NGO Monitor Combats Israel Apartheid Week and BDS
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Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2011 is underway in cities and on college
campuses worldwide. This cynical anti-Israel activity, based on the campaign
to falsely label Israel as an "apartheid state", is part of a larger "Durban
strategy" adopted at the 2001 UN Conference Against Racism in Durban, South
Africa.

NGO Monitor's report on IAW 2011 demonstrates the anti-peace and anti-human
rights dimensions of this campaign. The non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) that sponsor and speak at IAW events reject "two-state" approaches to
the conflict and oppose the very existence of Israel.

To help students and faculty, NGO Monitor developed and is distributing the
"BDS Sewer System" to partner organizations and campus activists throughout
the world (see the Jerusalem Post story below). Promoting BDS is a central
goal of IAW, and the BDS Sewer System provides detailed information on the
sources of delegitimization campaigns against Israel.

* Read NGO Monitor's report on IAW, including useful fact sheets on
NGOs and activities.

* Learn about the legal fallacies inherent in the apartheid analogy.

* Visit www.ngo-monitor.org/bds to view the BDS Sewer System.

* To order print copies of the BDS Sewer System, please email
mail@ngo-monitor.org.

Israel Apartheid Week, and efforts to combat it, begin

By JORDANA HORN The Jerusalem Post

Exclusive: NGO Monitor announces efforts to combat Apartheid Week with "BDS
Sewer System" to detail sources of delegitimization campaigns.

NEW YORK - Israeli Apartheid Week, an effort by groups and activists
supporting boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel to discredit it
and label it an "apartheid state," kicked off Monday in many cities and
college campuses worldwide.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, the group NGO Monitor has announced
its efforts to combat Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) with the "BDS Sewer
System" which provides detailed information, in graphic form, on the sources
of delegitimization campaigns against Israel.

The "Sewer System" responds to the needs of Israel advocates, especially on
college campuses, representatives from NGO Monitor said.

"Students and faculty need accurate and relevant information to combat
Israeli Apartheid Week and other delegitimization campaigns they face on
campus," says Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of Jerusalem-based NGO
Monitor, a research institution that tracks nongovernmental organizations.

"IAW essentially is a series of 'mini-Durban' events - based on the strategy
adopted at the 2001 Durban Conference that exploits human rights language to
isolate and demonize Israel," he said.

"This 'Sewer System' map details and explains the complex network of
non-governmental organizations and their funders that lead this campaign.
Most importantly, it is a tool for students to demonstrate the illiberal and
'anti-human rights' nature of the movements they face on campus."

Israeli Apartheid Week - actually running two weeks, from March 7-20 - will
involve speakers from various NGOs at campuses throughout the US, Canada and
Europe, many representing organizations that NGO Monitor characterizes as
being actively anti-Israel.

The Sewer System analysis presents a visual, connecting network of pipes
between funders, NGOs, and tactics that sustain the BDS movement, NGO
Monitor explained.

Explanations are provided for each aspect of the movement, including the
Durban Strategy, the history of BDS, and how this information can
effectively be used.

The graphic of the Sewer System depicts the European Union, various
governments, foundations and religious charities as providing the incentives
and funds for NGOs, who then spread their ideas through mainstream, fringe,
unionized and church group outlets.

"In some instances, the funders share the anti-Israel political agendas of
their grantees," the literature reads.

"In others, the governmental and private sources assign funds ostensibly to
promote human rights, humanitarian aid, democracy and civil society.

However, NGOs divert this support to bolster BDS activity and pursue their
own political agendas. Due to an absence of strict guidelines, oversight,
accountability and evaluations of decision making, the funding continues
year after year."

When asked to elaborate by the Post, representatives of NGO Monitor gave
examples.

The Dutch government, Jason Edelstein of NGO Monitor said, channeled funding
to the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), which
claims to be an "aid organization." But then ICCO funded Electronic
Intifada, one of the leading groups promoting BDS.

"The Dutch government didn't know this until we showed it to them, via The
Jerusalem Post," Edelstein said. "So ICCO of course knew how the money was
being used, but the Dutch government did not."

Edelstein cited The New Israel Fund and the Ford Foundation as examples of
organizations that "have not been fully aware that some funding goes to NGOs
that promote BDS and are involved in other aspects of the delegitimization
campaign."

NGO Monitor's literature also explains the history of BDS and the Durban
strategy.

Copies of the Sewer System have been sent to students at Columbia, the
University of Maryland, Rutgers, UCLA, University of California at Berkley,
UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, and the University of Washington, as well as to
the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, the Israel on Campus Coalition,
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, and others to distribute to their
campus representatives.

"At UCLA, we are passing out the Sewer System to show students that Israel
Apartheid Week is part of a larger campaign to delegitimize Israel,"
Jonathan Gilbert of Bruins for Israel told NGO Monitor and is quoted in one
of its press releases.

"Most students are unaware of the extreme agendas and hate-filled language
associated with the groups behind IAW. The Sewer System helps demonstrate
this fact to them."

"We now have hundreds of copies of the Sewer System in our offices, and we
can distribute them as needed to SPME representatives on 4,000 campuses
throughout the world," says Prof. Sam Edelman, executive director of SPME.

"This is a useful resource that clearly shows students they are not alone in
dealing with these incidents - they are confronting a coordinated, vitriolic
campaign to demonize Israel."

"Israel's most prominent watchdog of human rights groups"

- The Forward

www.ngo-monitor.org

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Jerusalem 92262, Israel
Phone: 972-2-566-1020