Mennonite Central Committee funds genuine humanitarian project by ARIJ, but also supports politicized olive tree campaign

On February 23, 2007, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) announced a $1 million grant to the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), for waste water treatment systems for 180 Palestinian homes.  ARIJ's politicized and biased agenda is well documented and reflected in its highly political approach to "environmental research," but this MCC project is an example of a genuine humanitarian scheme.  

The MCC, however, also supports and publicizes the olive tree planting campaign, run by the East Jerusalem YMCA, an NGO which regularly promotes the Durban Strategy and emphasizes a one-sided Palestinian political agenda.  YMCA East Jerusalem's radical approach is reinforced by the MCC description of the campaign: "The whole idea is to use this as a form of non-violent action to protest the violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people."  The group also asserts the unsubstantiated claim that “[s]ince 2000, nearly half a million olive trees . . . have been destroyed by the Israeli army.”