NGO Monitor

NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor
Ngo monitor logo.jpg
Founder(s) Gerald M. Steinberg
Type Non-profit
NGO
Founded 2001[1]
Location  Israel - Jerusalem
Key people Gerald M. Steinberg (President)[1]
Area served  Israel
Focus End promotion of "politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas" by certain NGOs.[1]
Mission "to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community "[1]
Method Academic research institute
Revenue US$ 385,000 (2008)[2]
Employees 13 (November 2010)[3]
Motto Making NGOs Accountable
Website ngo-monitor.org

NGO Monitor (Non-governmental Organization Monitor) is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the general public.[1]

NGO Monitor in its mission statement says it was founded to "to promote accountability, and advance a vigorous discussion on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the framework of the Arab-Israeli conflict." The organization was founded jointly by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an organization which says it has "developed and implemented an array of cutting-edge programs to present Israel's case to the world",[4] and the U.S.-based [5] Wechsler Family Foundation, but became an independent organization in 2007, registered with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations in Israel.

Contents

Structure and staff

NGO Monitor is the central project of the Organization for NGO Responsibility, an independent non-profit organization registered in Israel. Its president is Gerald M. Steinberg, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post.[6]

Its staff includes:[1]

  • Gerald M. Steinberg, President, and Professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University, where he founded the Interdisciplinary Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation; and is a Senior Research Associate at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies, and a columnist.[7]
  • Naftali Balanson, Managing Editor.
  • Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor.
  • Dov Yarden, Chief Executive Officer.

Funding

NGO Monitor states that it is funded by the Wechsler Family Foundation originally directed to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs[8] and from Harry Wechsler.[9] Nina Rosenwald, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA),[10] is another NGO Monitor donor.[11] Major donors include: the Ben & Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Baltimore; the MZ Foundation, Oakland; Klarman Family Foundation, Boston; Middle East Forum Education Project, Philadelphia.[12]

The amount of funding the NGO Monitor receives is disclosed in its annual report, which is posted to its official webpage in its annual report.[13]

Statements by NGO Monitor

NGO Monitor states that its mission is to "end the practice used by certain self-declared ‘humanitarian NGOs’ of exploiting the label ‘universal human rights values’ to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas".[1]

NGO Monitor maintains an online directory of NGOs worldwide,[14] which generally includes a description, a quote from the organization itself, who funds it, and relevant quotes from publications and officials. NGO-Monitor also has, online, considerable material in relation to the first Durban Conference,[15], the Durban strategy of divestment and boycott,[16] as well as considerable discussion regarding the 2009 Durban Review Conference.[17]

NGO Monitor held a conference in Jerusalem in 2006 with the stated aim of encouraging critical debate on the role of NGO’s in the Middle East conflict, with twenty-one humanitarian aid groups in attendance. A panel discussed the pros and cons of NGOs dealing with Hamas.[18][19] NGO’s such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights were invited to speak but declined.[18] Amnesty International said the conference did "not give a balanced ground for open and fair dialogue" while another human rights group accused NGO Monitor of "partiality".[19]

NGO Monitor has criticized several major international human rights organizations, such as Christian Aid, for ignoring "Palestinian responsibility in the conflict" and minimizing "Israel’s right to self-defense."[20] Human Rights Watch,[21] Other NGOs in the focus have been Amnesty International,[22] Oxfam,[22] the Center for Constitutional Rights and Médecins Sans Frontières.[23]

NGO Monitor published in 2009 a monograph entitled “Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of Human Rights Watch” [24] which includes analysis of key HRW staff members, five case studies of HRW campaigns, and quantitative analysis comparing HRW publications in the Middle East, covering the period from 2002 to 2009. In April 2010, Benjamin Birnbaum published in The New Republic a lengthy and highly critical piece about HRW, on the same line of the research done by NGO Monitor, stating that HRW gives "disproportionate attention to Israeli misdeeds."[25]

NGO Monitor released a document comparing Amnesty International's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence during the Second Sudanese Civil War to their treatment of Israel. NGO Monitor said that Amnesty International issued 7 reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel.[26] They further said: “While ignoring the large-scale and systematic bombing and destruction of Sudanese villages, AI issued numerous condemnations of the razing of Palestinian houses, most of which were used as sniper nests or belonged to terrorists. Although failing to decry the slaughter of thousands of civilians by Sudanese government and allied troops, AI managed to criticize Israel’s ‘assassinations’ of active terrorist leaders.”[26] NGO Monitor also wrote there were 52 reports on Sudan and 192 reports on Israel. NGO Monitor opined “this lack of balance and objectivity and apparent political bias is entirely inconsistent with AI's official stated mission.”[26]

The organization formerly criticized the Ford Foundation for funding the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which took place in Durban, South Africa, which it accuses of condoning violence against Israel.[27] The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs.[28] It also has taken exception to such accusations and says its involvement in the Palestinian territories reflects its belief that a just solution to the conflict is vitally important to the region and the peoples directly affected and that it also funds groups such as the New Israel Fund.[29]

NGO Monitor also states that B'Tselem, an NGO that calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories", has employed "abusive and demonizing rhetoric designed to elicit political support for Palestinians".[30]

NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund, which states that its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy",[31] for funding organizations that NGO Monitor says are engaged in a "campaign to delegitimize Israel." These arguments were denied by the ex-president of the New Israel Fund and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Peter Edelman, who described NGO Monitor's criticism as "un-democratic and un-Jewish" and "inherently and fundamentally flawed." [32] Larry Garber, then Executive Director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Yaari, then NIF's Israel Director and a retired Israeli air force major,[33] wrote in an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post that if Israel were to accept the premises of Gerald Steinberg, the director of NGO Monitor, then "Israel's credibility - and, more important, the nation's morality - will suffer."[34] Ongoing public debate in 2009 and 2010 about the NIF's funding practices continues, with NGO Monitor calling for the NIF to draw a firm line regarding funding those organizations which "support activities designed to promote the NGO Durban strategy to isolate Israel."[35] NGO Monitor decried NIF’s use of “uncivil rhetroric” including being accused of "McCarthyism",[36] being called “extremist”,[37] and more.[38]

On October 12, 2006, NGO Monitor made a submission to the government of the United Kingdom on the funding of Israeli NGOs.[39]

On August 31, 2009, NGO Monitor made a submission to Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, regarding "Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the “Durban Strategy”: The Emergence of an Antisemitic Global Movement" explaining in detail the Canadian government funding for NGOs promoting the Durban Strategy.[40]

Reception

In a 2004 article for the Political Research Associates, Jean Hardisty and Elizabeth Furdon describe NGO Monitor as a "conservative NGO watchdog group,...which focuses on perceived threats to Israeli interests", adding that "the ideological slant of NGO Monitor's work is unabashedly pro-Israeli. It does not claim to be a politically neutral examination of NGO activities and practices."[41]

In an op-ed published in 2005 by Forward, Leonard Fein, a former Professor of Politics and Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, takes issue with NGO Monitor's statement that Human Rights Watch (HRW) places “extreme emphasis on critical assessments of Israel” and has issued more reports about HRW than on any other of the 75 NGOs it concerns itself with. In his op-ed, Leonard Fein writes that HRW has devoted more attention to five other nations in the region — Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Turkey and Iran — than they have to Israel; but that, despite extensive correspondence, Mr Steinberg has failed to correct the "misleading" statement about HRW on the NGO Watch website. Fein argues that NGO Monitor may not be free of the "narrow political and ideological preferences” of which it accuses HRW.[42] The Forward writes NGO Monitor says it has increased Human Right Watch's reporting on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian authority while Human Rights Watch has rejected the statements and said it was dealing with counterterrorism in a post-9/11 world.[43]

Kathleen Peratis, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch has criticized, in 2006, NGO Monitor for accusations against Human Right Watch and its "executive director, whose father fled Nazi Germany". Peratis took issue with an op-ed by NGO Monitor's Gerald Steinberg titled "Ken Roth's Blood Libel",[44] and argues those like NGO Monitor "who want selective exemption of Israel from the rules of war" may not "have faced the implications of getting what they wish for." Peratis further criticized NGO Monitor for not saying specifically where or when HRW statements have been unverifiable.[45]

In 2007, The Economist and Jewish Telegraphic Agency identify NGO Monitor as a pro-Israel non-governmental organization.[46][47]

Ittijah, Union of Arab Community Based Organisations in Israel, has said NGO Monitor represents the interests and the say of the Israeli state rather than civil society’s voice based on human rights values. Ittijah further states that NGO Monitor is guided by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[48]

Uriel Heilman, a Managing Editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and a senior reporter for the Jerusalem Post, wrote in an online opinion column that there were a "couple of disingenuous (read: inaccurate) elements" in the May 2009 digest of NGO Monitor. Heilman rhetorically asked whether the situation itself was "enough for Steinberg and NGO Monitor's followers without Steinberg having to stretch the truth?" Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor, later conceded the phrasing was confusing and revised the statement.[49]

In a 2009 opinion column he writes for The Jerusalem Post, Larry Derfner asserted that "NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of criticism for Israel, nor a word of acknowledgment, even grudging, for any detail in any human rights report that shows Israel to be less than utterly blameless. In fact, on the subject of Israel's human rights record, NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of disagreement with the Prime Minister's Office," he wrote.[50]

In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying that "NGO Monitor...conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".[51]

John H. Richardson, writing in Esquire Magazine's online magazine in 2009 described NGO Monitor as a "rabidly partisan organization that attacks just about anyone who dares to criticize Israel on any grounds." It notes that Steinberg is dedicate to fighting "the narrative war," and has made a "special project" of attacking Human Rights Watch.[52]

Didi Remez, a spokesperson for the Peace Now group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting,[53] (which was co-founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street),[54] said NGO Monitor "is not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts." [55]

David Newman, a professor of political geography at Ben-Gurion University, wrote an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post in 2009 criticizing NGO Monitor for attacking the transparency of human rights organizations while ignoring the murky funding and support for extremist settler organizations.[56]

NGO Monitor published a press release in 2010 regarding Electronic Intifada [57] focusing on a grant EI receives from the Dutch foundation ICCO. In response, Electronic Intifada wrote that "NGO Monitor is an extreme right-wing group with close ties to the Israeli government, military, West Bank settlers, a man convicted of misleading the US Congress, and to notoriously Islamophobic individuals and organizations in the United States."[58] Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uri Rosenthal, told IKON radio, "anti-semitism was not the issue" but "my concern about calls to contribute to boycotts and embargoes", in an interview on 5 December about ICCO's support of The Electronic Intifada.[59]

Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post in December 2010 says that NGO Monitor is "an organization that investigates and sharply criticizes many self-described human rights groups as thinly disguised anti-Israel outfits."[60]

Forward, in an article written by Nathan Jeffay in January 2011, says that NGO Monitor is "Israel’s most prominent watchdog of human rights groups".[61]

The Australian refers to NGO Monitor as a "human rights watchdog."[62]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "About NGO Monitor". NGO Monitor. http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?type=about. 
  2. ^ "2008 Annual Report". NGO Monitor. 2008. http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/annual_report_web2008.pdf. Retrieved 9 June 2010. 
  3. ^ NGO Monitor: Staff
  4. ^ About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
  5. ^ Non-Profit Data: Exempt Organization Information
  6. ^ Bar Ilan University Faculty Info
  7. ^ "Professor Gerald M. Steinberg". Bar-Ilan University. http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~steing/index.shtml. 
  8. ^ JCPA: Institute for Contemporary Affairs
  9. ^ NGO Monitor: "Gerald Steinberg debates Irene Khan, head of Amnesty International, on BBC World Service Radio"
  10. ^ Hudson Institute: Staff Bio
  11. ^ NGO Monitor: Founding Donor
  12. ^ NGO Monitor: Donors
  13. ^ NGO Monitor: 2008 Annual Report
  14. ^ Directory of Non Governmental Agencies Alphabetical by Country
  15. ^ NGO Monitor Reports on Durban at website
  16. ^ NGO Leadership in Boycott and Divestment Campaigns
  17. ^ Durban Review Conference 2009 at NGO Monitor site
  18. ^ a b European Jewish Press: EU to discuss Middle East NGOs funding
  19. ^ a b The Jerusalem Post: Major NGOs skip 'unfair' monitoring conference
  20. ^ "Christian Aid (UK)". NGO Monitor. http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/christian_aid_uk_. 
  21. ^ Report: "Activity Summary of Human Rights Watch March 2003 - March 2004"|work=NGO Monitor
  22. ^ a b "Human Rights Groups are Working Against Peace". NGO Monitor. http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?id=541. 
  23. ^ Humanitarianism´ and Medical NGOs|work=NGO Monitor
  24. ^ Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of Human Rights Watch
  25. ^ Minority Report: Human Rights Watch fights a civil war over Israel, by Benjamin Birnbaum, April 27, 2010
  26. ^ a b c Fredman, Asher Ahuvia (August 26, 2004). "Asleep at the Wheel: Comparing the Performance of Human Rights NGO's on Sudan and Arab-Israeli Issues". NGO Monitor. http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n12/NGOsAndSudan.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-27. 
  27. ^ NGO Monitor: Ford Foundation NGO Funding Update
  28. ^ netWMD: "Stunning Reversal"
  29. ^ Forward: Ford Foundation Backs Proponents of Peace
  30. ^ Betselem: Report Uses Outdated Sources and the Rhetoric of Demonization, NGO Monitor Analysis (Vol. 2 No. 12), August 15, 2004.
  31. ^ NGO Monitor Mission Statement
  32. ^ NGO Monitor: Exchange of letters on NIF transparency and accountability
  33. ^ Jewish Tribune: New Israel Fund director responds to criticism
  34. ^ The Jerusalem Post: Who's really damaging Israel's image?
  35. ^ NGO Monitor Calls on New Israel Fund to draw Red Lines
  36. ^ McCarthyism - Pure and Simple
  37. ^ NIF letter to President Peres
  38. ^ NIF Funds NGOs which assisted the UN Goldstone Commission
  39. ^ The humanitarian and development situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Oral and written evidence By Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee. (Session 2007-08). Published by The Stationery Office, 2008 ISBN 0215523199 p 79
  40. ^ Submission to Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism
  41. ^ Policing Civil Society Spring 2004, Political Research Associates
  42. ^ Leonard Fein (2005-05-20). "Monitoring The Monitor". Jewish Daily Forward. http://www.forward.com/articles/3517/. 
  43. ^ Human Rights Watch To Increase Focus on Terrorism, Marc Perelman, July 29, 2005, The Forward, [1]
  44. ^ Jerusalem Post: Ken Roth's blood libel
  45. ^ dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901045.html The Washington Post: Diversionary Strike On a Rights Group
  46. ^ Boycotting Israel: New pariah on the block, The Economist, September 13, 2007.
  47. ^ Ha'aretz columnist dropped by British Zionists, JTA, August 31, 2007.
  48. ^ Ittijah: Statement on Israel’s Pronouncement to Boycott
  49. ^ JTA: Playing fast and loose with the facts at NGO Monitor
  50. ^ Derfner, Larry (2009-07-22). "Rattling the Cage: The smearing of human rights organizations". The Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277865531&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. Retrieved 2009-08-18. 
  51. ^ [2]
  52. ^ Richardson, John (2009-10). "Why Is This Good Man Getting Hung Out to Dry?". Esquire Magazine. http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/marc-garlasco-nazi-controversy-101309. Retrieved 2010-03-29. 
  53. ^ BenOr Staff
  54. ^ Jewish group pays PR firm co-owned by its president
  55. ^ Didi Remez: Bring on the transparency (Haaretz, Nov. 26, 2009)
  56. ^ Who's Monitoring the Monitor?
  57. ^ NGO Monitor Press Release: Dutch Government Funding for Antisemitic "Electronic Intifada"
  58. ^ [3]
  59. ^ http://www.ikonrtv.nl/daw/uitzending.asp?lIntItem=3&lIntEntityId=266
  60. ^ Mourning on International Human Rights Day
  61. ^ Does Arab Money Fund Left-wing Israeli NGOs?
  62. ^ practices of democracy do not sit comfortably with Greens or Labor eggheads

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