised funding on their behalf.
Ford Foundation Funding
In 2003 and 2008, the Ford FoundationFord Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
provided five-year grants worth $20 million each to NGOs in Israel through the New Israel Fund. The foundation was the focus of criticism because most of its donees are liberal. The foundation adopted new, stricter funding guidelines after the World Conference against Racism in Durban in 2001, when many of its recipients supported resolutions that equated Israeli policies with apartheid. At the beginning of the second five-year grant, the Ford Foundation said it would not renew its grants to Israeli NGOs, which had provided roughly one-third of the New Israel Fund's donor-advised giving, citing its policy of creating sustainable funding, which is also being applied to much of its NGO funding worldwide.
Wikileaks
In September 2011, the contents of a United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
diplomatic telegram were revealed via Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, stating that Hedva Radovanitz, then Assistant Director of NIF Israel, said "she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic."
NIF denied that these comments "reflect the policies or positions of the New Israel Fund." Its CEO responded that "New Israel Fund’s dedication to an Israel that is both Jewish and democratic could not be clearer."
Radonavitz later released a statement complaining that her comments hadn't been accurately reported, but also confirming that she resigned from the NIF due to disagreements with their policy directions and guidelines .
External links
- New Israel Fund — Official website
- Shatil — Official website
- Against All Odds — TV talk showTalk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
produced by NIF, featuring leaders from Israel's social change movement - "Fighting for Israel’s soul" - Naomi Chazan interview Haaretz, 22 July 2011