Israel: ACRI Condemns Unprecedented Smear Campaign

ACRI Condemns Unprecedented Smear Campaign Against New Israel Fund, Naomi Chazan

JERUSALEM - February 2, 2010 - The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) condemns in the strongest terms the slanderous, ugly, and manipulative campaign targeting our longtime partner, the New Israel Fund (NIF), and its president, Professor Naomi Chazan, by the organization Im Tirtzu.

The Im Tirtzu campaign, launched in recent days, borders on the limits of libel, and aims to delegitimize the NIF. The organization has specifically targeted NIF Chairwoman Naomi Chazan through the use of highly offensive imagery in both online and print campaign advertisements.

ACRI, Israel's leading human rights organization, is proud to be counted among the civil society organizations whose important work was made possible through the dedicated support of the NIF. For over thirty years, the NIF has worked to ensure social justice and the equality of social and political rights for all members of Israeli society by empowering hundreds of civil society organizations. Without the NIF and its grantees, Israelis would be living in a much less democratic, equitable, and pluralistic society.

Professor Chazan, a former Member of Knesset, is renowned the world over as an accomplished academic and politician as well as for her commitment to ethical leadership, integrity, and a just Israeli society. She is a source of immense pride for Israel and the NIF family.

The current offensive focuses on delegitimizing the NIF and its grantees, including ACRI, which contributed testimony used in the Goldstone Report. This is a particularly bleak example of the way in which those who seek to discredit Israeli human tights NGOs refuse to deal with the uncomfortable reality and instead disparage the NIF and Israeli human rights organizations.

For over a year starting during Operation Cast Lead itself, ACRI and other Israeli human rights organizations have called for the establishment of a credible and independent Israeli investigation of the operation. The Attorney General was repeatedly implored to launch an investigation. Had the State initially responded, the results of the report may have been different - or it may not have come to be at all.

While Im Tirtzu's campaign discusses the damage that the Goldstone Report has caused to Israel's public image, it is in fact the government's policy decisions - from its handling of the operation to its refusal to establish an independent Israeli investigation - that have damaged Israel's image in the eyes of the world.

Hagai El-Ad, ACRI's Executive Director: "If the trends of the delegitimization and silencing of human rights defenders in Israel succeed, the price will be paid not 'only' by Israeli civil society organizations and human rights activists; it will be paid by Israeli democracy and its citizens."

At this time, we stand with the NIF fully when its critical role for Israeli society is more crucial than ever. Moreover, we call on all members of Israeli society who care about this country's image - and more importantly its democratic soul - to reject the slanderous endeavors of groups such as Im Tirtzu
and together strive for democracy in our country.

ENDS

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