Europeans funding 'Breaking the Silence'

[bemildred]

A day after releasing a damning report on Operation Cast Lead, and amid accusations that it is operating without transparency, the group Breaking the Silence on Thursday presented The Jerusalem Post with its donor list for the year 2008, which included several European governments.

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On Thursday, military sources and NGO Monitor - a Jerusalem-based research organization - raised suspicions regarding Breaking the Silence's setup as a nonprofit limited company and not an amuta, or nonprofit organization. The difference is that an amuta is required by law to publicly declare the identity of its donors. A limited company is not always required to do so.

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In response to the claims, Breaking the Silence presented the Post with its donor list for 2008. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv gave the organization NIS 226,589; the Dutch Embassy donated €19,999; and the European Union gave Breaking the Silence €43,514.

The NGO also received funding from the New Israel Fund amounting to NIS 229,949.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443834129&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Betty Karlson]

1. Is this a good thing?

Please tell us if this is a good thing or not. Will it diverse the attention from the report? Will it refocus the attention on it? I should think that if European governments (including mine) have contributed to this organisation, the debate over NGO or amuta might (will?) affect Israelian foreign policy?

[pelsar]

3. nothing wrong with it.....

a local group gets funding from intl donors to affect the policies of their own govt.........

[shira]

5. as long as it's not Israel doing its own 'zionist' meddling....then it's wrong

[bemildred]

6. I thought it was interesting.

Both that the mentioned governments are doing it, and that they apparently don't object to the facts being made public. Also that the row over these allegations seems to be becoming larger; one usually expects to see these sorts of allegations swept under the carpet in short order. It is always interesting, and predictable in the case of the "Gaza War", when that proves hard to accomplish.

How it will affect Israeli public opinion etc. I could not say, or rather that remains to be seen.

[Betty Karlson]

7. Thank you for the clarification.

B.K.

[bemildred]

8. My pleasure.

A civil question deserves a civil answer.

[Scurrilous]

2. IDF soldiers give testimonies to counter Gaza war crimes claims

<snip>

"A newly released collection of anonymous accusations of alleged human rights abuses by Israeli soldiers in Gaza has prompted reservists who served there to deliver signed, on-camera counter-testimonies about Palestinian terrorists' use of Gazans as human shields.

The dozen English-language testimonies were delivered in response to a report by Breaking the Silence, an organization which says it is attempting to collect accounts by Israel Defense Soldiers in order to expose "moral corruption" within the IDF, as explained in the movement's Website.

The accusations were made by anonymous people who said they were reserves soldiers, and whose faces were blurred in filmed talks. Some recounted hearing from other soldiers that the IDF used Palestinians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead in January. Others said they recalled destroying Palestinian property.


"We came upon an ambulance from a local children's hospital," Pinchas Sanderson from Jerusalem recounted in an American accent in his counter-testimony. The 29-year-old U.S.-born student is one of three native English-speakers who appear on the new website www.soldiersspeakout.com.

"It was suspicious because there was a very old lady in the ambulance of a children's hospital. Inside we found three RPG rocket launchers," he said. "We couldn?t believe someone would use an ambulance to move them."

Johannesburg-born Jeremy Lipshitz, 24, recounted in a South African accent how his unit discovered a Hezbollah hideout in Lebanon but was ordered to hold fire. Lipshitz, a reserves Intelligence Corps field combatant who settled in Ra'anana after making aliyah six years ago, said it was because the terrorists were using civilians as human shields."

Shane Goodson, a 23-year-old reserves paratrooper from Herzliya who in 2005 also came to Israel from South Africa, Pretoria, described how the IDF is made up of "ordinary Israelis with families, jobs and a respect for family values."

Another testimony by an Israeli-born commando soldier talks about him ordering his soldiers to clean up a Palestinian home after they were in it, and how they collected items from their own food parcels from home and gave them to the family.

The SoldiersSpeakOut group, which encourages soldiers to send in their filmed testimonies via the video sharing site Youtube, describes itself as "a grassroots movement that wants to show the voices of real Israelis."

The new movement is supported by the international Israel-advocacy group StandWithUs, which specializes in high-tech quick response projects in English to what is perceives as anti-Israel bias."

more

[azurnoir]

4. Taking money from the EU

surely that makes "Breaking the Silence" part of the some global plot against Israel:sarcasm:

[LeftishBrit]

9. Don't give the righties any ideas...

in the UK, the Right would definitely consider that taking money from the EU makes you part of some global plot against *Britain* - and That's What's Stopping Britain from Being Great Britain Again!

[Howardx]

10. im shocked, shocked!

imagine spending money attempting to influence israels internal politics, its unheard of!

[Scurrilous]

11. Group that exposed 'IDF crimes' in Gaza slams Israel bid to choke off its funds

<snip>

"An organization that alleged Israeli troops used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza accused the Foreign Ministry on Sunday of "endangering democracy," following a Haaretz report that the ministry had asked the Netherlands to freeze funds to the group.

Acting on instructions from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, Harry Knei-Tal, met last week with the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and complained about the Dutch embassy's funding of Breaking the Silence.

The group said Sunday that the ministry and the establishment were conducting a "witch hunt...only a part of which was exposed in the Haaretz report," that it claimed was testimony to the "erosion of democratic culture in the State of Israel."

Breaking the Silence added: "The attempts to silence voices from Israeli civil society are dangerous. As opposed to reports, the IDF has never denied the (validity of the) testimonies and it and the foreign ministry's virulent reaction... only strengthens the position of the testifying soldiers, who are not willing to be exposed."

"It looks like the ministry draws ideas from shady regimes, in which those who point out internal failures are considered traitors."

In the meeting last week between Knei-Tal and the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Israeli ambassador suggested that the Netherlands' funding of the organization should be terminated, according to a source."

more

[azurnoir]

12. Israel: Dutch must stop funding group that exposed Gaza crimes

Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - Israel's ambassador to the Netherlands has called on the country to rethink funding for an Israeli organization that exposed various atrocities committed during Israel's latest assault on Gaza.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz uncovered the demands on Sunday, in which it says Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Harry Knei-Tal met with the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and complained about its support for Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization.

"The attempts to silence voices from Israeli civil society are dangerous. As opposed to reports, the IDF has never denied the testimonies and it and the foreign ministry's virulent reaction... only strengthens the position of the testifying soldiers, who are not willing to be exposed," the group added.

"It looks like the ministry draws ideas from shady regimes, in which those who point out internal failures are considered traitors," the organization added.


The political-director for the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv said the Netherlands would reconsider funding for Breaking the Silence in the future, an apparent Israeli victory that comes amid recently announced plans to take on nongovernmental organizations critical of Israeli policy.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=214807

there was anotherexample of this Israeli government plan last week

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x281663