Israel as a “Catastrophe”: European-Funded NGOs That Promote the “Nakba”
Narrative
NGO Monitor
April 20, 2015
http://ngo-monitor.org/article/israel_as_a_catastrophe_european_funded_ngos_that_promote_the_nakba_narrative

In advance of Israeli Independence Day, NGO Monitor has documented a number
of Israeli NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that mourn the
establishment of the state of Israel as a “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic)
and actively promote a Palestinian “right of return,” which, if implemented,
would effectually mean the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Such
efforts are made possible by the extensive funding provided by foreign
governments, mainly European (see below for funding details).

These NGOs similarly refer to all Jewish aspects of the state of Israel as
inherently racist, thereby denying the Jewish right to self-determination
and misrepresenting the robustness of Israeli democracy.

These goals fundamentally contradict the two-state framework backed by the
international community, including their European donors.

NGO Monitor's detailed research shows that the following NGOs promote
divisive campaigns that fundamentally reject the legitimacy of Israel as a
Jewish state:

1. Zochrot - Zochrot (Hebrew for “remembrance”) is an Israeli NGO that aims
to “raise public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba” and to “recogniz[e] and
materializ[e] the right of return.”
-Zochrot supports a “One State Solution” or a “de-Zionized Palestine,” and
refers to Israel as having an “ethnicized and racialized Zionist” system.
-In May 2014, Zochrot launched a smartphone app, “iNakba,” featuring an
interactive map and photos of Palestinian villages from 1948, as a means to
promote and amplify its ideology.
-In March 2015, Zochrot, together with Palestinian NGO BADIL went on a
speaking tour across the United States to discuss “the ongoing Nakba
affecting Palestinians both in Palestine and in the diaspora.” According to
the event flyer, “Presentations will aim to provide a historical overview of
the Nakba and the Right of Return, the forcible displacement of Palestinian
since before 1948 and continuing today, and the practicalities of return for
refugees. In turn, American audiences will have focused time to consider
their role in supporting the call for the Right of Return and how to
integrate the Nakba into U.S.-based activism.” See here for more on Zochrot’s
support for “One-State.”
-Funding for Zochrot’s campaigns mostly comes from powerful European
Catholic and Protestant aid organizations. All of these organizations are
funded by European governments that officially support a two-state
framework. Donors in 2012-2014 include: Germany (via Rosa Luxemberg
Foundation and Misereor), Finland (via Finn Church Aid), Belgium (via
Broederlijk Delen), Netherlands (via ICCO), Switzerland (via HEKS), Ireland
(via Trocaire), UK (via Christian Aid), France (CCFD), Mennonite Central
Committee, and Oxfam Great Britain.

2. Adalah claims to be “an independent human rights organization and legal
center” that “promote[s] and defend[s] the rights of Palestinian Arab
citizens of Israel.” At the same time, it attempts to portray Israel as
undemocratic and racist – a tactic it frequently employs at the UN and in
other international platforms. Adalah issues statements with the aim of
eradicating the Jewish character of Israel.
-In 2007, it drafted a “Democratic Constitution” that called for replacing
the Jewish foundation of Israel with a “democratic, bilingual and
multicultural” framework. The constitution demanded the Palestinian “right
of return” and would not allow Jewish immigration except for “humanitarian
reasons.”
-In March 2013, Adalah launched a “Discriminatory Laws in Israel” database
on its website. Adalah’s English Facebook page provides a link to the
database with the more provocative name “Racist Laws.” The database is a
list of 101 laws and proposed legislation that never became law, which
Adalah considers to “discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel in
all areas of life.” Laws promoting Zionism and the historic Jewish
connection to Israel are labeled as discriminatory. Adalah uses the word
“Zionist” in a pejorative manner throughout the database. (See here NGO
Monitor’s Report, “Adalah’s Database of Laws: Imagining Racism to Demonize
Israel”).
-Adalah’s 2012-2014 donors include: European Union, Switzerland, Germany
(via EED and Medico International), Spain (via ACSUR), Human Rights and
International Law Secretariat (joint funding of Switzerland, Sweden,
Denmark, and the Netherlands), UN Development Programme (UNDP), New Israel
Fund, Open Society Institute, Oxfam-Novib, Christian Aid, and Broederlijk
Delen (Belgium).

3. Baladna claims to work “to enable and strengthen the Arab youth’s
understanding and application of the principles of democracy and gender
equality, pluralism and tolerance, youth empowerment and community building,
as it is part of a growing trend towards building independent institutions
and striving to equalize the Palestinian community's relationship with the
State.”
-Baladna is extremely active in promoting a 1948 agenda and a Palestinian
“right of return,” and constantly refers to the establishment of the state
of Israel as a “Nakba.”
-Organizes a program to “[t]rain internally displaced youth from the 3rd and
4th generation of the Nakba to conceptualize, visualize and implement return
to their villages thereby actualizing their right of return despite
political obstacles imposed by Israel.”
-Baladna’s 2013-2014 donors include: Netherlands (via Cordaid), France (via
CCFD), Switzerland (via HEKS), Oxfam, Mennonite Central Committee,
Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders, United
Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC). In 2011-2013, the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants
worth $75,000 to Baladna (2011, 2012, 2013).

4. Combatants for Peace (CfP) – While CfP claims to “allow each side to
understand the other’s narrative,” its activities reflect a strong
affiliation with the Palestinian agenda and narrative, placing most of the
blame for the conflict on “the occupation.”
-CfP organizes “alternative” Remembrance Day ceremonies (held on
Independence Day Eve), featuring the families of fallen Israeli soldiers and
victims of terror, as well as the families of Palestinian terrorists. The
ceremony immorally equates acts of terror with measures of defense.
-Itamar Shapira, a well-known IDF “refusenik” and member of Combatants for
Peace, was released from his position as a docent at Yad Vashem Holocaust
museum for comparing the Holocaust to the “Nakba” while guiding a tour.
-Combatants for Peace does not list donors, but according to its website
“partners” include: Spain, Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung (Germany), Heinrich Boll
Stiftung (Germany), Sivmo (Netherlands), British Shalom- Salaam Trust (UK),
and Foundation for Middle East Peace (US).

5. +972 Magazine claims to be “an independent, blog-based web magazine” that
is “jointly owned by a group of journalists, bloggers and photographers
whose goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and
analysis of events in Israel and Palestine.”
-Writers and contributors regularly invoke the Durban Strategy vocabulary,
accusing Israel of “apartheid”, “ethnic cleansing,” “racism,” “land
confiscation,” “discrimination,” “displacement,” and “perpetrating another
Nakba.”
-Published an April 11, 2015 article, “The road out of the occupation runs
through the Nakba,” written by Natasha Roth, alleging that the “1967
occupation — and the motivation behind it — would not have been possible
without 1948. The mentality of those who support and enable the occupation
lives in an ideology that was birthed at the same time as the State of
Israel. As long as we deny, distort and repress the Nakba, Israelis will
never truly accept and absorb the end of the occupation.”
-Published a February 13, 2015 article, “House demolitions: A reminder that
the Nakba never ended,” written by Rami Younis, claiming that the “massacres
of the Nakba never ended; today Gaza carries the burden of Israel’s
bloodletting. Lydd, like Silwan, Beit Hanina, the Negev and the rest of
historic Palestine, suffers from other aspects of never-ending
dispossession — a creeping Nakba… The Nakba never ended, it just adjusts
itself according to the times.”
-+972 Magazine donors in 2014 include: Heinrich Boll Stiftung (Germany),
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Moriah Fund. In 2011-2013, the New Israel
Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $125,767 to +972 Magazine (2011, 2012,
2013).