New Israel Fund’s pervasive undemocratic meddling in Israel’s democratic process - by Judith Bergman

No one in Israel elected the NIF and its radical grantees to patronize and lecture Israeli citizens and their democratically elected government on the merits of their society.

Judith Bergman..
JNS.org..
06 August '18..

A recording that aired on Israeli TV channel Arutz 20 this past week revealed the tactics employed by the New Israel Fund when it disapproves of legislation proposed in the Knesset, such as the recently passed nation-state law.

In the recording—a conversation between NIF’s Israel director Mickey Gitzin and NIF’s U.S. CEO Daniel Sokatch—Gitzin described how the NIF and its beneficiaries organize opposition in the Knesset (“tackling the system,” as Gitzin called it), demonstrations on the Israeli street, and the recruitment of academics, celebrities and other “high-profile” individuals to speak out against the unwanted legislation. Gitzin also mentioned the NIF’s willingness to petition the Israeli Supreme Court should other tactics fail.

Since its establishment in 1979, the New Israel Fund—an American nonprofit organization with offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Israel—has sought to shape Israeli society in a “progressive” image of what it claims to be “equality, tolerance and social justice.” To this end, the NIF has for decades been patiently working on changing the face of Israeli civil society. “Thirty years ago, Israel’s NGO sector consisted of small groups that were mostly partisan and allied with political parties, and charitable organizations dominated by traditional cultural, educational and religious institutions. Today there are more than 27,000 citizen-action groups, hundreds of which are helped each year by the New Israel Fund,” writes the NIF on its homepage. Also there, “Widely credited with building Israeli progressive civil society, we have provided over $300 million to more than 900 organizations since our inception in 1979.”

As its name suggests, what NIF wants is a “new Israel”—a “progressive” Israel marked by “social justice.” But to understand what that really means, it’s helpful to look at some of the organizations that it funds.

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