Europeans Fund Anti-Israel Libels

In May 2014, Zochrot-a radical Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO)- was the focus of widespread mainstream media coverage featuring its iNakba mobile application (app). Articles on the app and Zochrot were published The New York Times, The Washington Post, Haaretz, The Christian Science Monitor, Time Magazine, and several prominent blogs. Most, including The New York Times, promoted Zochrot's agenda while others, such as The Washington Post, included some criticism.Designed and promoted as a vehicle for drawing attention- particularly among journalists-to the Palestinian narrative of the 1948 war, iNakba features an interactive map and photos of pre-1948 Arab villages and encourages the of return narrative through crowd sourcing. As stated by The New York Times, Perhaps the app's greatest promise is its social component-users can upload photos and videos, or 'follow' villages to virtually recreate lost communities.1 Small wonder that the release of the app was timed to coincide with Israel's sixty-sixth Independence Day (May 15) and the Nakba (catastrophe) as Palestinians and Arabs call this event.While Zochrot has promoted this inverted narrative of historic injustice for many years, its sudden transformation from a fringe political NGO into a major media attraction was made possible by a steep increase funding from European governments, often channeled through Christian international development and humanitarian aid organizations without any public scrutiny or parliamentary control. This funding grew from some 950,000 NIS (Israeli new shekels) 2005 to 1,868,485 NIS (more than $500,000) 2013.2 Such funding is far from unique and can be viewed as a showcase for a wider phenomenon: the central role of European governments and Christian aid organizations promoting a radical, anti-Israel agenda.BackgroundZochrot was founded 2002 with the aims of raising] public awareness of the Palestinian Nakbd' and promoting the recog-nition and realization of the of return of Palestinian refugees to places that are now part of the state of Israel.3 Needless to say, this supposed right is irreconcilable with any peace process based on the two-state solution, officially endorsed by many governments, and is tantamount to destroying Israel through demographic subversion (to use historian Effaim Karsh's words), though in addressing non-Arab audiences, Palestinians have been less than genuine about their objectives, presenting this 'right' as humanitarian, as grounded international law and as a long-overdue redress of historical injustice.4 Initially estimated at 600,000-750,000 individuals, the Palestinian refugee status has been uniquely perpetuated for over six decades and now comprises more than five million people, including second and third generation individuals.5Zochrot's activities and agenda strongly reflect rhetoric demonizing Israel and originating from the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference, which included approximately 1,500 NGOs and was characterized by anti-Semitic displays as starkly illustrated by the Forum's final decla-ration that accused Israel of numerous crimes, including apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and genocide. Article 425 of the declaration advocated a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state.6The Durban strategy outlined the final declaration became the template for anti-Israel campaigns that followed and initiated the disproportionate and unsubstantiated allegations of human rights violations, war crimes, and racism as forms of political warfare designed to isolate Israel internationally. Many of the NGO participants, including Zochrot, have implemented this coordinated strategy against Israel-isolation and demonization the international arena.Zochrot declares support for a deZionized Palestine and refers to Israel as having an ethnicized and racialized Zionist system. …