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France's War to Delegitimize Israel by Yves Mamou April 12, 2017 at 5:00 am https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10082/france-israel-delegitimization Share244 Comment France's financial support goes beyond the French government's November 2016 decision to support labeling products produced in the settlements and instead supports the boycott of such products. Officially, France prohibits any form of boycott against Israel. In 2015, the Court of Cassation confirmed a 2013 decision regarding the illegality of boycotts and the call for boycotts in France. Under the law, in 2013, BDS France was fined €28,000 (USD $30,000) by a local French court, after a call made in 2010 by 14 activists to boycott Israeli products in a supermarket. In addition, each of the 14 activists was fined €1,000. However, according to a report recently released by NGO Monitor, the French government continues to fund NGOs openly hostile to Israel and to fund NGOs that support and promote boycott campaigns against Israel. The French government's financial support for boycott campaigns embraces: The Made in Illegality campaign -- which includes The Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), as well as the French Union La CGT. France's financial support goes beyond the French government's November 2016 decision to support labeling products produced in the settlements and instead supports the boycott of such products. The campaign's goals include "prohibiting the import of settlement products," "excluding the settlements from their bilateral agreements and cooperation with Israel," and "excluding companies which are active or located in the settlements from public markets and public procurement procedures..." The French government (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) provided the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine with €46,560 in 2009, €199,000 from 2011-2014, and €225,000 from 2014-2017. The Council of Île de France Region provided the Platform with €62,000 in 2013, €22,000 in 2014, and €20,000 in 2015. Claude Léostic, President of The Platform, was denied entry to Israel, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany: "...The people of France resisted the Nazi barbarians... But you have been suffering for more than 40 years, as incredible as it seems in this modern world, and that came after the Nakba..." According to NGO Monitor, "40% (€225,000) of The Platform's 2014 project "Mieux agir pour le respect du droit en Palestine" (Improved Action for the Respect of Rights in Palestine) was funded by the French government (AFD). This project was partnered with Ittijah. In 2010, the head of Ittijah, Amir Makhoul, was sentenced to nine years in prison for spying for Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war. The Platform of French NGOs for Palestine and Ittijah were also partners on a project supported by the French government (€43,560 from AFD) in 2009, while Makhoul was still the head of the organization. Catholic organizations are also extremely active members of the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine and open supporters of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Among these Catholic organizations are: Secours Catholique-Caritas France (SCCF); La Cimade; Pax Christi France; Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement–Terre Solidaire (CCFD). These Catholic organizations are heavily subsidized by French government and distributes grants to various anti-Israeli NGOs. The Israeli Alternative Information Center (AIC), for example, received €14,950 in 2013 from the Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'homme (National Consultative Commission for Human Rights). The AIC also received also €19,970 in 2013, €4,975 in 2015, €12,960 in 2016 via CCFD-Terre Solidaire. The FIDH, an international human rights organization with a budget of €6.6 million in 2015, is supported financially by the French government and other EU governments. FIDH also openly supports BDS campaigns. Its secretary general, Shawan Jabarin, elected in August 2016, is also the General Director of Al Haq, a Palestinian organization extremely active in anti-Israel lawfare and the BDS movement. Jabarin has been denied entry and exit visas for Israel and Jordan on several occasions due to his alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group. On July 20, 2016, the International Board of FIDH issued a press release supporting BDS. Earlier, in November 2015, FIDH welcomed the decision of the European Commission to label Israeli settlements' products, but called on the EU to "end all economic and commercial trade with the Israeli settlements, and to dissuade businesses from investing, maintaining and benefiting from economic relations with the Israeli settlements." The French government is also supporting NGOs (French and non-French) campaigning to stop relations between French and Israeli banks that have branches in the settlements. In practice, this would result in divestment from all major Israeli banks. The main protagonists of this campaign are Al-Haq, FIDH, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, and Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS). French NGOs that are government-subsidized include: Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS): €139,550 in 2012-2014 from Agence française pour le développement (AFD); €36,500 in 2013, €53,000 in 2014, and €25,500 in 2015 from the French Foreign Ministry. AFPS uses Holocaust rhetoric. It refers to the Gaza Strip as an "extermination camp" due to the purportedly "criminal Israeli government – and all those who support it...the small 'angels of death' who are sheltered there to continue their experiments and envision the 'final solution.'" AFPS is also active in BDS campaigns against Israel and uses other inflammatory rhetoric such as charges of "ethnic cleansing", "apartheid state", and "Stop hunting Palestinian children!" La Cimade, a Christian organization that openly supports BDS and the campaign Made in Illegality received €4.3 million in 2015. France, while its Ministry of Foreign Affairs is officially claiming the necessity of peace and secure borders for Israel, is discreetly financing organizations and NGOs openly hostile to Israel. NGO Monitor's meticulous report reveals that France is no friend of Israel but more and more of a prime mover in the war against Israel to delegitimize it. The masks already fell when French government supported the shameful UNESCO resolution to deny any tie between Jews and Jerusalem and the more than shameful UNESCO resolution saying that Western Wall of the Jerusalem's Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE was "occupied territory." Now it is clear, France is at war with the Jewish state. France, while its Ministry of Foreign Affairs is officially claiming the necessity of peace and secure borders for Israel, is discreetly financing organizations and NGOs openly hostile to Israel. Pictured: French President François Hollande (right) greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris on January 11, 2015. (Image source: Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images) Yves Mamou is a journalist and author based in France. He worked for two decades for the daily, Le Monde, before his retirement. Follow Yves Mamou on Facebook © 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

EU Lies Again, Israel Hate Is Real.

New Study: European Union a Major Financial Backer of BDS Organizations

 January 31, 2017   0 Comment

ngo-monitor.org, 

Despite its stated opposition to BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, the European Union (EU) is a major financial backer of organizations that advocate for the country’s economic isolation, according to a new research report published today by NGO Monitor.

NGO Monitor reviewed a number of recent EU regional funding programs designated for Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, and found that 29 out of 100 EU grants administered through the frameworks reviewed, funnel funds to BDS organizations (€16.7 million out of €67.1 million – roughly 25%). 42 out of 180 EU grantees in total support BDS – either through participation in activities and events, signing of petitions and initiatives, and/or membership in explicit BDS platforms. Several organizations were the recipients of more than one grant.

Due to the lack of EU transparency, the extent of humanitarian aid funding, funding for other designated regions, and other frameworks is largely unknown. As a result, the precise overall amount of EU funding to BDS organizations cannot be determined.

Non-governmental organization (NGO) funding is a central component of EU foreign policy, claiming to promote peace, cooperation, and human rights. However, in contrast to the stated objectives, the EU funds a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs that exploit the rhetoric of human rights to promote anti-peace campaigns that oppose a two-state framework.

According to Olga Deutsch, Director of the Europe Desk at NGO Monitor, “When confronted with the evidence that it is funding NGOs that contradict EU policy, the EU’s standard response is that it ‘funds projects submitted by NGOs, in line with [the] EU’s fundamental principles and values, but not NGOs themselves.’ However, this distinction is misleading, as project funding is inevitably used for overall organization and activity expenses. Even without necessarily intending to, the EU grants legitimacy to BDS organizations – in several cases funding over 50% of an organization’s entire budget. We continue to reach out to our European colleagues in Brussels explaining the EU’s detrimental impact, as many of these BDS-supporting organizations would not even exist without their financial backing.”

Will The US Government Ever Learn? It Now It Is Funding Anti-Netanyahu Group To Topple Him From Leadership Of Israel

Watchdog Alleges U.S. State Dept. Interfering in Israeli Elections

NGO Monitor accuses State of funding an anti-Netanyahu campaign.

by
AVNER ZARMI

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January 29, 2015 - 11:41 am

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An Israeli watchdog organization, NGO Monitor, which seeks to track foreign funding of radical non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Israel with a Leftist agenda, has taken aim at the U.S. State Department. They are charging the State Department with funding a campaign with the purpose of defeating current Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the upcoming March elections.

An American-based organization called OneVoice International, which claims to be an “international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians,” has received two grants from the State Department over the last year. The group is cooperating with Israeli Leftist organization V15 in its anti-Netanyahu campaign.

The Washington Free Beacon broke the story in the U.S. after the newspaper Haaretz first reported it Monday in Israel. OneVoice development and grants Officer Christina Taler told the Free Beacon:“No government funding has gone towards any of the activities we’re doing right now whatever.” But she also admitted that the State Department grants had been used to “build public relations support for the negotiations” which Secretary of State John Kerry initiated last spring.

Taler says that the cooperation will be limited to voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, but will not otherwise be overtly political:

We’ve formed a partnership with [V15] but it’s important to know we’re absolutely nonpartisan. Our biggest emphasis and focus right now is just getting people out to vote.

OneVoice International claims to represent “moderate” Israeli and Palestinian points of view, but one of its efforts last August reveals how “moderate” some of these moderates are. They sponsored an “Abbas not Hamas” campaign. This is oblivious to the fact that official Arabic-language media controlled by Abbas routinely praise attacks on Israelis and urge acts of violent protest and terror. Abbas’ son Yasser Mahmoud Abbas is on the OneVoice International advisory board. So much for the group’s moderation or objectivity: OneVoice International is a shill for Abbas.

OneVoice International has hired the consulting firm 270 Strategies headed by Jeremy Bird — field director of President Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign — to “inform us better as a grassroots-organizing model,” says Taler. However, Haaretz reports that Bird will be involved directly with V15’s campaign, working out of an office in Tel Aviv.

It was Bird who suggested last week that Speaker of the House John Boehner’s invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress was related to Jewish Republican donors:

What do you think Adelson promised GOP in exchange for this insane BiBi House visit? Blatant attempt to bolster PM before elections.

Professor Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor, noted in a statement that this is not the first time that U.S. taxpayer funds have been used for political purposes in Israel. In 2012, USAID donated millions of dollars to Israeli NGOs under the so-called “Peace and Reconciliation Program,” which included support for the “Geneva Initiative.” This was a  draft “final status” agreement first released in 2003 by Israeli Leftists and Palestinians calling for Israel’s complete withdrawal to what late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban called “Auschwitz borders” — the pre-Six-Day-War boundaries which had necessitated Israel’s pre-emptive strike in the face of constant threats and military provocations by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the first place. The Initiative also called for the redivision of Jerusalem under UN supervision and the payment of massive compensation to Arab refugees and their descendants, with the alleged refugees given the option to resettle in Israel if they wish.

Steinberg’s group discovered the inappropriate U.S. funding at the time and publicized it, after which it was discontinued. It would appear that they’ve uncovered yet another such can of worms.