This is the kind of thing that has poisoned western public opinion about Israel. As NGO Monitor reports, the charity War on Want is churning out the most vicious untruths and libels:
'WoW routinely uses hate rhetoric such as "apartheid", "slavery", and "a heavyweight beating a child" in its assault against Israel, while accusing Israeli leaders of attempting to simulate the aftermath of a natural disaster for Palestinians. Repeating terms used routinely by the radical Palestinian NGO network regarding refugee claims and calls on Israeli citizens to refuse military service, War on Want's program seeks to undermine the survival of the State of Israel and its right to defend itself.
'Like the other elements in the movement to demonize Israel, War on Want's latest campaign focuses on the security barrier, which it calls "the world's biggest prison". WoW's incitement makes no mention of the terrorism that has killed over 1000 Israelis (mostly civilians), and which highlights the moral rationale of this defensive response.
'Following the standard pattern, War on Want repeats the messages of other members in the extremist NGO network, such as the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC), PNGO, BADIL, Electronic Intifada, www.stopthewall.org, etc.
'On the basis of these "sources" alone, WoW's alleges that Israel's security barrier "is destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state, because Palestinian land is being divided into ghettos." Other false allegations include electrification of the barrier, "with watchtowers and sniper positions every few hundred metres." In several instances their website unsettlingly features a photo of a Swastika inside the Star of David, reflecting the fundamentally immoral comparison of Israeli self-defense with the Nazi Holocaust. In a similar assault, WoW blames Israel for a lack of sufficient healthcare facilities in Palestinian towns, going on to proclaim that "the Wall is part of an on-going attempt to make life unendurable for Palestinians."
'Highlighting its fraudulent abuse of the "charity" banner, War on Want acts as if the concept of human rights does not apply to Israelis. Instead, this assault justifies terror and brutality, claiming that the violence "is a result of Palestinian anger and desperation at the situation they have suffered." The campaign presents figures on Palestinian casualties, while failing to mention Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. And War on Want adopts traditional antisemitic libels (such as "poisoning the wells") in repeating allegations that the Israel Defense Forces targets Palestinian water sources "as a form of collective punishment". Similarly, in WoW's distorted image, Israel alone is to blame for the "seemingly endless downward spiral of violence".'
I refer in the previous post below to a parallel universe that has been created. NGO-land has now become an apparently co-ordinated network of hatred towards Israel, with charities working together to demonise and delegitimise it and campaigning for it to be treated as a pariah state by the world. Much of the language used by WoW is taken from the radical Palestinian NGO network. The radical politicisation of this entire NGO sector owes much to the Durban conference 2001 which, as NGO Monitor has previously pointed out, was organised as a conspiracy against the Jews in the following way:
'A UN resolution began the process leading to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held at Durban in September 2001. Interested non-governmental organizations to be represented by observers, in accordance with UN Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31 were also invited to attend as observers.
'A regional conference in Tehran, intended to produce a composite Declaration against Racism and a Plan of Action, preceded the conference. Israel, along with Jewish NGOs, were excluded and, in their absence, Israel was accused of committing holocausts and being anti-Semitic. There was no public condemnation of the exclusion of Israel or the Jewish groups by any of the international NGOs. During the World Conference, large numbers of NGOs organized a parallel NGO Forum (sometimes confused with the Conference) that, in turn, succeeded in overshadowing the formal proceedings. This was due to the large amount of media attention the NGOs were able to generate. The NGO Forum produced what is known as "The NGO Declaration," which, while not an official conference document, assumed a high international profile and was signed by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
'The NGO declaration at the Durban conference, written in highly politicized language, reflected a concerted effort to undermine Israel. Article 164 states targeted victims of Israel's brand of apartheid and ethnic cleansing methods have been in particular children, women and refugees. Article 425 announces a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state...the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel. Furthermore, Article 426 talks of condemnation of those states who are supporting, aiding and abetting the Israeli apartheid state and its perpetration of racist crimes against humanity including ethnic cleansing, acts of genocide.
'The constant comparisons with South Africa and apartheid are fundamentally flawed. Israel grants full legal and civic equality to its Arab minority. The status of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is subject to a final settlement and the issue of a Palestinian state is a matter of intense diplomatic energy and sensitive negotiation. Moreover, the Israeli army has a clear policy of avoiding civilian casualties. A fact of the war on terror is the concentration of suicide bomb-making factories in densely-populated areas. Moreover, the Palestinians have also shown a willingness to put small children directly in the line of fire. These reasons help explain the tragic number of Palestinian children and women killed. In cases where Israeli soldiers have shown excesses, they have stood trial and were removed from their positions. The NGO Forum omitted to mention any of these facts, and this pattern is seen in the NGO community repeatedly.'
This is why the charities are now all pumping out these monstrous untruths. Far from alleviating poverty or injustice, they have become quite simply a collective force for evil in the world -- an organised conspiracy of hatred, prejudice and lies. Their influence is immeasurable; the harm they are doing unquantifiable.
The silence over their outrageous activities is deafening. The mainstream media are content to accept them on face value -- because most journalists, alas, share these prejudices, not least because the NGOs are pumping out this stuff and the NGOs are considered to be, by contrast with 'lying' politicians, pillars of integrity and altruism. Hence their vast influence at a time of public cynicism about politicians. The NGOs have become, in effect, our fifth estate.
There is another factor behind this process, at least in Britain. Charities are supposed not to engage in political activity. But in recent years, this restriction has been softened -- in part because, as the Charity Commission's guidance note puts it:
'...charities are well placed to carry out this role
because of... the high levels of public trust and confidence they command'.
As a result, campaigning by charities is now encouraged:
'Organisations established for exclusively charitable purposes may carry out campaigning and political activities to the extent outlined below, provided that the activities pursued are a legitimate means of furthering those purposes.'
(my emphasis).
That last caveat is why WoW, for example, feels obliged to state that its diatribes against Israel, which would appear to have nothing to do with the charity's mission of alleviating poverty, are all about the causes of Palestinian poverty.
But that argument is wholly bogus. Palestinian poverty is caused by many factors, at the top of which must come the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, followed closely by the self-inflicted wound of being conscripts in the half-century war of terror against Israel. And here's the rub for these rotten, corrupt NGOs. Because the Charity Commission's guidance also warns that
'the trustees must weigh the possible benefits for their charity and beneficiaries, against any possible reputational or other risks'
In other words, if a charity is doing something that might endanger its reputation, for example by providing such a distorted picture of the causes of Palestinian poverty as to constitute a libellous incitement of hatred against the Jewish people, it would be in trouble. Any complaint made against it on these lines would be looked at by the Charity Commission and if there was enough evidence they might launch a formal investigation.
The Jewish community should now get its act together and assemble precisely such evidence against these NGOs, and hold them formally to account for destroying their own reputations for fairness and objectivity by polluting public discourse with hatred and lies.
