“New Israel Fund does NOT fund CWP” says NIFAu

August 2, 2011 by  
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The New Israel Fund Australia has responded to Ron Weiser’s article published yesterday in J-Wire

The statement said:

NIF Australia (NIFAu) has noted the further unwarranted attack on NIF by Dr Ron Weiser, published in J-Wire on 1 August and since echoed by NGO Monitor.

NIF does not fund CWP.  Period.

There has been no misleading conduct or lack of transparency by NIF about the history of grants and donor advised payments to CWP; quite the contrary, as the open publication of NIF’s audited accounts itself confirms.  Information has repeatedly been provided by NIF to the public and to Dr Weiser, from which he has selectively quoted in an attempt to build a case against NIF that does not exist.

With a view to engaging in constructive dialogue with Dr Weiser, the President and some directors of NIFAu met him last week.
We agreed that both sides would avoid personal reflections in future and Dr Weiser said his only “red line” issue was whether or not NIF supports Israel as the State of the Jewish people.

We assured him that it does and have given him a list of public statements to that effect made by both the President of NIF and the President of NIFAu.  The meeting ended on a positive note.

It is regrettable that Dr Weiser has reneged on last week’s agreement.

NIFAu would be delighted to respond to requests from any organisation in our community that would like its members to be properly informed about NIF.  The information NIFAu provides will give a far more accurate and reliable picture of NIF, its policies and its achievements than the material currently being disseminated by Dr Weiser.

 

Comments

4 Responses to ““New Israel Fund does NOT fund CWP” says NIFAu”
  1. Paul Winter says:

    NIF Oz is telling a half truth; it did not fund CWP in 2011 or possibly even in 2010. However, as a letter of whinge from CWP to NIF in May 2011 snivelled, it was unfair of NIF to so suddenly discontinue being a bagman for until then. So technically, while CWP was not a NIF fundee, NIF provided its services and lent its prestige, i.e. CWP was a shadow beneficiary. NIF also still funds Adalah, which calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state and supports BDS, being one of the gang that persuaded the Norwegians to divest from Israel and can say with a straight face that it is not supporting BDS, because that is not Adalah’s main role. NIF’s support of BDS light is a dog whistle approval of antisemitic BDS heavy (global). More to the point, NIF, a USA NGO, with a deliberately deceptive name, seeks to undermine Israeli democracy by funding anti-Zionist gangs in Israel with its own funds and funds donated by other non-Israeli donors, some of them state actors. NIF also seeks to undermine Israeli democracy by exposing it to adverse international pressure through funding deceitful calumniators. NIF accepts the Arab narrative which is in fact a denial of history. NIF is part of the war on the Jewish nature of Israel. NIF and JStreet are dedicated to undermining Jewish self-determination and their strategy is to pretend to be Zionists..

  2. Otto Waldmann says:

    Ari Briggs is perfectly correct.

    NIFAu and NIF are avoiding wellknown facts about NIF appart from the CWP “issue”.

    Even if CWP did not exist at all, NIF remains responsible for a plethora of OTHER NGO which support EXACTLY the SAME policies as CWP !!!
    The smoke screen of “talks, agreements, pro Zionist statements” involving NIFA is simply a vacuous spin which cannot turn one degree their statements into anything but a perfectly correct image of a NIFA/NIFA bent on destroying true and reliable Zionist values !!
    Mind you, NIF/NIFA DO reckon that they are defending Zionism,it is, however, THEIR version of Zionism, an already well publicised and heavily financed PERVERTED one !!!

  3. David Singer says:

    To NIFAu and the editor J Wire

    I am delighted to see the following sentence in the above NIFAu press release:

    “NIFAu would be delighted to respond to requests from any organisation in our community that would like its members to be properly informed about NIF.”

    I had the following letter published in the Australian Jewish News prior to Limmud Oz. At Limmud Oz I approached both Naomi Chazan and Robin Margo to respond. Both promised to do so but neither did.

    Can I now expect a prompt reply to this letter on JWire?

    *************************************************************************************************************
    Letter sent to Australian Jewish News

    “Involvement in The New Israel Fund (NIF) is not the “no brainer” that former AUJS President Liam Getreu believes. (AJN June 3)

    NIF policy on Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is stated on its web site as follows:

    “The NIF opposes the global (or general) BDS movement, views its use of these tactics as counterproductive, and is concerned that segments of this movement seek to undermine the existence of the state of Israel.

    NIF will not fund global BDS activities against Israel nor support organizations that have global BDS programs.

    NIF opposes the occupation and subsequent settlement activities. NIF will not exclude support for organizations that discourage the purchase of goods or use of services from settlements.”

    NIF clearly seeks to encourage the application of BDS to the goods and services produced by 500000 Jews who have gone to live in the West Bank over the last 40 years with the approval of successive Governments of all political persuasion.

    This amounts to gross and unfair discrimination and promotes denigration of those Jews living in the West Bank based on their address and nothing else.

    NIF is entitled to oppose settlements.

    It should not be encouraging policies designed to discriminate between Jews living on either side of the 1967 armistice line.

    As Liam writes: “The dream of Israel was to create a democracy with equal rights for all”.

    In its selective application of BDS the NIF falls far short of this ideal.”

  4. Ari Briggs says:

    Wow, nothing has changed, instead of answering the questions raised by Ron Weiser, Robin Margo again goes on the attack stating the same line about “no misleading conduct or lack of transparency by NIF”.
    Ron referred to statements made by Robin Margo and Naomi Chazan during her recent visit. I would like to add to that the written statement by David Sokatch CEO NIF stating no grant was made to the CWP since 2009. Not relating to the so called “clerical error” payment to CWP in 2011, their recently published accounts speak of 10’s of thousands of dollars being granted to CWP in 2010. Till today there was no such public knowledge or statement by NIF regarding such grants in 2010 and only holier than now disclaimers.
    So we have David, Robin and Naomi claiming a halt in grants to CWP by NIF in 2009. But in black and white we see something very different, is this another “clerical error”? or “misleading conduct”?.
    Let the spin begin….again.

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