From NGO Monitor: Introducing The BDS Sewer System

NGO Monitor has come out with the BDS Sewer System, detailing the sources behind the BDS movement:

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, the group NGO Monitor has announced its efforts to combat Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) with the “BDS Sewer System” which provides detailed information, in graphic form, on the sources of delegitimization campaigns against Israel.


The “Sewer System” responds to the needs of Israel advocates, especially on college campuses, representatives from NGO Monitor said.

“Students and faculty need accurate and relevant information to combat Israeli Apartheid Week and other delegitimization campaigns they face on campus,” says Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, a research institution that tracks nongovernmental organizations.

...“This ‘Sewer System’ map details and explains the complex network of non-governmental organizations and their funders that lead this campaign. Most importantly, it is a tool for students to demonstrate the illiberal and ‘anti-human rights’ nature of the movements they face on campus.”

While some of the sources of funding for such groups actually agree with their agenda, there is government and private funding that go to NGOs in the mistaken belief that the money is going to groups promoting human rights, humanitarian aid, democracy and civil society. Instead, there are NGOs that are diverting this money to support BDS activity in pursuit of their own political agendas.

As an example:

The Dutch government, Jason Edelstein of NGO Monitor said, channeled funding to the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), which claims to be an “aid organization.” But then ICCO funded Electronic Intifada, one of the leading groups promoting BDS.

“The Dutch government didn’t know this until we showed it to them, via The Jerusalem Post,” Edelstein said. “So ICCO of course knew how the money was being used, but the Dutch government did not.”

Such groups exploit the absence of strict guidelines, oversight, accountability and evaluations of decision making--not the sort of thing one would expect of groups claiming to support human rights--and openness.

The bottom line is that NGO Monitor's BDS Sewer System graphically illustrates the extreme agendas and hate-filled language associated with the groups behind Israel Apartheid Week--revealing an aspect of these groups that was being hidden from these students.

But not any more.


Technorati Tag: BDS and Israel+Apartheid+Week and BDS Sewer System.