NGO Monitor
Encyclopedia
NGO 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.
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", and the U.S.-based Wechsler Family Foundation, but became an independent organization in 2007, registered with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations in Israel.
, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University
and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post
.
Its staff includes:
and from Harry Wechsler. Nina Rosenwald, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)
, is another NGO Monitor donor. Major donors include: the Ben & Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Baltimore; the MZ Foundation, Oakland; Klarman Family Foundation, Boston; Middle East Forum Education Project, Philadelphia.
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.
NGO Monitor maintains an online directory of NGOs worldwide, 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,, the Durban strategy
of divestment and boycott, as well as considerable discussion regarding the 2009 Durban Review Conference
.
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. NGO’s such as Amnesty International
, B'Tselem
and Physicians for Human Rights
were invited to speak but declined. 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".
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." Human Rights Watch
, Other NGOs in the focus have been Amnesty International
, Oxfam
, the Center for Constitutional Rights
and Médecins Sans Frontières
.
NGO Monitor published in 2009 a monograph entitled “Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of Human Rights Watch
” 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."
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. 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.” 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.”
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. The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs. 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
.
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".
NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund
, which states that its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy", 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." 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, 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."
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." NGO Monitor decried NIF’s use of “uncivil rhetroric” including being accused of "McCarthyism
", being called “extremist”, and
more.
On October 12, 2006, NGO Monitor made a submission to the government of the United Kingdom
on the funding of Israeli NGOs.
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
.
, 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."
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. 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.
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", 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.
In 2007, The Economist
and Jewish Telegraphic Agency
identify NGO Monitor as a pro-Israel non-governmental organization.
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.
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.
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.
In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying that "NGO Monitor...conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".
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
.
Didi Remez, a spokesperson for the Peace Now group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting, (which was co-founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami
of J Street), 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."
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.
NGO Monitor published a press release in 2010 regarding Electronic Intifada
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." 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.
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."
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".
The Australian
refers to NGO Monitor as a "human rights watchdog."
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
based in Jerusalem, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
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.
NGO Monitor in its mission statement
Mission statement
A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making...
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
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
, an organization which says it has "developed and implemented an array of cutting-edge programs to present Israel's case to the world", and the U.S.-based Wechsler Family Foundation, but became an independent organization in 2007, registered with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations in Israel.
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. SteinbergGerald M. Steinberg
Gerald M. Steinberg is an Israeli academic and political scientist.-Biography:Gerald M. Steinberg obtained his doctorate in government from Cornell University, in 1981. M.A. Government Department, Cornell University, 1978. M.Sc. Physics Department, University of California, San Diego, 1975. B.A...
, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
.
Its staff includes:
- Gerald M. SteinbergGerald M. SteinbergGerald M. Steinberg is an Israeli academic and political scientist.-Biography:Gerald M. Steinberg obtained his doctorate in government from Cornell University, in 1981. M.A. Government Department, Cornell University, 1978. M.Sc. Physics Department, University of California, San Diego, 1975. B.A...
, 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. - 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 AffairsJerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
and from Harry Wechsler. Nina Rosenwald, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
, is another NGO Monitor donor. Major donors include: the Ben & Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Baltimore; the MZ Foundation, Oakland; Klarman Family Foundation, Boston; Middle East Forum Education Project, Philadelphia.
The amount of funding the NGO Monitor receives is disclosed in its annual report
Annual report
An annual report is a comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance...
, which is posted to its official webpage in its annual report.
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".NGO Monitor maintains an online directory of NGOs worldwide, 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,, the Durban strategy
Durban Strategy
The 2001 World Conference against Racism , also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001....
of divestment and boycott, as well as considerable discussion regarding the 2009 Durban Review Conference
Durban Review Conference
The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism , also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland...
.
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. NGO’s such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
and Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights was founded in 1986 by a small group of doctors who believed the unique scientific expertise and authority of health professionals could bring human rights violations to light and provide justice for victims...
were invited to speak but declined. 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".
NGO Monitor has criticized several major international human rights organizations, such as Christian Aid
Christian Aid
Christian Aid is the official relief and development agency of 40 British and Irish churches and works to support sustainable development, alleviate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia...
, for ignoring "Palestinian responsibility in the conflict" and minimizing "Israel’s right to self-defense." Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Other NGOs in the focus have been Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
, the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...
and Médecins Sans Frontières
Médecins Sans Frontières
' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...
.
NGO Monitor published in 2009 a monograph entitled “Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
” 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
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
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."
NGO Monitor released a document comparing Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence during the Second Sudanese Civil War
Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s....
to their treatment of Israel. NGO Monitor said that Amnesty International issued 7 reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel. 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.” 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.”
The organization formerly criticized the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
for funding the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which took place in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, which it accuses of condoning violence against Israel. The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs. 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
New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund is a U.S. based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.-Ideology:...
.
NGO Monitor also states that B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
, 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".
NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund
New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund is a U.S. based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.-Ideology:...
, which states that its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy", 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
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
, Peter Edelman
Peter Edelman
Peter B. Edelman is a lawyer, policy maker, and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Edelman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father worked as a lawyer and his mother worked as a home-maker...
, who described NGO Monitor's criticism as "un-democratic and un-Jewish" and "inherently and fundamentally flawed." 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, 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."
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
Durban Strategy
The 2001 World Conference against Racism , also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001....
to isolate Israel." NGO Monitor decried NIF’s use of “uncivil rhetroric” including being accused of "McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
", being called “extremist”, and
more.
On October 12, 2006, NGO Monitor made a submission to the government of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on the funding of Israeli NGOs.
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
Durban Strategy
The 2001 World Conference against Racism , also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001....
”: The Emergence of an Antisemitic Global Movement" explaining in detail the Canadian government funding for NGOs promoting the Durban Strategy
Durban Strategy
The 2001 World Conference against Racism , also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001....
.
Reception
In a 2004 article for the Political Research AssociatesPolitical Research Associates
Political Research Associates , named and known on the Web as PublicEye.org, is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.-Mission:...
, 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."
In an op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
published in 2005 by Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
, 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
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
— 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. The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
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.
Kathleen Peratis, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has criticized, in 2006, NGO Monitor for accusations against Human Right Watch and its "executive director, whose father fled Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
". Peratis took issue with an op-ed by NGO Monitor's Gerald Steinberg titled "Ken Roth's Blood Libel", 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.
In 2007, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
and Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world. The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and...
identify NGO Monitor as a pro-Israel non-governmental organization.
Ittijah
Ittijah
Ittijah or "Union of Arab Community-Based Associations" is a network for Palestinian non-governmental organizations founded in 1995 in Israel...
, 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.
Uriel Heilman, a Managing Editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world. The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and...
(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.
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.
In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying that "NGO Monitor...conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".
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
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
.
Didi Remez, a spokesperson for the Peace Now group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting, (which was co-founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically...
of J Street), 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."
David Newman
David Newman (political geographer)
David Newman is a British-Israeli scholar in political geography and geopolitics. He serves as professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Department of Politics and Government and editor of the academic journal Geopolitics...
, a professor of political geography
Political geography
Political geography is the field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures...
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.
NGO Monitor published a press release in 2010 regarding Electronic Intifada
Electronic Intifada
The Electronic Intifada is a not-for-profit, independent online publication which covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective, "aimed at combating the pro-Israeli, pro-American spin" its editors believe exists in mainstream media accounts.-History:EI was founded by Ali...
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." 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.
Jennifer Rubin
Jennifer Rubin (journalist)
Jennifer Rubin is an American columnist and a blogger for the Washington Post. Previously she worked at Commentary Magazine, the Pajamas Media, Human Events, and the Weekly Standard...
, writing in the Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
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."
Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
, in an article written by Nathan Jeffay in January 2011, says that NGO Monitor is "Israel’s most prominent watchdog of human rights groups".
The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
refers to NGO Monitor as a "human rights watchdog."
See also
- Criticism of Amnesty InternationalCriticism of Amnesty InternationalCriticism of Amnesty International includes claims of selection bias, ideological/foreign policy bias against either non-Western countries, or Western-supported countries, AI's policies relating to abortion, and organisational continuity...
- Criticism of Human Rights WatchCriticism of Human Rights WatchThe international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch has been accused by critics of being influenced by United States government policy, in particular in relation to reporting on Latin America; ignoring anti-Semitism in Europe or being anti-Semitic; biases in relation to the...
- NGOWatchNGOWatchNGOWatch initially operated between 2003 and 2007 and was relaunched in May 2009. Its stated goal is to monitor the activities of non-governmental organizations and their impact on public policy...
News articles related to NGO Monitor
- NGO Monitor slams German agency for Durban II coverage by Benjamin Weinthal, The Jerusalem Post, February 25, 2010
- NGO Monitor turns to EU court for transparency by Dan Izenberg, The Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2010
- Right of Reply: Who's afraid of NGO Monitor? byh Naftali Balanson, The Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2009
- Israel, Aid Groups Have Long Feuded By Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service, January 14, 2009