Policy and prejudice: De-funding Canadian aid projects

Late last year, Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda cut Canada's 30 years of association with non-profit advocacy group, KAIROS [1], without explanation. When pressed, Oda said that the program didn't meet CIDA's current priorities. Another less pragmatic reason surfaced later when Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney explained to the audience at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism [2] in Jerusalem: "We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-semitism. What does this mean? It means that we eliminated the government funding relationship with organizations... who promote hatred, in particular anti-semitism. We have de-funded organizations, most recently like KAIROS."

The "de-funding" itself is worrisome, but the reasons given are even more so because they seem to be driven not by truth or by what's best for Canada, but by demagoguery and partisanship.

Kenney's office justified the "defunding" by citing "critical comments" made by NGO Monitor (NGOM) and demands from B'nai Brith and Canadian Christian College (CCC) president Charles McVety (Toronto Sun [3]). All three of Kenney's sources are politically motivated and interconnected. They recycle and repeat one another's single lens views without consideration to other perspectives or narratives. Their primary concern is to remain on message with Israeli foreign policy and support the ultra-far-right Israeli parties no matter what Israeli government is in power.

NGOM started as a joint project of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and B'nai Brith International, with funds from the Wechsler Family Foundation (U.S.). It operates out of the JCPA whose president is U.S.-born Dore Gold, former Foreign Policy Adviser to both Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, and former ambassador to the United Nations for Israel. NGOM's editor is Gerald M. Steinberg, a professor at right-wing Bar-Ilan University and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post.

Although using language that would appear neutral, NGOM is a highly partisan organization that weakens universal human rights by its fixation on shielding Israel from accountability and charging some of the most respected international human rights organizations with bias against Israel. According to NGOM, these include Christian Aid, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Oxfam, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Turning its attention to NGOs within Israel, NGOM is no less unyielding in its hardline position, as illustrated by the recent release of a joint report with the Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) entitled "Trojan Horse [3]: The Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs." This report targets Israeli organizations such as B'Tselem, Machsom Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Breaking the Silence (army veterans), Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and others, because they "oppose the policies of the democratically elected government on many issues." Political dissent, which flourishes in Israel, is considered rebellion by NGOM.

Complaining that these NGOs receive funding from European governments, NGOM demands transparency, although there is little transparency about the origin of its own funding. Gershon Baskin, Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, found that the discussion during the follow-up NGOM/IZS conference had anti-democratic elements in that options considered were either to make it illegal for foreign governments to fund "political" organizations in Israel or to force these NGOs to declare themselves as "agents of a foreign government." Baskin remarked [4]: "I do not know who made them [NGOM] judge and jury on the matter. NGOM is clearly politically motivated, and I believe that there is no element of transparency in their political agenda."

B'nai Brith (BB) presents itself as a Jewish advocacy and community volunteer service organization, but on their website [5], "advocacy for Israel" is their number two "prime issue." BB allied itself to extremists within the evangelical right [6] because in the pursuit of its religious goals it does not recognize the applicability of UN resolutions, international treaties or, for that matter, Canadian (or U.S.) law and policy.

In 2006, Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College hosted the first event (Israel You're Not Alone) of a newly created coalition called Christians United for Israel (CUFI). CUFI counts amongst its members such extremists as John Hagee, Pat Roberston and the late Jerry Falwell. In fact, Frank Dimant, BB Canada's Executive Vice President, shared the podium with McVety and Hagee, and thanked them both in these terms: "But we (Jews) and Israel are not alone because of you and the tremendous leadership of Dr. McVety and Dr. Hagee" (Jewish Tribune [7], May 25, 2006).

Hagee's expressed views on Islam are ignorant and hateful. He stated on National Public Radio [8], that "those who live by the Qur'an have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews... it teaches that very clearly.... There are 1.3 billion people who follow the Islamic faith, so if you're saying there's only 15 per cent that want to come to America or invade Israel to crush it, you're only talking about 200 million people. That's far more than Hitler and Japan and Italy and all of the Axis powers in World War II had under arms."

Being vocal in his support of Israel doesn't mean that Hagee's view of Jews is any less offensive. He has made numerous statements that could be interpreted as antisemitic. Hagee believes [9] that Adolf Hitler carried out a divine plan to lead Jews back to Palestine to form the state of Israel:

"Theodore Herzl is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.' So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust."

All Jews belong nowhere else but in Israel, says Hagee. This racist (anti-semitic?) notion of an imposed residence to suit the eschatological views of millennialists stands in contradiction to the freedom of choice that Canadians take for granted, as well as the human rights and multiculturalism values that Canadian society has embraced.

McVety's support for Israel-right-or-wrong is a Bible mandate. Like other Christian Zionists, he sees the two-state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict as anathema; he supports the expansionist policies of the Israeli government and directs funding and assistance toward the political agenda of the most extreme settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

On May 4, 2008, McVety appointed Dimant as the Department's inaugural chair for the new CCC department "dedicated exclusively to the study of the modern State of Israel." In the audience sat Kenney, representing the Conservative government. Dimant [10] asked God "to save us from those who want to divide the Land of Israel, who want to divide Jerusalem, who want to take Jews out of Judea and Samaria. We look to God and to you, our friends, to keep Israel modern and united, with a united Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel." Dimant was amongst the government's 2008 appointees to the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security [11].

Kenney did attempt to backtrack on the KAIROS anti-semitism connection, but he didn't seem serious when he quoted from Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno's misleading translation of his own words: "Cutting through the semantics and carefully couched language, that all adds up to a federally funded humanitarian agency taking a leading role in divestment, sanctions and targeted boycotts of Israel -- which is what Kenney said."

DiManno's research is obviously limited to those sites that support Israel-right-or-wrong, in other words highly partisan, something she accuses KAIROS of being... a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

KAIROS has denied having "a leading role in divestment, sanctions and targeted boycotts of Israel." In fact, DiManno probably mistakenly attributed to the NGO KAIROS The Kairos Palestine Document [12] written by Palestinian Christians who call for "divestment and... an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation" as a form of peaceful resistance to liberate "both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice."

But even if Kenney's office is correct, Canadians should worry that Canadian policy could be developed using the opinions of highly prejudiced organizations and individuals instead of through careful consultation with experts whose agenda is not tainted and/or with experts having different viewpoints. The intricate and ideologically driven alliance between the political elites, Israel's unconditional supporters and Christian Zionists (with their armageddonian plan for the world) leads ultimately to a non-rational basis for policy formulation in that it forgoes pragmatic analysis in favour of partisanship, ideology and religious belief.

Given all the facts, most Canadians would favour a saner, more even-handed approach.

Bahija Réghaï is former president of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations -- NCCAR.

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Comments

Submitted by alan smithee on January 19, 2010 - 2:20am.

When are Canadians going to wake up? This current minority government are extremists and that is not an exaggeration.The Republican Party with all of the Republican Party policies and ideologies.Unacceptable and disgraceful and blatantly un-Canadian.How else would you explain these cretins? I'm sorry but it is terrifying that a minority government could have the power to kill Canada.Imagine these lunatics with a majority.

We all should just burn our passports because we will soon be American.And their agenda is no longer hidden.Oh but wait...they cut the GST by 1%...the nickels and dimes I now save when I shop is the price for 'our' continued support of the Reform Party....Disgusting and pathetic.

Submitted by mesmer on January 19, 2010 - 12:54pm.

The conflict at ‘Rights & Democracy' fits in with those whole picture like tongue & groove.

Two of the new appointees at R & D in the last three months were David Matas, legal counsel for B'nai Brith and lecturer on 'the new antiSemitism', and Conservative Christian think tanker Michael Van Pelt.

The conflict there smells strongly of the issue of 'anti-Semitism' and Christian Zionism, which we first caught whiff of with Jason Kenney's pronouncement of KAIROS' 'anti-Semitism' following its abrupt and complete cut of CIDA funding (still no remotely adequate reason given for that). "They are bringing what can only be described, it seems to me, as Middle East politics, directly into the heart of the centre.", said Ed Broadbent yesterday in the Globe (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ed-broadbent-defends-rights...).

Throw in the the fact that in the same month the Conservatives are pulling the funding of the UN's Relief and Works Agency (providing education, health and social services to 59 Palestinian refugee camps) and diverting it all to train ‘prosecutors, judges and police' being trained by US Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton (http://www.thestar.com/living/article/750917--canada-redirects-funding-f... [19]) and I'd say there's a pretty clear pattern at work.

No wonder they don't want Question Period...

Submitted by mesmer on January 19, 2010 - 4:57pm.

NGO Monitor Needs a Monitor
Yossi Alpher in 'The Jewish Daily Forward'

http://www.forward.com/articles/121170/

Submitted by alan smithee on January 19, 2010 - 7:18pm.

Here's a direct challenge to the Reform Party's christian-right policy on Israel.

The fact that the Reform Party condones and apparently supports the ongoing apartheid against the Palestinian people is yet another blatant attempt to make Canada the 51st state.

To label groups and individuals as 'anti-semitic' and/or 'terrorists' for criticizing Israel (and they need to be criticized...even condemned for their continued actions and policies against the Palestinians) or supporting the Palestinian people through sympathy,solidarity or humanitarian aid,or god forbid,not being a Zionist is extreme and reeks of the christian-right nut wing of the Republican Party and does not ressemble Canada...This is truly the lunatic fringe at work.

When George Galloway was banned from entering Canada,bells and whistles went off and this policy the Reform Party is presenting backs up everything I believed from day #1 on that dark day in 2006....This party is not only unprogressive but regressive and wants a country that is the mirror image of Ronald Reagen's America in the 1980's including the draconian Reagenomics...and if that's not bad enough,the Reform Party is clearly in step with the George Bush/Dick Cheney/Sarah Palin conservatives.

So I am challenging the government to arrest me and throw me in jail for what I am about to say....

Israel is a rogue state....guilty of apartheid,oppression and crimes against humanity.Israel's leaders-particularly Ben NetanYAHOO are committed to genocide in their quest to exterminate the Palestinians.The mantra of 'We reserve the right to protect ourselves' translates to 'We will kill you and if you fight back,we will have the right to kill you all' The real terrorists in the Middle East is the Israeli government...And Zionists make it all possible...They are just as guilty.

So Jason Kenney...come arrest me....please...come and throw me in jail. I'm obviously a terrorist,right? Come and get me.

Submitted by mesmer on January 20, 2010 - 12:59pm.

Embassy Magazine, jan 20:

'Calling out NGO Monitor'
(Embassy magazine's editorial slams NGO Monitor, Kenney + Harper)
http://embassymag.ca/page/view/edit-01-20-2010

'The truth about KAIROS, NGO Monitor'
(KAIROS' exec direc washes Steinberg and NGO Monitor's mouth out with soap)
http://embassymag.ca/page/view/corkery-01-20-2010 [23]

Submitted by NDPP on January 21, 2010 - 5:42am.

New book on 'Israeli Exceptionalism' Zionism's Destablizing Force"

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11020.shtml

"Zionists have also had to align themselves with anti-Semitic elements in Europe to advance their goals. Alam writes,

"In the 1930s, the Nazi's banned all Jewish organizations except those with Zionist aims, they even allowed the Zionists to fly their blue-and-white flag with the Star of David at its center

In violation of the Jewish boycott of the Nazi economy, the Zionists promised cash and trade concessions to Nazi Germany if they directed Jewish emigrants to Palestine.."

Alam's straightforward and accessible discussion of the world's last 'exclusive settler colony' makes 'Israeli Exceptionalism' an important addition to the scholarship..'"

Submitted by mesmer on February 2, 2010 - 12:25pm.

from Badil Resource Center <info@badil.org>

1 February 2010

Open Letter: Palestinian, Israeli and International Human Rights NGOs Deplore Politically-Motivated Claims Aimed at Discrediting Human Rights Defenders

The Board of Directors of Rights & Democracy, a not-for-profit organization created by Canada's parliament in 1988 to encourage and support human rights around the world, recently voted, with substantial objection, to repudiate grants given to Al Haq and Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, two well-known Palestinian human rights organizations located respectively in the West Bank and in Gaza

The Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Rights and Democracy, Mr. Aurel Braun, was quoted (in The Globe & Mail) as criticizing both organizations for being two "of the most vitriolic anti-Israeli organizations" and for "their accusations against Israel's human rights violations. Further, the article reports that Braun had said that "there is no way to ensure that some of the money given to groups in Gaza does not go to the banned terrorist organization Hamas". He also led a personal attack against Al Haq's general director - the well-known human rights defender Mr. Shawan Jabarin - for allegedly being an activist in a PLO faction (ibid). These remarks made by the chairperson of Rights and Democracy are extremely grave as they seem to support the Israeli government's policy of silencing human rights' defenders.

In recent years, Israel's attempts to silence any voice of opposition regarding its human rights violation, have reached alarming levels. In addition to arrests of activists and the closing down of organizations, Israel has also denied many human rights defenders the possibility of effectively advocating for human rights by the imposition of travel bans. A new tactic used by Israel, supported by right-wing groups, is to go after the funders of human rights organizations. In this context, it came as a shock to us - Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations - that instead of advocating for and defending human rights defenders, who work to counter Israeli violations of human rights and ensure respect for international human rights and humanitarian law, the board of Rights & Democracy has instead chosen to join the side of the violator.

The undersigned organizations contend that labeling esteemed human rights organizations such as Al Haq and Al Mezan as "questionable" under the aforementioned circumstances is to take sides with the violator. It seems that the Board's decision to repudiate grants to Al Haq and Al Mezan, might well be because they have been doing their job too well, in particular their investigations of Israel's human rights violations during last winter's attack on Gaza. Or perhaps, it could be due to Al Haq's exposure of and litigation against the involvement of Canadian businesses in such human rights violations in the West Bank. Maybe it was this unexpected and apparently unwelcomed exposure that prompted Right and Democracy's recent misguided conduct.

The contention that Al Haq and Al Mezan are some "of the most vitriolic anti-Israeli organizations," because they ‘accuse' Israel of human rights violations on their websites is a distorted and misleading representation of the facts. Al Mezan and Al-Haq carry out professional documentation of the human rights violations committed by all of the involved actors in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Their documentation has been deemed reliable and precise by international bodies that apply the strictest relevant standards. Without this proper documentation by them and other human rights NGOs, defending human rights is a mission impossible.

The two organizations receive support from a wide array of donors including governments and non-governmental contributors who are satisfied with their work and their management due to the transparency that each organization exhibits.

The public smear campaign initiated by the Board of Directors of Rights & Democracy is intended to stop NGOs from doing their vital work of human rights monitoring and reporting. It is equal to a call to cease altogether any meaningful promotion of respect and protection of human rights in the oPt, in clear contradiction to Canada's declared interest in furtherance of universal values of human rights and the promotion of democracy.

In November 2009, the UN General Assembly reiterated its commitment to defend human rights defenders recognizing "the substantial role that human rights defenders can play in supporting efforts to strengthen peace and development, through dialogue, openness, participation and justice, including by monitoring, reporting on and contributing to the promotion and protection of human rights."

Israel, recognizing that same strong role, carries out deliberate policies and practices that directly or indirectly seek to suppress, obstruct and delegitimize human rights organizations in Israel and the oPt. We denounce these policies and practices, and call on fellow human rights defenders around the world to also denounce them. We also denounce Israeli travel bans on human rights activists operating in the oPt and Israel, and especially the blanket travel ban on Gaza human rights defenders. While Israel is violating their rights, Rights and Democracy Board is trying to de-legitimize them, using the same rhetoric.

We demand that we be allowed to meet, to advocate, and to struggle for what we all hold dear: human rights and social justice.

Signatories:

Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Right in Israel

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association Ramallah,

AL Dameer Association for Human Rights -Gaza

AL-JANA - The Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts - Beirut, Lebanon

Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic

American Jews fr A Just Peace

Arab Association for Human Rights - HRA

Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine

The Association Swiss-Palestine ASP

Association for the Support of Needy, Palestinian Children, Switzerland

Association France-Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights

Boston Coalition For Palestinians Rights (BCPR)

Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel)

Defence for Children International - Palestine Section

Ensan Center for Democracy & Human Rights

Flemish Palestine Solidarity Committee

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement

Group for Justice and Peace in Palestine (JPP) Switzerland

Habitat International Coalition - Housing and Land Rights Network

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)

International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, USA

Institute for Policy Studies Washington DC USA

International Jewish Anti-zionist Network (IJAN), France

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

The Israeli Association for the Palestinian Prisoners

Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)

Jewish Voice for Peace, USA

Labor for Palestine

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

Medico International

Medico Swiss

Mopat - Movement Palestine for All - Brazil

The Netherlands Palestine Committee

New York City Labor against the War

Olive Oil Campaign Switzerland

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), UK

Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People

Palestine Think Tank

STW (Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign)

Palestinian Workers Union -Greece

The Peace People in Belfast

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel)

Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

Right to Education Campaign - Birzeit

Tlaxcala Translations Collective

U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israe

Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)

Women in Black Union Square in New York City

Women in Black (Vienna)

Women in Black, Maastricht, Netherlands

cc: Right & Democracy, Canada, Fax: (514) 283-3792