Foreign government funding for Israeli organizations totaled NIS 34,355,579 in
2012, according to a report issued on Monday by the NGO Monitor watchdog
group.
2012 was the first year in which Israeli non-governmental
organizations were required to report such donations, in line with the 2011 NGO
transparency law.
NGO Monitor reported on the funding of 30 local
organizations “from a number of foreign governments” to finance what it
describes as “political advocacy.”
“NGOs receive funding from two primary
channels, either via direct funding from foreign governments, or indirectly via
third parties such as foundations and humanitarian, development, and religious
NGOs,” according to NGO Monitor.
The NGO transparency law was the source
of controversy when it was introduced and was among a number of initiatives,
along with the so-called “Nakba Law” – which fines state-funded organizations
that reject Israel as a Jewish state or mourn on Independence Day by declaring
it a nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic”) for Palestinians – and the anti-boycott
bill, that were condemned by critics as “anti-democratic.”
The law states
that a “recipient of support that received a donation from a foreign
governmental body will submit [a report], within a week of the end of the
quarter in which the donation was received.”
The Association for Civil
Rights in Israel condemned the law when it was proposed, asserting that “despite
claims made by the promoters of this law, as though it is intended to increase
transparency – in practice its purpose is to delegitimize and curtail the
activities of organizations that receive funds from, among other sources,
foreign states.”
NGO Monitor president Prof. Gerald Steinberg stated that
he believes the law to be an “international model for transparency.”
“It
has been proven to be effective and serves as a contribution to the democratic
processes. Once received, the funding information is made public, allowing all
Israelis to access data on the influence of foreign governments on political
discourse,” Steinberg said, adding that he views “the amount of foreign funding
going to NGOs involved in polarizing activity in the context of the Arab-Israeli
conflict” as “alarming.”
The positions taken by NGOs receiving foreign
funding, he said, are “often contrary to the stated positions of the government
funders.”
“Additionally, some of the donors involved through indirect
government support, such as Christian Aid, Diakonia, and the Norwegian Refugee
Council, are also involved in the Durban strategy based on delegitimization
campaigns targeting Israel,” Steinberg continued.
Norway was the biggest
donor to Israeli NGOs, NGO Monitor reported, with NIS 4,598,507 NIS donated to
local organizations both directly and through third parties.
B’Tselem led
Israeli NGOs in the amount of foreign funding, the report stated, with NIS
4,144,203 received, followed by ACRI with NIS 3,614,668.
ACRI spokesman
Marc Grey took issue with Steinberg’s assertions, telling The Jerusalem Post
that his organization’s donors are already listed on its website and that “the
transparency law is as redundant today as it was when it was
passed.”
Grey stated that “far from being deleterious, foreign funding to
human rights organizations supports the protections of human rights and freedoms
fundamental to the ongoing health of the state.”
“Beyond the fact that
the basis for Israel’s relations with democratic countries is shared values –
democracy and human rights above all – the State of Israel itself is a recipient
of funds from these very same countries, in the framework of trade agreements,
investments, loans, and donations,” he said.
Sarit Michaeli, the
spokeswoman for B’Tselem, also responded negatively to the report, saying that
NGO Monitor’s figures constitute “information B’Tselem has published on its
website for years, long before we were legally required to do so.”
“NGO
Monitor are Israeli government apologists masquerading as an objective
watchdog,” she said. “They do not even practice what they preach in terms of
their own transparency and their sloppy, third-rate research.”
“It seems
that NGO Monitor can’t even calculate numbers properly, as they report
completely missed several donations appearing in our quarterly reports,
amounting to a gap of over 2 million NIS. This miscalculation not only ridicules
their sloppy research, but also casts doubts on their conclusions about the
amounts of funds provided by different countries,” Michaeli added.