Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Gov’t Strong-arms Germany to Boycott Israeli Orgs Calling for Palestinian Rights

Middle East Monitor 12/08/2018

Tweet
Share600
Reddit
Email
600 Shares

London (Middle East Monitor) – Assault on free speech has been a common feature of Israeli governments. This week another example of its efforts to silence critical voices was revealed by the +972 magazine, which reported details of a campaign by the right-wing Netanyahu government to de-fund independent publications and human rights organisations.

In an effort to dry up the funding of the magazine and number of human rights organisations including Breaking the Silence, and B’Tselem, Israel asked the German government to pressure two left-leaning political foundations that provide funding to these organisations.

The two foundations facing the wrath of Israel were named by the +972 as the, Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. The magazine disclosed that funds from the two foundations comprised only nine per cent of +972’s overall 2018 budget as of September and that over the past two years, 40 per cent of their budget had come from the support of its readers.

Enjoying Informed Comment? Please support independent journalism!
This is the donate button
Click graphic to donate via PayPal!

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

Both foundations are reported to have pledged to continue support despite the political pressure.

Israel’s plot to de-fund the organisations was first discovered by a German newspaper which saw a letter sent by Israel to the German government requesting that it “fundamentally rethink” its support for dozens of human rights organisations in Israel.

The seven-page letter accused the non-governmental organisations of intervening in Israel’s internal affairs and promoting anti-Israel activities. +972, an independent publication founded by a group of Israeli and Palestinian writers committed to ending the occupation and advancing democratic values and freedom of information, was specifically mentioned. Israel claimed that the platform goes against Tel Aviv’s interests because “the authors regularly accuse Israel of apartheid”.

This is one of several attempts by the Israeli government to silence dissenting voices. At the beginning of this year it pressured the UN to shelve a detailed report which concluded that Israel was practicing apartheid in Palestine. Domestically it has curtailed critical voices within Israeli society by criminalising peaceful expressions of dissent like the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Monitor

—

Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Democracy Now! “Netanyahu Attacks Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem for Criticizing Israeli Occupation at U.N.”

Filed Under: Israel/ Palestine

About the Author

Middle East Monitor is a not-for-profit press monitoring organization, founded on 1 July 2009, and based in London. Journalists who have written for it include Amelia Smith, Diana Alghoul, Ben White, Jehan Alfarra and Jessica Purkiss. The editorial line straddles the British left and the British Muslim religious Right.

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....