Sunday, January 30, 2011

Shhhh. New Israel Fund

Remember him?:



Israeli Arab writer, activist to spend time behind bars for contacting foreign agent, spying for Hezbollah. Most serious charge removed in plea bargain
And remember this?

The state claims that Makhoul's admission has put an end to accusations of political persecution, some of which were voiced by Makhoul's attorneys during his time in detainment. Makhoul, 52, was arrested in May, and criticism of the manner of the late-night detainment immediately ensued.

Here is Richard Silverstein's weird take:

Makhoul is innocent and wasn’t proven guilty...Makhoul is guilty of nothing more than having contacts outside Israel with other Arab peace and environmental activists

And here is Haaretz:

The verdict stated that Makhoul handed intelligence to a Hezbollah agent on Shin Bet installations in the Haifa region and on Mossad offices in the center of the country. He also attempted, the verdict said, to pass on information about a military base and sought details about the residence of Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin.


But let's go back to this: that Makhoul was director general of the charity Ittijah (Union of Arab Community-Based Associations), acknowledged officially by the UN.

Caroline Glick noted that

...Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not simply accuse the likes of Ir Amim, B’Tselem, Adalah, New Profile, Breaking the Silence, the Public Committee Against Torture, Human Rights Watch, Ittijah, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Gisha, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights in Israel of being on Europe’s payroll. He said that these groups “help terrorists, and their main aim is to weaken the IDF and its ability to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.”

The notion that Israeli NGOs may have ties to terrorists is without a doubt political dynamite.

NGO Monitor states:

Ittijah has received funding and support from sources, including the Ford Foundation, the EU, and NGOs such as the New Israel Fund and Christian Aid, whose own politicized activities have been analyzed by NGO Monitor.

And here, too.

And who suggested that groups of American Jews meet with Ittjah?

The Reform Movement's Religious Action Center.

Shhhh.

^

4 comments:

Ben Murane, New Israel Fund said...

Ittijah hasn't received NIF money for nearly a decade, following their participation in the Durban deligitimization conference. Please see our reply to Muqata last year.

YMedad said...

Yes, but your seed money, that had been granted, was a dangerous tool that set in motion a subversive, anti-Israel & antizionist group.

TheFollowUp said...

I'm not sure why Ben imagines that his comment is the last word on the subject.

Looking at that comment thread on the Muqata, the comments after his lists 5 Ittijah projects and member organizations that the NIF now funds directly instead of funneling the money through Ittijah.

And it mentions another Durban group that was receiving money as late as 2005.

That's a rather disingenuous comment your drive-by commenter left behind.

Anonymous said...

Ben Murane is an NIF employee (aka Kung Fu Jew). He's right though that NIF has not funded Ittijah for several years. Several members of the Ittijah coalition, though (Adalah, Mada al Carmel, and some others) do get NIF funding.

Murane is a drive-by commenter for the NIF

He comes in, makes a comment, claims he's right, and then never addresses any responses/disproofs made to his comment.

A month later he then drives-by again, pulls out his earlier comments as is that was the final say in the matter.


He has been called a few times on his false and misleading statements, but he never responds.


I will add that the comments there list another 5 Ittijah projects and member organizations that now receive their funding directly from the NIF as well as a Durban org that still received money in 2005.

Whoopee, so they conveniently coordinate their donations to so they can declare themselves clean.


Murane is a serial liar.