"Just as it would be unacceptable for European governments to support
anti-war NGOs in the US, it is unacceptable for the Europeans to support
local NGOs opposed to the policies of Israel's democratically-elected
government," he said.

Israel targets foreign gov't NGO funds
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 31, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277938265&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Recent revelations about foreign government funding for local NGOs involved
in political activity have triggered discussions by senior Israeli officials
about the possibility of making such aid illegal, The Jerusalem Post has
learned.

The senior officials are looking into whether it might be possible to ban
donations from foreign governments to political NGOs, just as it is
forbidden for foreign residents, let alone governments, to contribute to
Israeli political parties.

One of the questions that will have to be addressed, according to an
official involved in the discussions, is what constitutes a political NGO.
While it seems that there is an obvious distinction between an organization
like Hadassah, which funds hospitals, and one like Breaking the Silence,
which has a perceived political agenda, the distinctions would have to be
spelled out in legislation.

The discussion follows Post revelations that foreign governments are funding
of Breaking the Silence, which last week added its voice to a number of NGOs
that have issued scathing reports of the IDF's activities in Gaza during
Operation Cast Lead.

Israel has already contacted the Dutch and British governments about their
funding of the organization, and is expected to soon take up the matter with
the Spanish government as well.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry's agency for international development
cooperation budgeted 80,000 for Breaking the Silence in 2009. It allocated
100,000 for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and another 80,000
for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a group led by far-left
activist Jeff Halper.

Halper was arrested last year for setting sail from Cyprus for the Gaza
Strip in a symbolic effort to break Israel's blockade of the Strip.

The Post has learned that the Spanish Foreign Ministry agency has also
committed itself to giving 70,000 this year to Rabbis for Human Rights.

Ron Dermer, chief of policy planning in the Prime Minister's Office, decried
the funding of political NGOs by foreign governments as a "blatant and
unacceptable" intervention into Israel's internal affairs.

"Just as it would be unacceptable for European governments to support
anti-war NGOs in the US, it is unacceptable for the Europeans to support
local NGOs opposed to the policies of Israel's democratically-elected
government," he said.

Moreover, Dermer said, what makes it worse is that some of the NGOs are not
merely opposed to specific policies, but "are working to delegitimize the
Jewish state."

Juan Gonzales, the No. 2 at the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv, said money his
government gave the NGOs was based on the principles of "Spanish
cooperation" and that it was not always easy to judge and decide which
groups should get funds. He said he did not know on what grounds it was
decided to support the various NGOs in Israel.

Also among the left-wing groups known to receive foreign funding are Peace
Now, B'Tselem and Machsom Watch, which focus on Israel's treatment of
Palestinians and settlements.

Gonzales said there might be some instances where such donations might raise
concern from one of the countries where the NGOs operate, and in that case
Madrid would be open to a dialogue. The Spanish government had not received
any complaint from Israel on the matter, he said.

Israel's embassy in Madrid had no comment.

Breaking the Silence issued a statement earlier this week accusing the
Foreign Ministry of a "witch hunt" in raising the issue with foreign
governments, saying this testified to the erosion of the "democratic
culture" in Israel.

"Attempts to silence voices in Israeli society are dangerous," the group
said. "It appears that the Foreign Ministry is getting ideas from the
darkest regimes where anyone who points to failures is considered a
traitor."

Shortly after it was revealed last week that the British, Dutch and Spanish
governments had funded Breaking the Silence, the Foreign Ministry sent
directives to all its representatives abroad to begin to raise the
problematic nature of funding political NGOs with their local governments.

This is part of new government policy, first reported by the Post three
weeks ago, to take a more proactive stance against NGOs very critical of
Israel. Officials articulated this policy after receiving reports that Human
Rights Watch, a consistently harsh critic of Israel, had engaged in
fund-raising in Saudi Arabia, using its criticism of Israel as a sales
pitch.

Another manifestation of the government's new policy toward the NGOs was the
release by the government on Thursday of a 164-page report on Operation Cast
Lead, meant to counter the numerous reports released over the last few weeks
by various NGOs. The government paper is titled "The Operation in Gaza -
Legal and Factual Aspects."

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that this report was the
"definitive Israeli version" of the events in Gaza, and addressed a wide
range of factual and international legal issues.

The report was prepared by officials in the Foreign, Justice and Defense
ministries, as well as with the IDF. An indication of its target audience is
the fact that the report was written in English, and not translated into
Hebrew.

Foreign Ministry officials said the report aimed to do something that Israel
has accused the various NGOs of omitting, namely describing in detail the
context of the Gaza operation - documenting the Hamas attacks on Israeli
civilians prior to the offensive, as well as Israel's efforts to prevent the
attacks and avoid the conflict.

According to a statement put out by the Foreign Ministry, the paper contains
"an extensive legal analysis of the legal principles and of state practice
regarding the use of force and examines in detail the application of the
principles of necessity, distinction and proportionality. In particular,
with photographic and video evidence, it documents the tactics adopted by
Hamas in launching attacks from within civilian populations and describes
the IDF precautions and efforts to limit civilian harm in such situations."

The paper also gives details of the IDF investigations into allegations made
by various groups of violations of the law.

Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor,
said the NGOs have for years "mixed false claims, pure speculation, and bias
in their 'research reports,' without responses from the Israeli government.
This detailed report represents a fundamental change, presenting a
point-by-point refutation of NGO allegations, including white phosphorous
use and denial of use of human shields by Hamas."

The report shifts the burden of proof to the NGOs, which "must now provide
evidence for their claims that is more credible than testimony from
Palestinians and a handful of anonymous Israeli soldiers," Steinberg said.

Matthew Wagner contributed to this report.