Labor party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak has joined a growing chorus of voices protesting the New Israel Fund’s financing of anti-Israeli organizations. Several NIF-funded groups supplied material for the Goldstone Report that charged Israel with “war crimes” against Gaza terrorists.
However, the Labor party has decided it would oppose any proposal in the Knesset to launch an inquiry of the NIF’s activities, and the Kadima faction subsequently decided not to introduce a proposal for a probe.
Speaking at a meeting of the party's Knesset faction, the Labor party chairman said, "I certainly am not enthusiastic about and don't like the bodies that benefit from the donations of this fund." But, he added, that “the New Israel Fund has done many essential and good things for the State of Israel."
His criticism of the NIF came less than two days after Labor’s Social Services Minister Chaim Herzog defended the group against accusations that it helps Israel's enemies besmirch Israel.
Last week, senior reserve officers signed a petition Wednesday supporting a campaign against the NIF. "We deplore the false claim by 16 Israeli [non-governmental organizations] that the IDF carried out war crimes during operation Cast Lead,” the petition's text said. In fact, it said the IDF “was making superhuman efforts to avoid hurting innocent civilians.”
Among organizations that received funds for the NIF are more than a dozen Arab groups, including Adalah, and Breaking the Silence, both of which campaign against a Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.