NGO Monitor har skrivit ett öppet brev till Gunilla Carlsson med anledning av hennes kritik mot Palestinagrupperna. Delar av detta mail publicerar jag nedan.:
November 11, 2011
Dear Minister Carlsson, […]
NGO Monitor’s research documents how a group of NGOs selected for funding by SIDA and by framework organizations such as Forum Syd and Diakonia, use taxpayer funding to advance politicized agendas behind a façade of human rights (See appendix for specific examples).
In order to prevent further abuse, and to ensure that the funding of NGOs reflects Swedish standards for good governance in displaying transparency and responsibility, NGO Monitor proposes the following recommendations to be undertaken by the government of Sweden:
1) Immediate investigation into the decision making processes within SIDA and Forum Syd that facilitated the grant for Palestinagrupperna, including whether officials from SIDA and Forum Syd were aware that funds were utilized to produce the anti-Israel materials criticized by the Minister and whether proper due diligence was carried out.
2) Professional, independent evaluation of all SIDA funding for projects pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the promotion of human rights, including the funds channeled via Forum Syd.
3) Establishment and implementation of clear guidelines and regulations for SIDA and framework organizations, to ensure transparency and accountability when funds are transferred via several channels to local NGOs.
4) Creation of regulations and procedures to guide the government’s response to the misuse of state funds during a grant cycle.
5) Establishment of a parliamentary committee, with the aim of bringing together a wide range of experts, to discuss concrete ways to ensure transparency in SIDA’s funding decisions, as well as oversight and accountability before, during, and after the grant-cycles.
[…]
Sincerely,
Prof. Gerald Steinberg
President
NGO Monitor
Till brevet hör också en snabb sammanfattning om grupper som får bidrag från SIDA och som rör sig i gränsland mellan mänskliga rättigheter och politiska aktioner.
1) The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
SIDA contribution: 375.192 SEK (2010-2012)
Responsible organization: Diakonia
- AIC endorsed the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) National Committee’s Strategy Position Paper for the Durban Review Conference, which accused Israel of “apartheid, colonization, and occupation.” This paper also calls for “holding to account those responsible, in particular the State of Israel, its organs and agents [i.e. World Zionist Organization, Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund],” for “massive violation[s] of human rights and war crimes.”
- “One has to unequivocally reject the very idea (and existence) of a Jewish state, whatever will be its borders.” (Michael Warschawski, The Haifa Conference for the Right of Return, June 2008)
2) Sabeel
SIDA contribution: 225.000 SEK
Responsible organization: Diakonia
- Sabeel is active in anti-Israel political campaigns, including church divestment campaigns
- Supports “one state solution,” meaning the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state: “But Israelis might also consider an alternative, one with roots in history and recently developed by Jewish, American and Palestinian intellectuals: a one-state solution.”(article on its website in November 2010)
- Director Naim Ateek employs themes and imagery that are antisemitic according to the European Union Working Definition of Antisemitism. Ateek uses this offensive rhetoric particularly in sermons promoting his “Palestinian Liberation Theology.”
- Refers to Israeli “apartheid that is much worse than what was practiced in South Africa.”
3) The Human Rights/Good Governance Secretariat: The NGO Development Center (NDC)
SIDA contribution: 6.424.049 SEK
Responsible organization: SIDA
- NDC “facilitated,” funded, and encourages its NGO grantees to adopt the “Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct,” which demands that Palestinian groups reject “any normalization activities with the occupier, neither at the political-security nor the cultural or developmental levels” (emphasis added).
- HR/GG grantees include BDS proponents such as: PCHR ($425,000), Al-Haq ($134,000), Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-PS) ($639,000), Al Mezan ($425,000), BADIL ($575,000), Addameer ($ 127,000), ICAHD ($76,000).Two additional NGOs, ARIJ ($40,000) and Miftah ($110,000), have been accepted as new grantees despite their participation in BDS campaigns.
- The HR/GG Secretariat renewed its support for BADIL, an NGO that in 2010 signed a document explicitly rejecting the Roadmap for Peace and the Arab Peace Initiative, in sharp contradiction to the goals and policies of its government sponsors. BADIL has also published antisemitic cartoons on its website, as well as imagery promoting a one-state solution and denying Israel’s right to exist.
- HR/GG funds Al Haq, whose General Director Shawan Jabarin has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan on account of his alleged ties to the PFLP terrorist organization (a group most known for airline hijackings; the assassination of Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Ze’evi; and the March 2011 brutal murder of a sleeping Israeli family, including three small children).
4) Gaza Community Mental Health Program
SIDA contribution: 60.844.507 SEK
Responsible organization: SIDA
- Offensive rhetoric: During the June 2009 Goldstone mission hearings in Gaza, Eyad Sarraj, president of the GCMHP made antisemitic remarks: “. . . inside Israel there is an identification with the aggressor, the Nazis.” Another GCMHP employee, Dr. Ahmed Abu-Tawahini stated, “Israeli soldier has the image of absolute superiority . . .”
- Sarraj signed a statement saying “Please do not participate in the next Israeli massacre of innocent civilians. BOYCOTT ISRAEL NOW!”
- GCMHP “denounces this brutal action and the attack that targets everything in Gaza. We, call upon the international community to urgently intervene and make all their efforts to protect Palestinian civilians and institutions in Gaza, which are under real danger of death and destruction.” (The Israeli shelling caused massive damage in GCMHP Headquaters in Gaza, December 2008)
5) Defense for Children Israel – Palestine Section
SIDA contributions: 12.625.000 SEK
Responsible organization: Save the Children Sweden – Rädda Barnen
- Published a list alleging that 352 children died “as a direct result of Israel’s military offensive” in the Gaza war. (PCHR claimed that 313 children were killed during the fighting.) Some of the individuals on DCI-PS’ list, such as Ibrahim Mostafa Fraih Sa’idand Ibrahim Abed al-Rahim Rajab Suliman, have been identified by B’Tselem and PCHR as combatants. In these instances, DCI-PS wrote, “Despite DCI-Palestine’s best endeavours to collect affidavits from eyewitnesses to [the child’s] death, no reliable evidence could be gathered.”
- DCI-PS supports BDS campaigns, and is an active participant in boycott efforts in the framework of the UN and other venues. Also lobbies the UN and the EU to promote these campaigns.
- An op-ed published by DCI-PS director Rifat Odeh Kassis (March 1, 2011) on Electronic Intifada promoting the antisemitic canard of dual loyalties against Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, characterizing him as “so blind, so brazen, so hypocritical and so unjust.”
- DCI-PS continues to promote the libel of a “Jenin massacre” on its website, including a statement on the “horror” of the “Israeli army massacre in Jenin refugee camp.”
Intressant i sammanhanget: Daniel Schatz skrev nyligen om att Palestinagrupperna bara var toppen på ett isberg.