Palestinian NGOs after own agendas
Fri, Jun. 17, 2005
Because the U.S. Congress doesn't trust President Mahmoud Abbas or his Palestinian Authority, it rejected the Bush administration's request to appropriate $200 million for the struggling Palestinian government.
Instead, the PA will receive just $50 million. The balance will be lavished upon Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that already receive tens of millions in foreign handouts annually, supposedly to improve lives of impoverished people. Do our leaders have any idea about the NGOs' sordid reputation?
''This is a huge slap in the face for Abbas,'' Edward Abington, PA advisor and former U.S. consul general in Israel, tells me. ``NGOs have political agendas, and many are scams that rake off donor money for their own purposes.''
Abington is not alone. A new Palestinian movement -- KAFA (''enough'' in Arabic) -- has launched an aggressive campaign against ''deep-seated financial, moral and administrative corruption'' permeating many NGOs. KAFA discovered that they also illegally dole out foreign charitable contributions to politicians.
Gerald Steinberg, editor of Israel's NGO Monitor (www.ngo monitor.org) charges, ``Instead of providing development assistance, most money either disappears or is used for political propaganda. [Donors] are unwilling to expose illegal actions, preferring to deal with these problems quietly, which usually means sweeping them under the rug.''
The Ford Foundation is a perfect example. For years, it funded the 90-member Palestine NGO Network that egregiously supports terrorists and engages in virulent anti-Semitic activity. At the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, it proposed a resolution to cut off all contact between the Jewish state and other nations. Two years ago, one of its NGOs masquerading as a human-rights organization, was disbanded. Its founders -- prominent attorneys -- were caught pocketing 40 percent of the $10 million received from Western institutions, including the Ford Foundation. After meeting with U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who conducted a probe of Palestinian NGOs, foundation president Susan Beresford agreed to ''stop funding subversive groups,'' admitting she had no clue how Ford's cash was spent.
Overtly political
After 9/11, the State Department ruled that to qualify for additional aid, NGOs must stop assisting terrorism. They refused, issuing a preposterous statement: ''It isn't clear on what basis the definition of terrorist acts has been set.'' After funds were cut off, some recanted, greedily jumping back on the gravy train.
''The money can be tracked,'' Steinberg contends, ``but political will is lacking. USAID and other agencies tend to be captured by their clients, developing sympathy for their causes.''
Most NGOs are overtly political. Hanan Ashwari, Palestinian Legislative Council member, runs Miftah (www.miftah.org), which boasts that it fosters understanding and humanitarianism. Yet, it constantly berates Israel (and sometimes the United States) but never condemns suicide bombers. Rumors persist that Ashwari dips into her organization's treasury to buttress a luxurious lifestyle while doing nothing for the downtrodden.
''When's the last time she dared set foot in a refugee camp?'' wonders a skeptical Palestinian journalist.
Stop The Wall (www.stopthewall.org), a coalition of NGOs (including Miftah), coordinates a grass-roots mobilization to destroy the security barrier Israel is building to thwart terrorist incursions.
Compassionate do-gooders
Yet, a Niagara of currency from Europe and Canada flows nonstop into NGO coffers with few checks and balances. The United Nations reports that despite this assistance, the West Bank-Gaza poverty rate hit 63 percent last year with two million Palestinians living on less than $2 per day. Unemployment tops 70 percent.
Israel's Draconian travel restrictions, its occupation and destruction of infrastructure caused by prolonged fighting are partially to blame. However, for more than 30 years I've been visiting the territories where misery and squalor have always been omnipresent, except for those shameless thieves posing as compassionate do-gooders who enrich themselves at the expense of penniless Palestinians.