title: hillarymediamolecon
text: the hostility and hypocrisy of leftwing israeli ngos where are the condemnations of the pas efforts to prevent normalization with israel november   
  originally written for the investigative project on terrorism 
  israeli human rights group btselem recently appeared before a special session of the united nations security council excoriating israel and pleading with the body to act against israels settlements 
  in  the un famously declared that zionism is racism and four decades later the organization continues to hound israel in each of the last four years as the syrian bloodbath claimed hundreds of thousands of lives there were at least five times as many resolutions condemning israel as those rebuking the rest of the world 
  the uns cultural body unesco recently passed a motion ignoring any jewish or christian historical ties to east jerusalem holy sites referring to the temple mount and western wall only by their muslim names and condemning israel as the occupying power it turns out that some of israels leftwing ngos worked to help produce the unesco motion 
  given the uns chronic hostility efforts by israeli ngos to persuade the un to act against israel are arguably treasonous indeed one attorney and activist for israels leftleaning labor party filed a police complaint alleging treason against btselem arguing that the ngo has harmed state sovereignty tried to give land away to a foreign entity and taken steps that could cause a war 
  israeli democracy is extremely tolerant to the point of allowing its members of parliament to openly support terrorism and terrorist groups last march several israeli arab knesset members condemned arab states for labeling hizballah a terrorist organization even though it has been at war with israel for decades and regularly threatens new hostilities 
  last february members from the joint arab list paid a solidarity visit to relatives of palestinian terrorists whom israeli security forces had killed to stop them from murdering israelis in  mk hanin zoabi balad drew praise from hamas after she asserted that the kidnappers of three missing israeli youths were not terrorists hamass connection to the young mens abduction and murder helped to spark the third war between israel and hamas in gaza 
  thus israel already has plenty of dissenting voices and activists without foreign intervention nevertheless foreign interests have identified israeli ngos as the soft underbelly of israeli democracy and have leveraged them to promote their own agendas the problem became so acute that a watchdog ngo monitor was formed in  to track the selfhostility being funded largely by european and other foreign sources as the organization notes ngos lack a system of checks and balances andprovide accountability to their funders and activist members and not to the citizens or societies whose lives are directly impacted by their activities 
  ngo monitor also notes that even though most of the foreign government funding for these israeli ngos is formally designated for educating the israeli public and changing public opinion both in violation of the norms on noninterference in other democracies these israeli ngos are very active externally in the delegitmization and political warfare against israel 
  these leftwing israeli ngos receive money from about two dozen foreign governments  and some private organizations  that includes millions of dollars from billionaire george soros 
  in catch the jew  author tuvia tenenbom exposed how foreignfunded human rights and cultural organizations in israel tend to serve as vehicles for attacking israel by presenting himself to interview subjects as tobi the german tenenbom elicits some surprising confessions for example the new fund for cinema and tv a foreignfunded israeli cultural ngo told him that that about  percent of political documentaries made in israel are coproduced by europeans that includes a documentary called what makes a hero which equates israels military with the nazis such films would be too scandalous to be produced in germany but germansponsored ngos can safely pay leftwing israelis to make such movies 
  some foreign funders of israeli ngos have even unwittingly enriched hamas last august hamas allegedly siphoned off tens of millions of dollars from world vision a usbased charity and used the funds for weapons purchases tunnel construction and other military activities 
  the knesset passed a law in july requiring disclosure of foreign funding sources for ngos that get more than half of their money from overseas the law is clearly aligned with the american foreign agents registration act fara wrote legal scholar eugene kontorovich who defended the legislation in response to critics 
  israel is unique in the sheer scale of the foreign government sponsorship of domestic political groups he wrote for example the european union alone has in recent years given roughly  million euro a year for political ngos in the us and roughly an order of magnitude more in israela vastly larger per capita amount 
  the obama administration opposes foreign influence only when that influence promotes a dissenting view obama opposed netanyahus speech to the us congress against the iranian nuclear deal but was happy to give a speech to the uk parliament against brexit the obama administration critiqued israels ngofundingdisclosure law  perhaps because it had sent us taxpayer money to an israeli ngo working to oust israels prime minister 
  the same hypocrisy seems to prevail among israels foreignfunded ngos they ostensibly exist to promote democracy and peaceful coexistence but are conspicuously silent when palestinian institutions violate those ideals such silence enables abuse by palestinians and promotes a distorted and incomplete picture of the complex reality in which israelis operate foreignfunded israeli ngos remained silent after the palestinian authority arrested palestinians who visited a sukkah in a symbolic peace event promoting coexistence 
  these organizations are silent when the palestinian leadership pays salaries to the families of terrorists glorifies murderers and calls streets and city centers after them netanyahu said these organizations prove again and again that they are not actually interested in human rights but only in shaming israel and libeling it around the world 
  if israels leftwing ngos truly are committed to democracy and peace why havent they condemned the pas efforts to prevent normalization with israel in  jibril rajoub the deputy secretary of the fatah central committee and the head of the palestinian supreme council for sport and youth affairs condemned a coexistencepromoting soccer match between israeli and palestinian youths on a southern kibbutz as a crime against humanity 
  last week a palestinian newspaper came under intense criticism for publishing an interview with israeli defense minister avigdor liberman the jerusalembased newspaper alquds was denounced by hamas  the palestinian journalists syndicate and the supposedly moderate pa the chilling effects and antipeace message implicit in the harsh reactions to the interview have yet to catch the attention of any leftwing ngos supposedly working for peace and democracy