NGO MONITOR
Jerusalem – The intense international campaign by Breaking the Silence (BtS) resulted in a strong rebuttal from an official of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, and in this context, NGO Monitor is providing additional background information and analysis on BtS and this issue.
As shown in NGO Monitor’s detailed research reports, BtS presents a highly distorted perspective, distributing unverifiable “testimonies” by former IDF soldiers. BtS’ framing and context of these testimonies reflects the group’s strong ideology. The NGO ignores the moral complexity of IDF actions in the West Bank, instead presenting Israeli counter-terror operations and procedures as intended to “punish, deter, or tighten control over the Palestinian population” or to create “intimidation, [the] instilling of fear, and indiscriminate punishment of the Palestinian population.”
In contrast to addressing its allegations to the Israeli public, BtS creates external pressure on Israel through presentations and campaigns abroad, contributing to boycott efforts and threats of legal action against Israeli officials (lawfare). In recent years, BtS members have appeared at the Irish Parliament, in the Netherlands, the US (in an event attended by diplomats from Pakistan and the UAE), Germany, Australia, Switzerland and other countries. This is accompanied by a many presentations on US college campuses.
As stated on the BtS website, these activities are enabled by foreign funding, including direct and indirect government support from Spain, Norway, the EU, the Netherlands (via ICCO), and Ireland (via Trócaire). Private funding is provided by the New Israel Fund (NIF) and by George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI), among others. In the last financial report made public, 2011, BtS received more than 3 million NIS.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, commented, “The NGO’s stated aim is to ‘expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.’ But as the evidence clearly shows, BtS uses the money it receives from European governments, largely through secret processes, for ideological campaigns outside of Israel. And their allegations ignore the complex moral dilemmas facing IDF soldiers every day. Such behavior of both the NGO officials and their donor enablers led to the sharp criticism from the IDF and many other Israelis.”
“Every violation of the law and of the IDF’s ethics and values is reprehensible and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” continued Steinberg. “However, ‘testifying’ to BtS does not morally or legally absolve former soldiers of any illegal acts, or erase their obligation to report incidents through the proper legal processes. Their campaigns targeting Israel before audiences with no means to verify the allegations are fundamentally immoral.”
See more NGO Monitor research on Breaking the Silence.
Propaganda campaigns, including boycotts, can damage Israel only if the Israeli government and the Jewish nation allow themselves to become timid or even frightened by what essentially is little more than smoke, mirrors and noise.
The best way to overcome these pests is for Israel to populate Shomron and Yehuda — and especially Area C, which comprises 72 percent of the lands of these territories — with Jewish residents, Jewish industrial development, and Jewish agriculture. In other words, do not allow the golden opportunities of the great 1967 victory of the Jewish nation and the State of Israel to be fully lost. The present Jewish populations of Shomron, Yehuda, Golan and the annexed part of Jerusalem now exceed about 720,000, including live-in students whose families reside elsewhere in Israel.
Assuming the present 5 percent growth rate can be maintained, that population will double to about 1.4 million Jews in about 14.4 years. And if the government of Israel decides correctly — as it should — on unlimited settlement, there is no reason that the Jewish population of the territories could not reach the numbers of the present Arab population, which demographer Yoram Ettinger estimates as 1.5 million. That goal could in fact be achieved in about 12 years. Nor would any of this development depend on specific numbers of Jewish immigrating to Israel from foreign countries.
As the present Jewish population of the already-annexed areas and administered territories expands beyond its present 3/4 million, Jewish presence in and control over Shomron and Yehuda become increasingly irreversible. Which is exactly what is needed.
Focus and Jewish population expansion, and learn to ignore the mosquito bites of the foreign Jew-haters. In any case, those particular mosquito bites carry no threat of yellow fever or malaria. Learn to ignore all this nonsense and redouble efforts to build Jewish Shomron and Yehuda.
In any case, Israel shortly will be a significant supplier of natural gas, with Israel’s own underground oil to be added. Moreover, Israel is a supplier of some of the highest grade military hardware available. All that always outweighs any other arguments.
And if any Jew is worried about being accused of maltreatment of Arabs, the best way to handle them is neither to imprison them or fence them in. Instead, use expulsion from the country as the sole punishment for any troublemakers.
Once they are gone, they then become the problem of the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, the human zoo of Egypt, the EU, or whichever US states are unfortunate enough to harbor little Falastins in competition for turf with our own black Americans and our burgeoning Hispanic barrios. We’ll see how well they handle themselves with real gang warfare in the streets of LA, Detroit, Chicago, and NYC. That, by the way, will be Obama’s permanent American presidential legacy.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Anti-Israel NGOs in Israel have almost no real domestic support. They’re largely funded by foreign donors as a means of exerting pressure on Israel and influencing its policies. They should be required to register as agents of foreign governments which in truth is what they really are.