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Sunday, March 12, 2006
Steinberg - "Challenging the NGO mythology"

Challenging the NGO mythology

GERALD M. STEINBERG, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 11, 2006
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395582388&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

For years well-connected groups that claim human rights as their agenda have
been bombarding the Israeli courts (and media) with allegations of abuses
primarily involving the IDF. Israeli officials have mostly ignored these
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), allowing their radical political
agendas and selective reporting based on "Palestinian eye-witnesses" to go
unchallenged.

The damage to Israel's image has been immense.

Partly as a result of NGO activities, boycotts and divestment campaigns are
spreading, and senior IDF officers are threatened with possible arrest in
London, Brussels, and even in the US.

The cost of silence has finally sunk in, and several Israelis officials are
now taking a new approach. For instance, Attorney Nira Masharki of the State
Prosecutor's Office submitted a legal brief responding to a action involving
an NGO with the moral-sounding name of "Hamoked: Center for the Defense of
the Individual," and backed, in turn, by B'Tselem, which calls itself the
"Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories."

They are representing a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who is suing
the government claiming harassment, abusive interrogations and unnecessary
delays at checkpoints.

But Masharki asked the court to reject their requests for information about
security personnel and procedures, arguing that both groups "undermine the
existence" of the State of Israel, "cause it damage in the world" and hurt
the security forces.

Breaking the taboo of political correctness, she wrote that HaMoked's claim
to be "a human rights organization has no basis in reality and is designed
to mislead."

The brief notes that the NGO "is funded by outsiders [including European
governments, the New Israel Fund, and the Ford Foundation] whose interests
differ from those of the State of Israel and sometimes contradict them."

And it "works in the interest of [the Palestinians], whose elected
leadership is currently in a harsh conflict with the State of Israel and is
undermining its existence."
As our own NGO Monitor points out, HaMoked routinely uses terms such as
"apartheid" to help erase the context of terror.

B'TSELEM COOPERATES closely with Hamoked and other politicized NGOs, and its
activities are also distant from its image as a neutral reporter on human
rights. Their one-sided analyses, including Palestinian casualty reports
that count combatants as "victims," are used by Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International to promote campaigns which serve to demonize Israel.

The latest US government report on human rights in Israel, released
Thursday, is influenced by B'Tselem's tendentious reporting.

But Masharki puts her cards on the table, condemning B'Tselem's use of human
rights claims to attack "the State of Israel and its security forces
throughout the world."

Masharki's straightforward approach comes shortly after a recent statement
made by outgoing Supreme Court deputy president Mishael Cheshin in rejecting
claims of false-flag human rights groups demanding automatic entry for
Palestinians who marry Israelis.

Cheshin noted that the "family unification" case before the court - and
presumably the NGOs that pressed it - served the interests of Palestinians
whose leaders "intend to destroy our state... Why should we allow people who
could carry out terrorist attacks to enter? We're at war."

In a single sentence, Cheshin identified the immorality of human rights
claims that systematically and deliberately erase the context of terror:
"This is a matter of life and death, and the right to life has priority."

Making the same point, but in an entirely different way, IDF Chief of Staff
Dan Halutz recently invited members of Machsom Watch in for a chat. This
group also exploits human rights rhetoric to promote a political agenda that
blames Israel exclusively for "the occupation" and the continuing conflict.
Its subjective and often second-hand allegations of human rights violations
at IDF checkpoints accuse soldiers of deliberately humiliating Palestinians,
while the context of terrorism tends to be ignored.

By seeing the group, Halutz gave Machsom Watch publicity and prestige in the
hope that his agenda, rather than theirs, would prevail.

Halutz declared that "Humanitarianism is not exclusively owned by Machsom
Watch and it is tested not only at the checkpoints, but also in preventing
suicide bombers from reaching the markets of Tel Aviv and Netanya..."

The checkpoints save lives. While there may be some cases of abuse, Machsom
Watch's exaggerated allegations obscure the larger reality.

Masharki's brief, Cheshin's finding, and Halutz's statement, by themselves,
will do little to offset the dollars available to Hamoked and similar
interest groups allowing them to pursue agendas that ultimately serve to
demonize Israel.

Indeed, the counterattack against Masharki began immediately. HaMoked
director Dalia Kerstein filed a protest with Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz
arguing that "attacks by the state on human rights organizations" and their
legitimacy "pose a serious threat to democratic rule."

A single brief written by a non-conformist lawyer in the prosecutor's
office, a statement made by a retiring justice, and an ill-considered
meeting with the chief of staff are not enough to defeat the pressure groups
waging political war against Israel.

The IDF and Justice Ministry need to focus resources on refuting the false
reports of these groups rather than ignoring them. And Israeli diplomats in
the Foreign Ministry should give priority to ending the flow of funds from
European governments to such NGOs. Like the military analog, winning the
political war will require an appropriate strategy and perseverance.

The writer is the editor of www.ngo-monitor.org and heads the Program on
Conflict Management at Bar Ilan University.

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