DATE: 24 November 2004
TYPE: Action Item
SCOPE: Global
SUBJ: New Israel Fund Supports Anti-Israel School
A JAT member forwarded to us an article by Joseph Lerner of
IMRA (see below) that reported on a so-called "School for
Peace" in Israel that is supported by The New Israel Fund
and that promotes anti-Israel sentiments.
This is the same New Israel Fund that once sponsored a
touring theatrical group that performed anti-Israel,
anti-Jewish skits in schools. Their skits inverted facts and
turned history on its head, for example by portraying Jews
committing terrorist acts against Arabs. A tipoff to the
nature of the tour group was their request that all Jewish
and Israeli symbols be removed from the auditorium of the
Boston-area Jewish day school in which the performance was
to be presented. (To his shame, the principal of the school
acquiesced to this demand, stripping the room of its Israeli
flag and Jewish articles.) It would appear that a common
theme of New Israel Fund projects is a denial of the Jewish
character of Israel and the assumption that Arab minority
citizens should not have to identify with the State.
ACTION
------
1. Write to the leaders of the New Israel Fund protesting
their support of a school that refuses to identify with
the State of Israel by refusing to celebrate its national
independence day and whose staff promotes the destruction
of the Jewish state by turning it into yet another Arab
country.
2. Share this information with other supporters of Israel.
CONTACT INFO
------------
The New Israel Fund
1101 14th Street NW, Sixth Floor
Washington, DC 20005-5639
phone: 202-842-0900
fax: 202-842-0991
web: http://www.nif.org/
President
Peter Edelman
email: info@nif.org
Chief Operating Officer
Marc Breslaw
email: marc@nif.org
Chief Financial Officer
Doug Maas
email: doug@nif.org
IMRA ARTICLE BY JOSEPH LERNER
-----------------------------
An Anti-Israel School for Peace?
Dr. Joseph Lerner
24 August 2004
http://www.imra.org
One of the most prominent visitor's installations in Israel
is the School for Peace located at Neve Shalom -- Wahat al
Salam, a joint Jewish-Arab village halfway between Jerusalem
and Tel-Aviv. Eitan Bronstein directs its youth section.
His attitudes appear in Haaretz Magazine 13 August '04 which
reports his saying: "[O]ne of the achievements of the Left
is that it succeeds in turning the word 'settlement' into a
curse."
Regarding the return of Palestinian refugees to within
Israel, he told Haaretz: "I don't know who will want to
return, but whoever wants to -- let them return -- and if
the result is that there will not be a Jewish state, then
there won't."
This attitude is reflected in his conspicuously not
celebrating Israeli Independence Day.
As a matter of personal opinion, his attitude may be fully
acceptable. But Bronstein is not a private individual. He is
intensively involved in a program whose purpose is to
inculcate values.
Is the message he conveys consistent with responsibilities
of the director of the youth section of School for Peace
which is dedicated to promoting peace through a joint Jewish
- Arab school?
While the school and its financial contributor, The New
Israel Fund, may disavow Bronstein's stance, they carry a
clear responsibility for providing the position from which
he can promote his attitudes to the students.
Consequently, if the school and the Fund take exception they
should see that he be dismissed.
Over a week has passed since the article has been published.
The silence is in sharp contrast to the media circus and
institutional responses that would have followed if the
director of the youth section of an institution associated
with the national camp expressed an equally radical position
on the pages of Haaretz.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
---------------------
The full name of the school is "Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salem:
School for Peace (SFP)". See the following New Israel Fund
web page for their description of it:
http://www.nif.org/content.cfm?id=1525&currbody=1
For Daniel Pipes's comments, see:
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/314
Here is a comment on this matter from the village of Neve
Shalom Wahat Al-Salem (NSWAS):
http://nswas.com/media/reports_following_zochrot_article.html
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