The number of attacks by the nationalist camp against Israeli human rights organizations and other non-governmental organizations has risen significantly in the past six months. The work of these organizations has always been disputed by certain parts of the Israeli society. In a state which is in conflict with its neighbors – a conflict that frequently adopts violent and warlike traits, such disputes is are to be expected. Furthermore, a non-negligible part of the actors considers the conflict as an existential one.
In the public self-conception, the majority of Israelis see their state as Jewish and democratic. Continually, people are talking about Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East. For quite a long time the right part of the political spectrum in Israel has the tendency to shift the inherent tension between “Jewish” and “democratic” in favor of the “Jewish” aspect. Former member of Knesset Geula Cohen got to the heart of it with the following statement: “We need less democratic hysteria and more Zionist historia!”.
When in February 2010 the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem celebrated its 20th anniversary, some of the speakers remembered one of Yitzhak Rabin’s reasons for his decision to sign the Oslo accords: Yassir Arafat and the PLO were now able to deal with terrorists “without the High Court and B’Tselem”.
However, increased attacks on essential parts of Israeli civil society as they happened since 2009, above all as a consequence of the debates over the Gaza war in 2008/2009, are unequalled.
In 2009 the attacks on NGOs intensified initially due to the activities of an organization named NGO-Monitor. According to its own accounts, the organization speaks up for the accountability of NGOs as well as for an increased discussion of the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs that work in the frame of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The President of NGO-Monitor, it may be noted, is Gerald Steinberg, member of the Faculty of Political Science at Bar Ilan University.
In October 2009 the organization published a report entitled “Experts of Ideologues? A systematic analysis of Human Rights Watch’s Focus on Israel”. One month later followed “Trojan Horse: The Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs”. The reproach: with European governments’ money, Israeli NGOs are promoting, under the use of the human rights framework, private political ideologies and are working actively against the politics of the democratic elected Israeli government.
In contrary to the first publication, the second paper was published in cooperation with the Institute for Zionist Strategies. The president of this institute, Israel Harel, is one of the founders of the settlement movement Gush Emunim.
These two organizations were afterwards also the main actors at a Knesset conference, held on December 1 2009, convened by Michael Eitan (Likud), Minister of Improvement of Government Services, and Likud-chairman Zeev Elkin. To his regret, Eitan had to admit that the meeting was very one-sided. The criticized human rights organizations refused to participate claiming that this conference was part of an ongoing attempt of organizations such as NGO-Monitor to delegitimize their work. Representatives of the Labor Party and the left liberal Meretz Party also did not participate.
At the conference, the Likud-representatives announced a bill, according to which organizations that receive foreign funds must register at a registrar. The former head of the state registrar considers such a law as superfluous as already today the organizations must disclose the origins of their finances. He explained on the radio that one cannot ignore that these kind of advances are made by groups from the political right. These organizations would have to be careful that their attempts to stop the funding of left organizations might at the end also influence the funding of other institutions such as universities, colleges and hospitals. After all, only 0.5% of the funds with which the European Commission fosters projects in Israel go to human rights organizations.
In the meantime, the above-mentioned bill has been introduced and has passed a tentative hearing with 58 against 11 votes. If the law passes in the present form, many non-governmental organizations will have to register anew as “political entities”, they would be deprived of tax exemption and additionally, would have to publicly declare that they are receiving funds from outside Israel.
During the conference, interesting differences in the attitudes of various Knesset representatives became evident. Otniel Schneller from the Kadima Party explained that certain limits concerning pluralism and freedom of opinion are necessary as the existence of the State of Israel is of much higher value. Minister Michael Eitan countered that in the past the existence of the State of Israel was strengthened by freedom of opinion and preservation of human rights and that this will be the case also in the future.
All these activities were outshone in January 2010 by a heretofore rather unknown group called Im Tritzu. Im Tirtzu means “if you will it” and refers to a citation by Theodor Herzel “If you will it, it is not a legend”.
Im Tirtzu defines itself as a non-parliamentary, politically moderate movement for the strengthening of the Zionist values in Israel. However, the chairman, Ronen Shoval, was the spokesperson of the “Orange Cell”, a student group at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which advocated against the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Im Tirzu receives funds, among other sources, from the US-American organization Christians United for Israel. Their chairperson, John Hagee, made headlines during the presidential election campaign in the US in 2008. After statements such as “Hitler fulfilled God’s will to lead the Jews back to the land of Israel according to the biblical prophecy” and “The Holocaust happened because the Jews rebelled and denied the true God,” presidential candidate John McCain felt obliged to distance himself from Hagee and reject additional support from him. Other funds for Im Tirtzu are received from the “Central Fund”, a US-American organization that distributes funds to extreme nationalist groups in Israel and settlements in the West Bank.
In January 2010, Im Tirtzu published a report which claimed that a major portion of the “evidence” for possible Israeli war crimes that were taken up by the UN Investigation Commission under the supervision of Richard Goldstone originated from 16 Israeli NGOs that receive a major part of their funding from the New Israel Fund. Even though this is not true, in the heat of the debate this is only a side note. The New Israel Fund is an organization established in 1979 whose task is to collect funds for Israeli NGOs above all in the USA and Great Britain. The group acts according to the declared intention to foster democratic change in Israel towards greater social justice and equality for all Israelis.
Part of Im Tirtzu’s activities was a demonstration in front of the house of Naomi Chazan, the president of the New Israel Fund. The Im Tirtzu activists were dressed up as Hamas members and wore posters with the inscription “We love Chazan and hate the Israeli Defense Forces!” Naomi Chazan is a former Member of Knesset (MK) of the liberal left Meretz Party and furthermore was Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. She is a professor of political science and active in numerous NGOs. Naomi Chazan was the target of a heavily funded campaign on the Internet, the media and public placards. There, Naomi Chazan was depicted with a horn on her forehead. In Hebrew, the term for foundation is the same as for horn. Large letters read: “Naomi Goldstone-Chazan”. It was furthermore explained that without the activities of the New Israel Fund, the Goldstone report would not exist and therewith Israel would not have been accused of war crimes.
The attacks created numerous reactions. The media discussed the issue controversially, there were petitions and there are attempts in parliament to defuse the presented bill through extensions. However: The outcry that could have been expected due to the assault on freedom of opinion and organization and therefore on core elements of a modern democracy was absent. Just like today no one is going out into the streets when the Israel Prime Minister is destroying the relationship to the country’s main ally or the demand for a consequent settlement freeze will probably bring into the streets not more than a few thousand people, also this issue does not draw the crowd onto the streets.
The broad majority of Jewish Israelis supported the military intervention in the Gaza Strip as a reaction to the rocket fire on southern Israel. Furthermore, in contrast to political institutions and the media, the army enjoys great support in Israeli public opinion. One who accuses the army of wrongdoings or disproportionate action or of conducting war crimes can hardly hope for sympathy. One who demands that formal position holders in Israel be called to account abroad if it does not happen in Israel, will easily be considered a traitor contributing deliberately or not to the threat and the destruction of the state.
The domestic political atmosphere in Israel is continuously heating up in the past months. This includes, among others, the brutal conduct of the police in the Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah against Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators and the imposition of an actual demonstration ban in the Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Na’alin, both symbols of the ongoing protest against the separation fence/wall. This includes also the rejection of young Swedish citizens at the airport because of their Palestinian background, and the refusal of the Deputy Foreign Minister to receive US-American Congress delegates in the presence of representatives of the US organization J-Street that promotes a prompt two-state solution.
On April 16, a solidarity-event of Israeli artists for the New Israel Fund took place in Tel Aviv. The rather small room at the Music Club Levontin 7 was crowded very quickly and many people had to stay on the street. In front of the club a counter-demonstration of about 50 Im Tritzu activists took place. Swinging Israeli flags and singing the Israeli national anthem, they proclaimed their annoyance for this solidarity event. They also installed a cage within which Israeli soldiers were chained up. The message was clear: the activities of the New Israel Fund chains up the Israeli army who is not able to defend the country anymore.
In the morning of the same day the second report of the organization Im Tritzu was released to the public, again taken up journalistically and supported by the daily newspaper Ma’ariv. The new report accuses at least 12 Israeli human rights organizations of supporting the possibility that Israelis, who are accused of severe violations of international law, may be indicted by courts outside of Israel, according to the principle of universal jurisdiction. The New Israel Fund and the Ford Foundation are accused of funding this group of organizations.
The report appeared not randomly shortly before Yom Hazikaron, the Memorial Day when people are commemorating fallen Israeli soldiers. In addition, a poster campaign was launched. On the poster one could see the tomb of an Israeli soldier killed during the military offensive "Cast Lead", in the front is a wreath and in the back a torch. The heading: “We salute, they prosecute! New Israel Fund and Adalah: Subversives, we are sick of you”. (“Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights” is an Israeli NGO promoting the rights of the Arab minority in Israel).
The attacks are continuing on a parliamentary level, now above all against Israeli human rights organizations. At the end of April, 19 Members of Knesset introduced another bill. According to this bill, NGOs that transfer information to foreign authorities or are involved in legal proceedings against Israeli politicians or military people that are accused of war crimes should be prohibited. Nitzan Horowitz, Member of Knesset on behalf of the liberal left Meretz Party, stated during a heated debate that as long as any activities are legal according to Israeli law they are covered by the right of freedom of opinion and the conflict is a sole political one. He asked the Members of Knesset who introduced the bill to go to the police if they think that an organization is doing something illegal. Ten Israeli human rights organizations declared that the bill violates international agreements and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Numerous of the attacked NGOs receive funding from Germany. Furthermore, German political foundations are in contact with the New Israel Fund and cooperate with some of the attacked organizations. That also applies to the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Naomi Chazan has been for many years an important interlocutor for both deputies and other representatives of the Party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen as well as for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.
Is it possible that the attacks on Israeli NGOs are also threatening the work of German political foundations in Israel? Could they themselves become target of criticism and accusations? Whether this will happen or not will depend on the form in which the law is going to be adopted. And it will depend on whether a majority will be found in the Israeli society that on one hand asks for transparency as a core element of a democratic society but on the other hand actively supports freedom of opinion and organization as well as pluralism.
Jörn Böhme, Tel Aviv, May 2010