The New Israel Fund says… It’s Time to Nail the Lies

7 August 2009

Dear Friend

New Israel Fund sends you the following document about our work in Israel and our positions. It has been prepared within the context of repeated attacks on NIF and on several organisations that we support.

Please read the statement and give us your feedback. We encourage you to attend our programmes where you’ll have the opportunity to discuss the challenges Israel faces, and the solutions that NIF and our family of organisations promote there. We hope they’ll help you understand Israel more deeply and form your own opinions about Israel, NIF and our work.

Shabbat Shalom!
Ellen

Ellen Goldberg, Executive Director New Israel Fund UK

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IT’S TIME TO NAIL THE LIES…

THE LIES:
Several organisations such as the self-styled NGO Monitor, Israel Resource News Agency, WorldNetDaily and the Near and Middle East Policy Review are promoting the view that the work of Human Rights NGOs working in Israel is, by its very nature, anti-Israel. Their charge is to associate moral and ethical criticism of any activity by Israel or the policies of its Government as being anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and when conducted by Jews, as evidence of self-hatred.

THE TRUTH:
The effect of much of the work of the New Israel Fund-supported NGOs they have criticised seeks to enhance the moral position of the State of Israel, strengthen its civil society and safeguard its future. Any attempt to place Israel beyond criticism encourages isolation in the international community, division within the Jewish community, and extremism amongst those who feel, rightly or wrongly, that they suffer as a result of Israel’s actions. It is also contrary to the democratic values which underpin the founding principles of the State.

FOR THE RECORD:
The New Israel Fund is proud to work with and support those organisations as well as the other 200 grantees that we fund each year, working to build a moral and just society in Israel.

The New Israel Fund is proud of the State of Israel – its accomplishments and its democracy.

We believe in open, honest and informed debate.

We believe in a two-state solution to the Palestinian / Israeli conflict, to enable full self-determination of both peoples.

We believe in an Israel that is for the self-determination of the Jewish people, and is also a society that is just and equal – where all its citizens are afforded the same respect, rights and responsibilities. Anything short of this is a denial of Jewish values and of the vision and ideals of Israel’s founders

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture… The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel – May 14, 1948

We reject the moral relativism of those who criticise Israel for its perceived failings, but remain silent about the often greater injustices and worse, perpetrated elsewhere.

Judaism is about ‘Tikkun Olam’ (‘repairing the world’) and the Torah enjoins “Justice, justice shalt thou pursue”.

The New Israel Fund-supported organisations (all of which are regulated by Israeli charity law) that tend to star in the diatribes of our critics are at the forefront of protecting the rights of Israel’s minorities and others under Israeli jurisdiction. None of them calls for the delegitimisation of the State of Israel. We have red lines and we enforce them. All of the organisations we support call for full equality and for the elimination of human rights violations and social injustice. Others may lie and misrepresent these organisations and their work; they should be challenged to prove their statements.

New Israel Fund believes in a just, ethical and moral Israeli State and works to realise this ideal that has yet to be reached. What kind of Israel do those who attack us envisage? What rights do they agree to extend to its minorities? What kind of justice do they pursue?

Nicholas Saphir, Chair
New Israel Fund, August 2009