Tuesday, March 10, 2015

New Israel Fund: Partnering to Harm Israel

From A7, 9 March 2015, by Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR, 1 of the 25 largest PR Agencies in the US:

This weekend, Rachel Liel, Israel director of the New Israel Fund (NIF) was featured in an article in Ynet, the online version of Yediot Achronot.  While NIF faces intense heat surrounding their support for BDS and other Anti-Israel campaigns, Liel took the opportunity to list some of NIF’s politically-correct work, including projects which benefit ultra-Orthodox women, work to end discrimination in the workplace, and other campaigns which are hard to challenge.

Liel ignored the fact that much of NIF’s $30 Million is spent on projects which harm the State of Israel. 

YNET’s journalist also neglected to mention the fact that Rachel Liel’s husband, Alon is one of the world’s leading organizers of world boycotts against Israel. 

Alon Liel, Israel's former ambassador to South Africa, is a member of two organizations which receive large funding from NIF.  He is on the management team of Ir Amim, which works against Jewish interests in Jerusalem, and is also a member of the extremem left B'Tselem Public Council.

Alon Liel supports a cultural boycott of Israel, having supported author Alice Walker’s Anti-Semitic refusal to allow a Hebrew translation of her bestseller “The Color Purple.” He works extensively worldwide on PR campaigns which harm Israel, working to generate headlines which read “Boycott My Country.” 

He holds radical viewpoints which the majority of Israelis, even those on the left, oppose, from calling on High School trips to the Golan to be cancelled as they are “a provocation to peace”, to claiming that the  boycott is a “more pressing issue than the Iran issue.”  Liel has endorsed an academic boycott against Israeli academic institutions, and has called Jonathan Pollard a traitor.

Liel noted, “The simple act of marking settlement products differently to Israeli products pulls the rug from under the refusal to declare a border. I buy Israeli products every day and do my best not to buy Israeli products from the Occupied Territories. I don't see why you, living outside Israel, shouldn't have the same choice."  Actress Scarlett Johansson was rightfully applauded for not giving in to BDS from across the Pro-Israel spectrum on this very issue – and Liel’s remarks must be condemned.

The Liel’s seem like two peas in a pod.

Last week, Rachel Liel had an interview in Yediot Achronot, where she referred to accusations that NIF organizations handed information to the infamous UN Goldstone Commission by claiming that “The information was taken from publications and from websites and was not actively delivered to Goldstone.”

At the same time, Adala, a major NIF organization claims the opposite on their website, as they note “This week, seven human rights organizations based in Israel presented a report to the UN Fact-Finding team investigating allegations of war crimes during “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza, led by Justice Richard Goldstone."

No room for doubt. The New Israel Fund is a radical organization which harms Israel.

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