The Last Exile

Currently in Israel there is a debate concerning the funding of Non-governmental organizations which receive the bulk of their funding from foreign government bodies. These organizations have very little oversight and seem simply to exist to smear and tarnish the Israeli state internationally. A prime example of one such organization’s handiwork is found in this Arutz Sheva article on B’Tselem ongoing shennigans:

A left-wing Israeli civil rights group accuses Israel of killing an Arab about whom it is “not known” if he took part in fighting Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, says the terrorist was killed when the bomb he was carrying blew up.

Arab affairs correspondent Yehonatan Dehoah-HaLevy, writing for the News-1 Hebrew-language website, has found further proof of his thesis that “not everyting B’Tselem reports must be believed.” He writes that the organization continues to blame Israel for the death of Iyad Lafi Yusuf Al-Ahres, and that the death came about for no apparent reason.

B’Tselem classified the death of Al-Ahres under the heading “Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and it is not known whether they took part in the fighting against Israel.” The entry states only that Al-Ahres, a resident of Rafah [on the Gaza-Egypt border] was killed on October 16, 2001 in Rafah when a bomb went off, and that he was an assassination target.

HaLevy says that information available on the Hamas website for at least six years totally negates this, yet B’Tselem continues to blame Israel. The Hamas site states that Al-Ahres had a long history of firing mortar shells at Israeli targets, and that he was killed when one of the shells he was preparing for this purpose detonated in his hands.

HaLevy notes that B’Tselem neglected to mention the fact that Al-Ahres was a member of the Al-Kassam terrorist wing of Hamas, and that he had been involved in no fewer than 19 shelling attacks in the months before his death – including one the day before he was killed.

Al-Ahres is documented as having fired 18 mortar shells in seven attacks at the now-destroyed Jewish town of Rafiah Yam in southern Gush Katif, and 20 shells in 11 attacks at nearby Morag. All the attacks occurred in the 4.5 months prior to his death.

Obviously, just another good-time Ysuf out for a good old fashioned fun on the Gaza Strip but don’t think these organizations are going to go off quietly in the corner and mourn the passing of their foreign gravy trains. In fact, some are threatening to spear head an international campaign to boycott Israeli hospitals and universities. Ha’aretz:

As the Israeli government steps up efforts to limit foreign funding for human rights group, an Israeli peace organization sent a letter to European diplomatic missions in Israel this week urging them to tell Israel that legislative action against NGOs may threaten the budget of universities, hospitals and other non-profit organizations.

The government has sought to limit the activity of Breaking the Silence, an organization that has published a damning report of the IDF’s conduct during last winter’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

In the letter, Gush Shalom told the diplomats that “the discriminatory blocking of European government funding to a specific group of legal and legitimate NGOs may well result in a public backlash in the EU, which would force your government to cut all funding to Israeli NGOs, including to universities and hospitals.”

Of course, the Breaking the Silence report, much like the Rabin Academy report from last spring was literally the last blood libel of the IDF the Israeli government was going to tolerate. CAMERA has more on the Breaking the Silence organization and the fruits of their latest blood libel.:

The article attempts to bolster Breaking the Silence’s allegation that Israel is guilty of war crimes by using Palestinian human shields. Opening with a first person account of a Palestinian who alleges he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers, Wood claims that “this same incident was described by one of the Israeli soldiers who spoke to Breaking the Silence.” He suggests that because similar allegations were made by someone purporting to be an Israeli soldier who served there (although this is not independently verifiable) , they must be true. He explains:

Until now, the Israeli army always had a ready answer to allegations that war crimes were committed during its offensive in Gaza. Such claims were, they said, Palestinian propaganda. Now, though, the accusations of abuse are being made by Israeli soldiers.

The problem is, however, that this testimony was not based on the soldier’s first-hand experience, but on what was told to him by others. And, in fact, this story has been refuted by the officer of the Golani Brigade who said that a probe of that brigade’s conduct during the war found that no such incidents had occurred.

But the BBC staff has apparently decided to promote the Breaking the Silence narrative without thoroughly probing the testimony.

A lead story on BBC’s World Service news (July 16) featured anchor Dan Damon similarly championing Breaking the Silence’s report. When Israeli spokesman Mark Regev questioned the credibility of the testimony, pointing out that the report “doesn’t even meet the most basic standards of tabloid journalism,” Damon reacted with outrage and attempted to defend the validity of the report, concluding:

Now you can, I suppose, say ‘well we’ve got no evidence, there’s no journalistic integrity here’, but people will believe that these are real testimonies from real soldiers.

Other British outlets similarly promoted the report as truth.

And don’t even get me started on Peace Now.