Israel Declares War on NGOs and Human Rights Groups

JERUSALEM, Dec 24 (IPS) - One year after the devastating attack on Hamas in Gaza a new wave of reports castigating Israel for war crimes has emerged.

Now, Israel is fighting back with a report on the reports, picking on international NGOs such as Amnesty, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Trocaire , Finn Church Aid, Diakonia and Cordaid.

The immediate target of Israeli ire is a collective report entitled "Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses,’’ issued by these NGO, based in Europe.

"These organizations continue to exploit moral, legal and humanitarian principles in order to promote political warfare against Israel. Many of the claims in this report are not supported by credible evidence, and reflect double standards,’’ says Gerald Steinberg, president 'NGO Monitor', the right-wing Israeli NGO.

"Through this systematic bias regarding Israel, these NGOs have lost respectability, and the European governments that fund such attacks share responsibility for this abuse,’’ says Steinberg.

Part of what inspires pro-peace NGOs operating in the troubled climate of the Middle East is the conviction that they can step into the breach that divides Israelis and Palestinians in order to prod them to prod their governments to revive peace prospects.

As Israel feels increasingly isolated in the wake of the Goldstone Report, about alleged war crimes during its Gaza war, the hard-line right-wing Israeli government is choosing to wage war by proxy on all Israeli pro-peace NGOs .

The Goldstone Report , presented by Justice Richard Goldstone, head of the U.N. fact finding mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Sep. 29, 2009, accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, but has been the subject of trenchant criticism from pro-Israeli groups.

For years Israeli peace organizations and human rights groups have enjoyed financial and moral support from many western governments in Europe and, to a lesser extent, from Washington. Many reports by international groups were compiled with the support of Israeli peace activists.

The attempt to discredit peace groups has intensified as human rights violations have increased and settlement activity expanded, contrary to the peace credo of many western states.

It was into this heated atmosphere that the NGO Monitor entered to spearhead the Israeli counter-offensive with its report titled, ‘’Trojan Horse: The Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs’’.

NGO Monitor was established by Steinberg, a political scientist and security affairs analyst, together with a prominent Israeli settler leader and columnist, Yisrael Harel.

In ‘Trojan Horse’, NGO Monitor provides what it calls "a detailed analysis of funding provided by foreign governments for highly politicized Israeli NGOs". The report formed the basis of a conference held earlier this month in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

"NGOs wield very significant political and legal power in Israel, particularly through their use of the language and frameworks of human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians. These NGOs are also a major and often hidden channel for external influence in Israeli foreign and security policies," charges the NGO Monitor report.

"By using the generous resources made available by the external donors, the Israel-based NGO network is able to promote particular political ideologies, and to oppose the policies of the democratically elected government on many issues," it goes on.

"This hidden foreign intervention infringes on the sovereignty and independence of Israel by unbalancing the political process, and interfering with the policies of the elected government and the mainstream Zionist majority."