International NGO Activity

By NGO Monitor
October 18, 2006

As of October 9, written questions to the European commission about its funding procedures for Palestinians and Israeli NGOs remain unanswered. In May 2006, European Member of Parliament, Paul van Buitenen, submitted a number of questions to the European Commission about funding procedures for Palestinian and Israeli NGOs. The questions asked if there are specific criteria by which decisions on funding for these NGOs are made, and whether EU funding for NGOs since 1993 has had any visible impact on peace-making efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

Christian Aid trustee, Baroness Jenny Tonge (also a member of the U.K.'s House of Lords) stated at a political conference in September that "the pro-Israel lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips." Christian Aid said that Tonge was not speaking on behalf of the organization nor had she consulted them about her statement, but has taken no action against her status in the organization. Tonge has previously expressed empathy for Palestinian suicide bombers stating in January 2004 "if I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one [a suicide bomber] myself."

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), an NGO based in London, has initiated the Stop Arming Israel campaign, aimed at halting U.K. weapons sales and purchases to and from Israel, as reported in the Jerusalem Post. The October/November issue of "CAATnews" featured a special report citing Israel's military operations in Lebanon and Gaza as reasons for establishing an arms embargo. The report tries to negate the legitimacy of these IDF actions saying that Hezbollah was the "the purported target" of Israel's Lebanese operations and that IDF actions in Gaza are "collective punishment for the armed resistance of a small minority." War on Want and the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions - both long active in anti-Israel demonization political campaigns are partners in the campaign.

In a press release of September 18, coinciding with the second session of the new U.N. Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch criticized the Council for ignoring humanitarian crises in Darfur and Sri Lanka. Peggy Hicks, HRW's Global Advocacy Director, said "if the Human Rights Council fails again to address human rights crises beyond those involving Israel, its credibility may be damaged beyond repair." However, HRW itself condemned Israeli and American demands for further reform of the Human Rights Council when it was created in March 2006. HRW regularly focuses disproportionately on alleged Israeli infractions of human rights to the detriment of serious human rights crises around the world, thereby setting a precedent for the UNHRC.

HRW also maintained its focus on Israel in the aftermath of the recent conflict in Lebanon. On September 22, HRW called on the Israeli governmental investigative committee to "examine the decisions and policies that led to the large number of Lebanese civilian casualties." HRW also produced a compilation of its material on Israel's use of cluster bombs during the conflict with Lebanon in July and August 2006.

On October 12, Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch criticized a U.K. government report about the war in Lebanon as it only referred to the actions of Hezbollah and did not mention Israeli military operations. Amnesty International UK Campaigns' Director Tim Hancock said that it is "deeply worrying that this report makes no specific mention of Israel's illegal targeting of Lebanese infrastructure..." AI and HRW have been heavily criticised for disproportionate focus on Israel during the war. HRW produced at least twenty-nine reports, press releases and opinion pieces on the war in Lebanon, only one of which specifically headlined Hezbollah's infractions of the laws of war.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) issued a press release on September 21 to "express concern" about the suspension of aid by the U.S., EU, Japan and Canada to the Palestinian Authority. MSF stated that this has led to a "critical shortage of drugs and medical materials" particularly in the Hebron district. There was no mention of ongoing Palestinian terror attacks and the intra-Palestinian violence.

Susan Berresford, President of the Ford Foundation since 1996, has announced she will retire in 2008. The Ford Foundation played an important role in the Durban Conference of 2001 and has consistently funded politicized NGOs which routinely attack Israel and conduct political campaigns against it in international forums.

On October 2, Oxfam, Amnesty International and International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) issued a forty-six page report about the international arms trade . The report specifically singles out companies in the U.S. and U.K. for selling components of Apache helicopters to Israel. The report cited Human Rights Watch's extremely problematic allegations on Israeli military operations during the recent conflict in Lebanon as the basis for claimed abuses of the laws of war, and stated that EU countries should "refuse exports of the full weapons system directly to Israel".