Israel Matzav

Why investigate NGOs?

On Wednesday, I reported that the Knesset has decided to investigate the funding of (mostly Leftist) NGOs. Some of you might be wondering why the Knesset would do this. It smacks of a politically motivated search. NGOs already report where they get their funding and it isn't supposed to be from governments. And some of you may still believe (despite Goldstone and everything else) that ' human rights' organizations are unbiased do-gooders. Emmanuel Navon explains.

The same way that the UN “Human Rights Council” is dominated by human rights abusers, many NGOs use the “human rights” fig leaf to harass democracies at war and to whitewash murderous regimes. Why else would the Human Rights Council be presided by Thailand (since June 2010) and why else would Human Rights Watch do fundraising in Saudi Arabia (as revealed by the Wall Street Journal in July 2009)? Not all human rights organizations in Israel and in the world are a sham, of course. Some actually do care for human rights and dignity. But for many NGOs (including Israeli NGOs that are trying to get IDF officers arrested in London), using the “human rights” agenda has become a clever way of enjoying impunity for political activities that have hardly anything to do with human rights.

Claiming that the sources of funding for Israeli NGOs are already public knowledge is no less misleading. Of course, Israeli NGOs report every penny raised and spent to the Non-Profit Authority. But many funds and foundations that donate money to Israeli NGOs are themselves supported by individuals, organizations and governments whose name and identity do not appear when NGOs report their donations. The public information disclosed by Israeli NGOs on their donations does not reveal the entire money trail –a trail that often includes foreign governments. The same way that many “human rights” organizations have nothing to do with human rights, those organizations call themselves “non-governmental” while being funded by governments.

There's much more. Read the whole thing.

Labels: human rights NGO's, NGO funding

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:53 PM