Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch did not receive a contribution from the Ford Foundation on behalf of the New Israel Fund, Court System Ombudsman Judge (ret.) Eliezer Goldberg determined last week. News site News1 reported that Goldberg based his findings on Beinisch's version of the episode only.
The Ombudsman received three complaints in late November, based upon a photograph that appeared in the NIF website. According to the complainants, the text under the photograph said that Beinisch had received $20 million on behalf of the NIF from the Ford Foundation. The photograph was taken on September 17, 2007, on the 15th anniversary of Shatil, the NIF's operational arm.
The complainants noted that the NIF website has since blocked access to the photograph.
Beinisch told him that she regularly meets representatives of different organizations, from all parts of the political spectrum.
She said that the NIF asked to coordinate a visit in the Supreme Court for the Ford Foundation's president and that "I met them briefly in the oval room in my bureau… The complaints that I received a $20 million donation on behalf of the New Israel Fund are a false, malicious and baseless libel…"
NIF-supported organizations such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Adala, the Women's Lobby and Itach (which is headed by Neta Ziv, among others) regularly petition the High Court and appear before Beinisch as litigants. They hold major responsibility as well for the damaging UN Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.