NIF supported Coalition of Women for Peace un
NIF supported Coalition of Women for Peace unIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The New Israel Fund (NIF), an organization that encourages Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, has received permission from the UJA-Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to participate in the annual Israel Day Parade, scheduled to take place in New York June 3.

Since its founding in 1979, The NIF has been the benefactor of hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), many of which are ardently committed to de-legitimizing and weakening Israel, economically and strategically, at home and abroad.

Last year, the NIF as well as B’Tselem, Partners for Progressive Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights were permitted to march in the parade and to display their individual banners.

Machsom Watch, Coalition of Women for Peace, Women Against Violence, Social TV, and Mossawa, all of which are organizations funded by the NIF, signed a letter that was sent to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, urging its divestment from the State of Israel.

Partners for Progressive Israel (Meretz USA), also funded by the NIF, has a section on its website, under the heading “boycott these Settlement products sold in the US,” which lists Israeli products it believes should be boycotted. The products include Ahava cosmetics, SodaStream products and wines from nine Israeli vineyards.

The board of B’Tselem has publicly called for “effective sanctions” against Israel and has produced a video that was shown on college and university campuses worldwide, as part of the annual “Israel Apartheid Week.”

Adalah, which received $500,00 from the NIF in 2008, supports the “one-state solution,” calling for the elimination of Israel’s Jewish character. Adalah officials were also involved in writing and editing a May 2009 South African publication that refers to “Israeli occupation” as a “colonial enterprise which implements a system of apartheid,” the NGO Monitor explained.  

NIF funded NGOs were centrally featured in the Goldstone report and provided testimony of alleged Israeli “war crimes” in the 2009 Gaza war.

The above is only part of an extensive list of activities that the New Israel Fund funds, supports and enables. 

“We urge everyone to raise your voices and call the UJA-Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). Urge them to stop these groups from marching in the Israel Day Parade and hijacking a pro-Israel event for their anti-Israel purposes,” read a statement issued by the JCC Watch.

Richard Allen, a member of the Committee for a Pro-Israel Parade and co-founder of JCC Watch.org stated, “It is not surprising that the UJA-Federation is pushing these bash Israel groups to march in the June 3, 2012 Israel Parade.”

He said that published reports show that the UJA-Federation’s Chief Executive Officer, John Ruskay, worked with Noam Chomsky in the Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East (CONAME), which “specialized in attacking Israel.”

John Ruskay also gave more than $1 million of UJA Federation Jewish Charity Dollars to the George Soros-funded political group, Jewish Funds for Justice.

“The community must make its voice heard by calling and writing the UJA-Federation and demand that Jewish community charity funds not be used for theses divisive purposes,” the JCC Watch urged. "Call and write the Board of the UJA-Federation of New York. Tell the UJA Federation you do NOT want your Jewish Charity Dollars Going to Support John Ruskay's Political Agenda.” 

Arutz Sheva has contacted the UJA, asking for an official statement concerning the participation in a pro-Israel parade by the groups in question, but has not yet received a response.