Along with other members of the New Israel Fund’s San Francisco Bay Area regional board of directors, I want to express our dismay that Jweekly.com ran an op-ed (online only) by Natan Nestel that contained numerous factual inaccuracies.
In his piece, “Groups that demonize Israel place themselves outside of the tent,” Mr. Nestel adopted a tone of intolerance and relied on those inaccuracies to paint NIF and some of its grantees as anti-Israel. To set the record straight:
The New Israel Fund does not support anti-Israel organizations. Groups that work to deny the right of the Jewish people to sovereign self-determination do not receive support from NIF. In fact, in order to receive NIF funding, a grantee must be registered as a non-governmental organization under the laws of the State of Israel.
None of the NGOs mentioned in Mr. Nestel’s piece breach NIF’s strict grantmaking policies. Charity Navigator, the respected nonprofit/charity evaluator, gives NIF the top, four-star rating for fiscal transparency and accountability. NIF’s rating can be viewed at www.bit.ly/wYuWSa.
NIF is proud that its board of directors and international council are filled with members whose support of Israel is unquestioned. Many are familiar names, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, former Deputy Knesset Speaker Naomi Chazan, writer-teacher Leonard Fein, former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg, and Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. NIF’s incoming board president is the Bay Area’s own Rabbi Brian Lurie.
Independent analyses by Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem and other human rights groups were cited in the Goldstone Report. Indeed, the IDF uses such analyses regularly and the military’s Advocate General credited B’Tselem with changes in operational procedures to better protect civilian lives and property.
When Judge Richard Goldstone retracted some of his findings, he adopted the position of the Israeli human rights community: the IDF did not deliberately target civilians during the Gaza war. Independent analysis of the Goldstone Report demonstrated that less than 2 percent of the negative citations of Israeli actions in Goldstone came from reports of human rights NGOs. Almost all the information cited in the Goldstone Report was available from Israeli government and military sources.
Mr. Nestel’s allegations against the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement were also fabricated. The organization is famous for its advocacy on behalf of Arab families who have been evicted by extremist settlers from their east Jerusalem homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. You can read more about them in their own words (www.en.justjlm.org/what-is-our-struggle-about). The New Israel Fund stands by their work.
In a democracy, we thrive on differing opinions and vigorous, civil discussion. Also in a democracy, we collaborate on issues where there is agreement. With more than 100 grantees, NIF does not always agree with every position our grantees take. But as a pro-democracy NGO, New Israel Fund fosters dialogue and brings marginalized voices to the table.
Some of the Likud party’s top leadership — such as Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Reuven Rivlin — the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee stand with NIF in emphasizing the need for democratic discussion and freedom of speech. There are those, however, who resort to smearing and distorting the truth to make their point. Mr. Nestel, in his piece on Jweekly.com, appears to be among the latter group.
Leslie Kane is an attorney and the former director of the Holocaust Center of Northern California. She has served on the San Francisco regional board of the New Israel Fund for 11 years.