The Adalah Scam: An anti-Israel list that is racist, as well as an exercise in cultural and political appropriation - by David Collier

...Why are European charities and government agencies funding an NGO that is clearly out to make everything worse for everybody? And why is anyone listening to them? Those are the questions that really needs to be answered.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
04 July '18..

Adalah is a name you may not recognise. They are an Israeli NGO and are responsible for one of the most important ‘scams’ of the delegitimisation campaign against Israel.

Adalah created a database of laws that they claim ‘discriminate’ against the Arab citizens of Israel. There are currently sixty-six laws listed.

Whenever you hear the claim that Israel is a ‘racist state’ or that it is an ‘Apartheid state’, it is the Adalah database that underpins the claim.

So I went through each of the sixty-six ‘discriminatory laws’ and have just published a report on my findings. This is what I discovered:

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Human Rights NGOs Completely Ignore Violence and Terror at Gaza Border - by NGO Monitor

...These NGOs likewise fail to question why children were present at a violent protest in the first place, disregarding visible instances of Hamas recruitment and use of children

NGO Monitor..
01 April '18..

Following the “March of Return” protests that took place along Gaza’s border with Israel on March 30, 2018, numerous human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took to social media to condemn Israel – neglecting the context and role that terrorist organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) played in organizing the event.

The same international, Israeli, and Palestinian NGOs completely disregard human rights violations committed by these Palestinian terror groups, including ignoring Palestinian violence used along the border; Israel’s security threat of protecting its civilians that live in very close proximity to the Gaza border; and the use of civilians (including women and children) as human shields. These NGOs likewise fail to question why children were present at a violent protest in the first place, disregarding visible instances of Hamas recruitment and use of children (as noted in the numerous images of Palestinian minors hurling rocks and approaching the border). It further does not appear that human rights NGOs reported on Hamas’ “recruitment and use” of a 7-year-old girl who was sent across the border.

According to the IDF, of the 16 Palestinians killed in Friday’s clashes, 10 were known members of Hamas. NGO claims condemning Israel for killing innocent civilians also overlook this fact.

The following showcases a selection of extreme bias in reporting on Friday’s events by human rights NGOs:

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

When ‘The Washington Post’ gets its ‘facts’ from terror-linked NGOs - by NGO Monitor

...This article exemplifies the broad and negative results of the NGO “halo effect,” whereby journalists falsely portray NGOs as accurate, unbiased sources. In reality, like other political actors (hence, the “Fact Checker” column), these organizations deserve scrutiny, and their claims should be treated with skepticism.

NGO Monitor..
JNS.org..
19 March '18..

That journalists rely uncritically on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), especially in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, is well established (read Matti Friedman in The Atlantic). Legal and factual claims by groups that purport to promote human rights are often treated as automatically credible, while their political biases, lack of methodology and even ties to terror organizations are ignored.

Glenn Kessler’s March 14 Washington Post “Fact Checker” column, Does the Palestinian Authority pay $350 million a year to ‘terrorists and their families’?, responding to statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about prisoner payments, suffers from the same over-dependence.

Throughout the article, Kessler quotes groups with ties to terrorist organizations as if they were credible sources for fact-checking. He quotes Palestinian NGOs Addameer and Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), both of which are closely associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada and Israel. Addameer is relied upon by The Washington Post to suggest that Israel fabricates evidence to convict Palestinians of attempting stabbing attacks. (“‘An usual case is one of a Palestinian found in possession of a knife being charged with attempted murder without any real evidence to indicate that he or she actually used or intended to use the weapon to kill,’ said Sahar Francis, director of Addammer, an organization that assists Palestinian prisoners.”)

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

The BBC’s preferred NGO contributors to quote and promote in 2017 - by Hadar Sela

...The NGOs quoted, promoted and interviewed by the BBC come from one side of the spectrum as far as their political approach to Israel is concerned and some of them are even active in legal and propaganda campaigns against Israel. Yet the BBC serially fails to meet its own editorial guidelines by clarifying their “particular viewpoint” and – as in previous years – in 2017 audiences hence remained unaware of the fact that the homogeneous information they are receiving about Israel is consistently unbalanced.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
12 January '18..

As has been the case in previous years (see related articles below), Israel related content produced by the BBC during 2017 frequently included contributions or information sourced from NGOs.

BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality state:

“We should not automatically assume that contributors from other organisations (such as academics, journalists, researchers and representatives of charities) are unbiased and we may need to make it clear to the audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint, if it is not apparent from their contribution or from the context in which their contribution is made.”

However, in the vast majority of cases audiences were not informed of the political agenda of the organisations and their representatives promoted in BBC content and on some occasions the connection of an interviewee to a particular NGO was not revealed at all.

For example...

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Mapping the BBC’s promotion of partisan maps - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC is obliged to provide its audiences with accurate and impartial information which will enhance their “awareness and understanding of international issues”. By continually – and exclusively – promoting the partisan narrative of political NGOs such as B’Tselem as ‘fact’ the BBC fails to meet that obligation and compromises its reputation for impartiality by abandoning journalism in favour of activism.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
05 February '17..

February 1st: Israel approves 3,000 new settler homes as Amona evacuation begins

February 2nd: New Israel settlements ‘may not be helpful’ to peace, says US

February 3rd: What will the Trump presidency mean for Israel? Jonathan Marcus

Both versions of that map (one of which includes a ‘zoom in’ view of Jerusalem) are credited to the foreign funded political NGO B’Tselem which – despite its engagement in lawfare against Israel and its membership in a coalition of NGOs supporting BDS – is one of the NGOs most consistently quoted and promoted by the BBC in its supposedly impartial reporting on Israel and the Palestinians.

This of course is not the first time that the corporation has promoted a politically partisan map produced by B’Tselem.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

The NGO story the BBC avoided - by Hadar Sela

...BBC Watch has frequently documented the BBC’s failure to comply with its own editorial guidelines on impartiality by clarifying to audiences the agendas of the NGOs it quotes and promotes.... Were it standard BBC practice to comply with those editorial guidelines, its staff would have to engage in close examination of the political agendas of NGOs and their funders, ditching the apparently existing assumption that any organization labelling itself a ‘human rights group’ and any individual promoting him or herself as a ‘peace activist’ is automatically worthy of that title and the accompanying ‘halo effect’.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
11 January '16..

Over the last few days, a report broadcast on Channel 2’s investigative journalism programme ‘Uvda’ has attracted a lot of attention in Israel. David Collier has written a concise summary of the story:

“A few days ago, an Israeli investigative TV show (UVDA – ‘fact’) ran an expose that involved an Israeli infiltrating Ta’ayush, a NGO that promotes itself as ‘a grassroots movement of Arabs and Jews working to break down the walls of racism and segregation.’ The Israeli also encountered Nasser Nawajah, a member of B’tselem. These two NGO’s are cited as leading ‘human rights organisations’ whose self-stated purpose is highlighting alleged human rights abuse. Very few, if any, of the organised tours that set out to sell ‘the brutal Israel’ narrative do not involve engaging one or both of these movements.

The operation itself was simple, and involved riding with Ezra Nawi, an Israeli Jew and well known ‘peace activist’ from Ta’ayush, as he went about his daily business. The Israeli, using the pseudonym ‘Arik’, went on to capture on camera that these activists, senior members of B’tselem and Ta’ayush, have been informing on Arabs who wish to sell land to Jews. Nawi was recorded boasting that the Palestinian security forces would torture and execute those Palestinian land brokers and ‘take care’ of the Palestinian families willing to sell their land.”

A clip from the programme with English language sub-titles can be found here.

Given the BBC’s penchant for promoting domestic Israeli stories it may at first glance seem rather curious to see that it has avoided reporting this one. However, this story is not about a supermodel, a corrupt Rabbi or a ‘right-wing’ politician embroiled in scandal: it is one which is much closer to home for the corporation which regularly produces content based on material provided by inadequately presented Israeli NGOs from one particular side of the political spectrum.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

.

Promoted and quoted at the BBC: Preferred NGO contributors in 2015 - by Hadar Sela

...All of those NGOs come from one side of the spectrum as far as their political approach to Israel is concerned and some of them are even involved in lawfare campaigns against Israel. Yet the BBC serially fails to meet its own editorial guidelines by clarifying their “particular viewpoint” and audiences hence remain unaware of the fact that the homogeneous information they are receiving about Israel is consistently unbalanced.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
10 January '16..

As time goes by the mutually beneficial relationship between the traditional media and NGOs flourishes and expands and news consumers find that more and more of their news comes or is sourced from agenda-driven organisations which make no claim to provide unbiased information and are not committed to journalistic standards.

When political agendas and reporting meet, questions obviously arise concerning accuracy, impartiality and reliability. Whilst the BBC – like many other media organisations – has addressed the topic of ‘citizen journalists’ providing user-generated content (UGC), much less attention is given to content sourced from NGOs. Currently one of the few safeguards in place comes in the form of the section in the BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality which state:

“We should not automatically assume that contributors from other organisations (such as academics, journalists, researchers and representatives of charities) are unbiased and we may need to make it clear to the audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint, if it is not apparent from their contribution or from the context in which their contribution is made.”

However, throughout 2015 BBC Watch was unable to record even one example of that clause having been upheld in Middle East related content which was sourced in one way or another from political NGOs or their representatives.

(Go to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

.

On media, political conflict and NGOs

...When the media itself promotes the unchecked power of political groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty, and suppresses criticism of these NGOs, democracy is ill-served.

Gerald Steinberg..
JPost Opinion..
13 December '14..

When I started researching and criticizing powerful groups claiming moral agendas, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, my primary objective was to open a debate and build a system of accountability where none existed.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) exercise a great deal of political power, without being subject to the checks and balances of democracy or media scrutiny. The organization that I founded, NGO Monitor, is an attempt to provide at least some substantive and independent analysis and counter to the growing impact, particularly regarding Israel.

The need for informed and serious criticism became apparent during the 2001 Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that took place in Durban, South Africa. This forum, held under the banner of the UN Human Rights Commission, brought in 5,000 delegates from over 1,500 NGOs, ostensibly to celebrate the end of apartheid. In fact, this high-profile event was turned into the opening attack in a dirty political war targeting Israel “as an apartheid state,” and using weapons such as boycotts, demonization and lawfare.

In this ongoing conflict, journalists play a central role in marketing the NGO “reports” and condemnations accusing Israel of war crimes and violations of human rights. In the media, NGO officials that attack Israel are automatically given the role of experts on the complexities of urban warfare and international law, without examination of their credentials, which are usually non-existent. For example, the Jerusalem bureau of The New York Times often quotes politically biased NGO officials with no expertise on urban warfare, thereby furthering the Durban agenda of Israel bashing.

For the most part, journalists, both as individuals and through professional groups that examine ethics and guidelines, try to avoid debating and criticizing their own behavior. But questions over the role of journalists in the conflict are now – for the first time – the focus of a serious debate.

On November 22, Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of the New York Times, published “The Conflict and the Coverage,” after acknowledging the culture of reluctance to look inward: “This is column I never wanted to write.”