Jerusalem News
(12 March 2021, 28 Adar, 5781)
Contents:
1. Israeli Anti-Zionist NGOs Received More than $50 Million from Foreign Governments
By David Israel
2. Uyghurs and Palestinians: What's in a Name?
by A.J. Caschetta, Newsweek
3. PA to Give Murderers of 5 Israeli Family Members a 50% Pay Raise
By
TPS / Tazpit News Agency, 28 Adar 5781 - March 11, 2021
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1. Israeli Anti-Zionist NGOs Received More than $50 Million from Foreign Governments
By David Israel
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/politics/israeli-anti-zionist-ngos-received-more-than-50-million-from-foreign-governments/2021/03/09/
Extracts Only:
25 Adar 5781 - March 9, 2021
According to an NGO Monitor report issued on Monday, between 2017 and 2019, 35 anti-Israel NGOs received a total of NIS 319,466,917 ($95.7 million) in donations, 58% of which ($55.5 million) came from foreign governments through direct and indirect funding, and 42% ($40.1 million) from private donors.
Given the central role played by politicized NGOs in the public human rights discourse, transparency in NGO funding is required in order to support an informed debate (Analysis of NIS 320 million in grants to Israeli NGOs, annual reports 2017-2019). The group's analysis presents all grants reported by the 35 Israeli NGOs receiving foreign government funding and involved in political advocacy, according to their annual financial reports for 2017-2019, which are the latest available.
Of the 35 NGOs, 22 reported receiving more than 50% of their funding from foreign governments. ...
Twenty-two different governmental and intergovernmental entities (including the EU and the UN) fund these 35 Israeli NGOs.
Germany is the largest donor, providing NIS 43,636,794, followed by the European Union and the Netherlands.
Of the NIS 134,079,909 in private funding provided to NGOs, the New Israel Fund (NIF) provides 16%, Sigrid Rausing Trust 10%, Open Society Institute 7%, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation 3%, the Galilee Foundation 3%, and the Moriah Fund 2%.
16.2% of the total funding (NIS 51,811,990) is donated by Christian groups (churches and Christian humanitarian aid organizations). Most of these institutions receive large sums of government funding, and in most instances, funding for Israeli NGOs [i.e. local Anti-Israel groups, editor] is considered indirect government funding.
A large percentage of the government-funded church bodies that disburse grants to the Israeli NGOs are themselves involved in anti-Israeli campaigns, including BDS, lawfare, and other delegitimization campaigns against Israel - and some engage in antisemitic rhetoric.
In January 2021, B'Tselem launched a campaign labeling Israel an "apartheid" state and using antisemitic tropes, augmenting their advocacy for international sanctions against Israel. Its funders include: European Union, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden (via NGO Development Center), Bread for the World (Germany), Christian Aid Ireland, DanChurchAid, Diakonia, Trocaire, and the United Nations.
Israeli NGOs such as B'Tselem, Yesh Din, and Adalah have repeatedly made allegations and statements that support the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. (See NGO Monitor's 'The Role of Israeli NGOs in Supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) -Investigation'.) ...
Women for Peace protest against President Donald Trump's Deal of the Century in Tel Aviv, June 18, 2020. / Tomer Neuberg/Flash90
According to the NGO Monitor report, there are two primary donor types:
Government
Foreign governments: Many Western countries promote human rights and humanitarian aid as part of their foreign policy. Funding officially designated for these purposes is channeled through embassies, foreign ministries, departments and ministries of international aid and development, consulates, and aid agencies and programs.
Regional/international bodies: The EU and UN are fully funded by governments and also provide major funding for human rights and humanitarian aid, including generous grants to Israeli NGOs.
Indirect government funding: Many governments budget hundreds of millions of euros annually for external bodies, including aid organizations, Christian groups, and various funds and foundations in order to promote human rights and humanitarian aid. In some European countries, these frameworks are fully funded by out of the state budget.
And Private
Private foundations: Some non-profits that provide funds to NGOs have endowments, from which they disburse funds according to the stated objectives; in many cases, the foundations also serve as a conduit (or pass-through) for donations from private individuals.
Private donors: Private individuals in Israel and abroad (including bequests) also directly donate to Israeli [i.e. local Anti-Israel groups, editor] NGOs.
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2. Uyghurs and Palestinians: What's in a Name?
by A.J. Caschetta, Newsweek
March 10, 2021
https://www.meforum.org/62105/uyghurs-and-palestinians-what-in-a-name?goal=0_086cfd423c-b5eac30023-33769089&mc_cid=b5eac30023&mc_eid=6bec0781b0
Extracts Only:
Every fatuous distortion and hyperbolic accusation levied against Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians is true about China's treatment of the Uyghurs.
From accusing Israel of "occupying" the West Bank to "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians to even genocide, the global Left has made major investments in exaggerating the Palestinians' various claims and minimizing the Palestinian Authority's own responsibility for the Palestinians' predicament. The Islamic world, especially, has kept Palestinians elevated on the geopolitical stage for a very long time.
So why not the Uyghurs, whose land truly is occupied, who are actually being ethnically cleansed and who many believe are now the target of a calculated genocide?
False accusations about Israeli treatment of Palestinians are actually true about China's treatment of Uyghurs.
The Palestinian people are surely the most catered-to "refugees" in the entire world. The United Nations is firmly in their corner. In fact, the UN's largest agency, UNRWA, is devoted entirely to the Palestinian people. Everyone knows their story, or at least the misleading version their leading advocates tell about Jewish settlers from Europe stealing their land.
Comparatively, the Uyghurs are barely known to the world. Unlike the Hui Muslims of China, the Uyghurs are a Turkic people, making them both ethnic and religious minorities. China's animosity towards the Uyghurs was well-known to then-President Barack Obama, who wanted to free 22 captured Uyghur al-Qaeda members from Guantanamo Bay but knew they would be immediately executed if returned to China (he arranged for other countries to take them).
But instead of making the plight of the Uyghurs a priority, the people and groups that are supposed to prevent genocide, or at least sound the alarm when the telltale signs begin to manifest are too often focused instead on Israel and its alleged abuse of the Palestinian people.
In spite of the charge that Israel is "occupying Palestine," nearly all (over 90 percent) of the Palestinians who live in the West Bank are governed by the Palestinian Authority. If the Gaza Strip, where no Israelis have lived since 2005, is occupied, then it is the terrorist group Hamas who is the occupier.
Unlike the Palestinians, the Uyghurs are a truly occupied people.... Their home, which they call East Turkistan, was first conquered by the Qing dynasty in the 18th century and given the name Xinjiang, which means "new territory," a signifier of colonialism if ever there were one. In 1949, when the People's Republic of China came into being, Xinjiang was essentially independent, and in 1955 it was designated the "Uyghur Autonomous Region." After Mao's Cultural Revolution, the region became far less autonomous. Today, oppression has become industrialized, as over one million Uyghurs endure life in de facto gulags constructed to exploit, "re-educate" and ultimately commit genocide against them. In Orwellian form, the Chinese government calls these gulags "vocational training centers."
Since the Palestinian population has grown steadily since the 1950s, only the most committed propagandists accuse Israel of "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide." There are no second-class citizens and there are no laws against miscegenation. Non-Jewish citizens of the Jewish state work the same jobs as Jewish citizens, serve in the Israel Defense Forces, the Knesset (parliament) and even on the Supreme Court. This is not how ethnic cleansing works. When Saeb Erekat, a PLO propagandist who himself charged Israel with "genocide," was gravely ill last year, he chose to be flown to an Israeli hospital to be treated. He knew the truth.
The Uyghur population, however, is declining due to what the AP calls China's "sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population." A recently leaked Chinese government document revealed a program that is designed to "meld and assimilate" Uyghurs by dispersion, forcibly transporting them to jobs thousands of miles away. They are also subject to forced sterilization and abortions. This is what ethnic cleansing looks like.
Back in July 2019, things briefly looked better for the Uyghurs after 22 countries accused China of "mass detention" in a letter to the Human Rights Council. But then a second letter from 37 other countries arrived, defending China's treatment of the Uyghurs as a praiseworthy "counterterrorism and de-radicalization" program. The second letter actually applauded the use of "vocational education and training centers," mimicking Chinese Communist Party propaganda. Surprisingly, among the 37 countries behind this letter were Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Qatar. So much for the Arab world's purported concern for fellow Muslims.
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3. PA to Give Murderers of 5 Israeli Family Members a 50% Pay Raise
By
TPS / Tazpit News Agency, 28 Adar 5781 - March 11, 2021
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/palestinian-authority/pa-to-give-murderers-of-5-israeli-family-members-a-50-pay-raise/2021/03/11/
Extracts:
The salary that the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays to the Arab terrorists who murdered five members of the Fogel family is set to rise by 50%, from NIS 4,000 ($1,203) per month to NIS 6,000 ($1,806) per month, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.
On March 11, 2011, Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, 17 and 19-year-old, brutally murdered mother Ruti and father Udi Fogel, and three of their children, Yoav, Elad, and three months old baby Hadas.
The two first murdered the 11 and 4-year-old brothers as they slept, and then murdered the parents, Ehud and Ruth, who struggled with them. The terrorists then left the home, but Amjad decided to return and look for weapons. When he returned, he heard the four-month-old baby crying and murdered her.
Hakim Awad was sentenced to five life sentences and an additional 50 years imprisonment, and Amjad Awad was sentenced to five life sentences and an additional seven years imprisonment.
According to the PA's pay scale, the salary of an imprisoned terrorist begins at NIS 1,400 ($401) every month from his first day in prison, and gradually rises to NIS 12,000 ($3,435), in accordance with the amount of time he has been in prison.
Therefore, the more severe the attack was, the higher the stipend the terrorist is set to receive. Having completed almost 10 years in prison, the two terrorists are entitled to a raise.
PMW recently exposed that in 2020, despite the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and the financial difficulties it generated, the PA spent NIS 512 million ($159 million) on stipends for terrorists imprisoned in Israel and those who have been released.
In addition, the PA also paid hundreds of millions of shekels in rewards to wounded terrorists and the families of terrorists killed during attacks and in clashes with Israeli forces.
The PA's policy has been widely condemned, with Canada, the US, Australia, and Holland halting direct aid to the PA until the policy is abolished, but the PA has vowed to proceed with the policy it claims is a form of welfare.
Itamar Marcus, director of PMW, pointed out that despite this condemnation, payments are still being made by the international community, notably the European Union, to the PA.
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