Lobby Watch 20 July 2011
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/bds Exposing the network of funders, NGOs, and tactics that make up the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Shows the powerful influence of NGOs and their funders in targeting Israel. Through the support of the European Union, individual European governments, and private foundations, NGOs fuel the BDS movement, a key component of the political war to demonize and isolate Israel. The open taps provide the means for NGOs to pursue these goals.
A new video from NGO Monitor promotes a project to expose the network of funding behind the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. NGO Monitor is an extreme right-wing Israeli organization with close ties to the Israeli government, the West Bank settler movement, the military and notorious Islamophobes in the United States.
They say the European Union funds Human Rights Watch, the Alternative Information Center, Amnesty International, BADIL, Coalition of Women for Peace, Mada al-Carmel: Arab Center for Applied Social Research, PACBI, and The Electronic Intifada, and all of these organizations work to delegitimize Israel through “campus activity, holocaust rhetoric and flotillas.” The video was posted to YouTube today, but the “BDS Sewer System” was launched in March 2011 to respond to Israel Apartheid Week activities around the world.
In typical NGO Monitor style, they provide no evidence to back up these claims. When I clicked on the links for the various types of groups and tactics, I expected to see names of organizations and articles to support their claims. Instead, the BDS sewer system is merely a glossary of these terms. What is most stunning is the shoddy effort. The web site features a splash screen that forces the user to wait 10 seconds before being redirected to a page that makes a very obnoxious screeching sound for a few more seconds. Then the user is taken to a large image with very tiny and unreadable text. Apparently NGO Monitor is not at all interested in “educating” people who are blind or have low vision and who use assistive technologies to browse the web.
The BDS sewer system has room for everyone. In addition to The Electronic Intifada, Amnesty International and others, labor unions, churches and the United Nations are linked in this network of funding, advocacy and activism. NGO Monitor’s latest collective smear is part of the broad campaign of “sabotage” and “attack” being mounted by Israel against the Palestine solidarity movement.
These baseless and defamatory smears of law-abiding and principled organizations from NGO Monitor are not new, as The Electronic Intifada itself learned when it became a main target of an NGO Monitor defamation and fabrication campaign last year. NGO Monitor’s stock in trade is to trump up accusations against other organizations and accuse them of lacking transparency, while doing all it can to conceal its own funding sources and affiliations.
However, this is a new low in terms of quality and strategy. Compared to the slickly produced marc3pax and Zed Films videos from last month, the “BDS Sewer System” has low production values. To release a video in July for a project that was launched in March reveals a lack of a social media strategy.
Unfortunately, NGO Monitor won’t be receiving any of this constructive feedback from its friends.
Comments
I'm sure they appreciate the
Permalink Anonymous replied on
I'm sure they appreciate the free publicity.
Israel; Sewers Are Us!
Permalink Miss Costello replied on
What a bloody racket! Even if I WANTED to look/ listen to pathetic Israeli propaganda, I wouldn't / couldn't stand the din! If this is the best they can come up with to demonize BDS and the 'people of good conscience' all around the world working together, we're home and dry!
They did get one thing right tho' - the sewer system they live by.
Irrelevant argument
Permalink Liam S. replied on
"The web site features a splash screen that forces the user to wait 10 seconds before being redirected to a page that makes a very obnoxious screeching sound for a few more seconds. Then the user is taken to a large image with very tiny and unreadable text. Apparently NGO Monitor is not at all interested in 'educating' people who are blind or have low vision and who use assistive technologies to browse the web." - This section weakens your argument. Those who cannot read small text can increase the magnification on their screen, and the sound can be muted so no screeching sound is heard. Who cares, anyway? The point should be to counter the ridiculous claims of this website, not smear them with back-handed attacks.