Letting the butcher
take care for the cow – NGOs in
"This way to explain the world, without any reference
for the rich and the poor, weak and strong, north and south, and very popular
in
The absolute majority of struggles for human rights in
Why does the occupation really continues, and why the
cancer epidemic and car incidents occur? And who make money from the damage in
the expression right and protest right? And who have the interest in prolonging
all these injustices?
For these things, human rights organizations do not refer.
Why? Don't they understand that in effort to stop the human
rights depression, there is a need to refer to the motivations and to the
interested people that stand behind it?
The sources of all human rights violations are found in the
historic and global process in which the wealthy people center more and more
wealth and power to their hands, on behalf the public expense and while
damaging its rights.
This process is known very well for us from the history
books. From the days of the first
It seems, In the social order perceived by us, that the
human rights organizations are actually a fig leaf, serve as a way to get the
cooperation of the public with the policy wanted by the big businesses, which
are in conflict with the public's needs.
The situation is an irony: the praising of the values of
liberty and freedom by the human right organizations, undermines those very
same values, by quietening the exploited, divided and
conquered public.
The meaning of that is that the human rights organizations,
which glorify themselves with the promoting of unified morality and moral
progress, are actually strengthening the power and fortune system, and deepens
the class gap, which characterizes all history and the most violent and racist
societies. Do they do this
deliberately?
"
In her way of working for human rights but without politic involvement,
the fund created a field of action in which you can not ask the question that
is in the basis of the documented violence: why is this violence happening,
who’s interest does it serves?" ." (“The Shock Doctrine”, 148)
let’s have a look at the human rights violation in
The threat of deportation over the migrant workers, create
a fear, which enable to exploit them as cheap work force without rights. This
creates unemployment, which threatens the Israeli workers and forces them to
except their own employment.
The common diseases are mostly a result of comprehensive
free hand given to the industries to spread materials and products known as
diseases factors (poisons).
The road accidents, traffic congestion, traffic pollution
and other traffic problems, are the result of promoting private transportation
and not safer, cleaner, cheaper and more effective public transportation. This
policy benefits the transportation industries (cars, oil, road, insurance,
ext).
The Israeli (economic) control over the Palestinian territories
is also motivated by big businesses’ interests: the military and political
occupation enables the economic control, the market occupation. By denying
local (Palestinian) industry development, and blocking the
In fact, every public policy we will look at, is derived by
a privet (businesses) interests (because they, the big businesses, are
activating most of the pressure on the public policy and public discussion),
and it would be obvious, that every approach to such matter, would refer to
that.
In order to understand the NGOS' ignoring the
"Who" and the "why" (the big businesses' interests) behind
the oppression, we need to take a closer look in the way they are managed.
The businesses which are responsible for the human rights
violation / public policies that have a negative effect on the public are aware
of their effect, and in order to keep their control and deny public arousing
and civil protest, they aspire to limit the public discussion. Therefore, those
businesses finance and control the human right organizations themselves and
determined there activity. And so, instead of allowing deep discussion of the
general public, the organizations are limiting the discussion to the violations
itself, and direct the discussion into a negotiation between administrative institutions,
which are liable for bribe, opportunism, and other influence by the big
businesses. The borders of the discussion are being set between the
governmental organization and the nongovernmental organization, all pretending
to represent the general public. Within these borders, the human rights
violation are presented and expelled as abnormal; the motives for those
violations are not examined; and the public accept the “failure” of the NGOs
that “represent” him, without protest, and in a feeling of gratefulness for the
“help” given to them. Little improvements, usually false impression, are
presented as big success of the NGOs and are used to gain more public
trust.
In some of the NGOs (mainly the biggest, like the "War
on Cancer" association and "Or Yarok"
– against road accidents"), we can see direct control and financing by the
interested businesses (drug, chemicals, food, transportation, energy and other
industries).
In most NGOs, the control and financing by the interests is
less direct, through funds, presenting themselves to the public as
philanthropic and as Investment Funds or as businesses to their
donators/investors.
"In fact, there is not any significant social
organization the does not owe its existence to the [New Israel] fund – from the
Civil Right Organization, through the Child Welfare Council and the Governance’s
Quality Movement to the El-Azama Tribe Board of Parents."
(Don't take power from others – give them the power", Ruty
Sinay, "haaretz"
newspaper).
In
“It is not surprising
that when the fund dive into dealing with human rights, it defined the
discipline in the most narrow way possible, […] because every serious
investigation trying to track the purposes that the oppression serve […] would
have lead […] to ford foundation" (“The Shock Doctrine” 147)
Those foundations are managed the past decades by high rank
former C.I.A. and U.S.AID (United States Agency for International Development – which is actually a Subsidiary C.I.A. organization)
seniors. It is well known that those organizations served mainly for the
violent occupation of American corporations over markets (societies) all over
the world. Using the excuses of "defeating communism", "bringing
democracy and peace", "fighting terrorism", or "defending
human rights", they all in all promote the financial interest of the
American international corporations.
In order to examine this claim, it is appropriate to look
at the history of the Ford foundation management. This organization is
consistently managed by presidents and CEO's that were also managing
organizations and international businesses that played a major part of the
biggest violations of human rights in the last seventy years. Let’s take a look
on some of the Ford foundation managers:
Luis Obins - the current
president of the Ford foundation. Served as the CEO of McKinsey & Company,
one of the biggest economies consultation companies in the world, which
represent the biggest governments and corporations in the world. Obins was responsible for the biggest privatization
projects in the world - the privatization of the governmental companies of
Richard Bisel - served as a
special assistant for the CIA chief, was responsible for the CIA programs and
controlled on most of the CIA budget.
Roen Giter
- a senior in the Rand Corporation, which dealt at first on consolation and
research for the armed forces of the
John Mcloy - worked with the CIA.
Served as an special consultant for the American Wars Affairs, as the World
Bank president, as the chairman of the Manhattan Chase bank, as the attorney of
the seven world's biggest oil companies in the united state, and as the supreme
governor of the
Henry Heild - a senior in the
biggest corporations in the united state in the field of insurance,
communication, cosmetics and metals.
Mcgeorge Bandy - the presentational consoler of
national security for the presidents Kenndy and
Johnson.
Franklin Thomas - a senior police governor, lawyer of the Federal Financing
Agency, and one of the managers of Citygroup (one of
the strongest economy groups in the world), the Pepsi corporation, the Aluminium Company of the united states (ALCOA), the huge
corporation Camings (manufacturing engines in third
world countries), and THE cellular communications corporation Lucent.
Larry Garber, the CEO of the New Israel fund, was one of the U.S.aid managers.
"And again people refer to the establishment of the
free market and its dependants on very brutal violence, like there is no
correlation between them" (“The Shock Doctrine”, 152)
The article was written out of partnership feeling of
destiny and sincere apreciation to the moral
voluntary, that itself exist in human rights organizations, but based on
history, the dry facts and our life experience, we are not allowed to trust on
human rights organizations anymore for doing our job. we need to go to a new
way. we can start in self diagnose of the information. The information
available and reveald to whoever really want's to know. Good luck.
"Shatil" organization – "New
Diverting
campaigns and organizations to a direction comfortable for fund donors'
businesses
"As said, businesses will cooperate
with an organization for social change only if they conclude they can gain from
it, or at the very least not get harmed by it. According to a research done by
"Shatil" on the social involvement of
businesses in
Which means, that according the research
which has been performed by Shatil itself, businessmen
which become partners and associates of The New Fund for Israel, thereby giving
it a financial funding ( e.g. : businessmen which are also owners of factories
that put out pollutants into the Earth's environment, exploit others, bereave
workers of their rights, and promote their own selfish interest on the expense
of general public welfare, in general ),
would not proceed to act so ( i.e.,
would not proceed to be giving any financial support for the benefit of
The New Fund for Israel ) in their turn , if The New Fund for Israel would not
have first served to promote their own ( i.e. those same businessmen’)
economical interest, to start with.
In the light of this above conclusion, then
how could one explain, for instance, the fact that the Cellcom
Company appears on the list of institutions which are included on the list of
donors to The New Israeli Fund, as shown on its annual financial report for the
year of 2,005 ( appearing on page 26 of that very report ), which so happens to
also be the same year in which "The Forum for Sane Cellular Use",
which claims itself to be an umbrella organization which represents those who
object to the current prevalence of radiation which has its origins in cellular
communication systems ?
Lior Veronna, who works as a speaker on the behalf of the
Cellular communication companies, has given once the following explanation,
which is quoted hereby: "By many ways, those same acts of civilian
enforcement which the cellular communication companies attempt to promote are
of a matching stance with the goals and activities of many
environmentally-oriented organizations, as well as other public organizations,
which also so includes The Forum for Sane Cellular Use.”
Large businesses invest a lot of money in
order to maintain and enlarge their earnings: public relations and
advertisements; lobbyists; lawyers; research institutes; they many times own
media networks; [1] they fund political parties; they hire former
and current seniors from the academy, government, media, legal system, security
system and more. Against these private interests stand organizations whose goal
is to promote public interests: organizations for social justice, human rights,
environment and public health. These organizations often demand the government to
prevent businesses from polluting, exploiting workers, deceiving customers or
selling harmful products. Anyone familiar with what is being done at this field
knows very well that these businesses work hard to influence it as well, and
that there are organizations and companies offering influencing services on
theses organizations for social change. These services are meant to help
businesses liquidate or at least to tone down these organizations' social
activity. This is done for the purpose of terminating their activities, or for
toning their activities down, in order to achieve a situation in which their
activities would not only cease to have any prospect, or effect, of interfering
with the interests of various businessmen, but even further to that, for the
purpose of shifting those very same activities, to such ones which actually
promote the interests of businessmen.
One of the largest and most powerful
organizations in the field of controlling public organizations and the liquidation
of public campaigns in
"Shatil"
(Counseling and support services for organizations for social change, funded by
"New
Israel Fund" - NIF) defines itself as operating arm of the "New
Israel Fund", an investment fund in which owners of large businesses in
Israel invest, in order to influence organizations for social change that could
jeopardize their businesses – through funding or through "management services",
"counseling" and "support". Only roughly a third of the
investments going to "Shatil" end up at the
organizations – the heads of this fund got millions of dollars rolled into
their private pockets in the past few years through this "philanthropic
fund" fraud. [4]
It is important to state that some of the
heads of the "New Israel Fund" declare themselves as former seniors
in bodies specializing in influencing governments throughout the world on the
behalf of the
A little bit on "Israel New Fund" General Manager: "Larry
Garber, 48 years old, arrived at the NIF after 5 years of management at the
USAID (United States Agency for International Development) branch in the
Garber was a member of the senior staff of
the National Democratic Institute for Foreign Affairs from 1988 to 1993 and
arranged election monitoring missions that lead to historical replacement of
governments in the Philippines, Chile, Pakistan, Panama, Bulgaria and Zambia.
He also served as and adviser to a number of governments in matters of
election-laws reform".[5]
(the following text is taken out of the
website which represents The New Fund for Israel on the Internet, specifically
from the part in their which is titled as "About the Fund" -- if for
some reason you fail to gain access to this part of that website, or if this
certain part of that website has been revision, as is often the case on instances
when a link is provided unto certain information on that site, then this
information could be viewed instead on the website which contains the archives
of the Internet )
For the purpose of assisting those readers
who are not familiar with the organizations and professional titles which were
mentioned above, the following text is provided below:
Venezuella : the
U.S. utilizes donations of money in order to weaken the stability of the Chávez regime.The
president of Venezuella blames the American USAID aid
fund of financing political subversion whose target is to topple his regime
down, and to purposefully cause Chávez to fail
at becoming re-elected as president, on future elections for presidency which
will take part in Venezuella.
Chávez
published a lengthy list which documents grants that were given to different
groups that are identified with current political opposition organizations in Venezuella.The grants which are mentioned above, were
actually proportioned beforehand, according to the exact needs of various
bodies which are considered as related to researching and promoting democracy;
according to the claims which were made by Chávez,
then those very same bodies, are actually a mean which serves the end of
receiving sums of money from the CIA, one example of which is the
"Foundation for the Promotion of Democratic Education in High
schools".
Or "The Covenant of Protection upon
Workers of Seaports", e.g., when at the end this current matter which is
at hand, deals with a sum of money which amounts to no more than a few
thousands of U.S. Dollars.
Or "The Covenant of Protection upon
Workers of Seaports", e.g., when at the end this current matter which is
at hand, deals with a sum of money which amounts to no more than a few
thousands of U.S. Dollars.
“The president of
Morales congratulated the residents of the
Bolivian county of Chuquisaca upon the event of their
county ( department ) becoming now for "A Territory Which is Devoid of
American Imperialism", as was reported by the official state news agency
of Cuba, which is called Prensa Latina ;
At the beginning of this year, one of the
counties (departments) of
It is also recommended to read the book which
is titled "From Profits of War to Dividends of Peace", and to also
search for information on those certain matters and subjects, such as the
industry of war.
In light of that, the service of influencing
organizations for social change that the fund is offering to its donors raises
a few question marks:
"How will you be able to invest and
influence? The New
A research done by YNET (largest news website
in
This is a mind-troubling piece of data, particularly
in light of the enormous influence "Shatil"
has over non-profit organizations that some of their most important activity is
the publishing of information in order to enlarge the transparency of social
bodies: Nearly all organizations for human rights, social justice,
environmental issues, minorities and other important social issues are
controlled by "Shatil" in one way or
another. When so much power is concentrated in such few hands, who were not
elected by the public, it is highly important that we know who stands at the
top of this hierarchy, what their interests are and to where their money goes.
But the Israeli public (as well as the organizations that the fund controls and
sets their activities' paths) knows very little, if any at all, about "Shatil". The common man in
Listed here are some of the ways in which the
fund (NIF/"Shatil") influences the activity
of organizations to the benefit of the business men investing in the fund (we
recommend readers to go into "Shtail"'s
website - http://www.shatil.org.il/sites/english
- and look for additional ways through which "Shatil"
controls organizations for social change in Israel, their activity and the messages
they convey to the public):
1. Funding regular activity and projects
of organizations:
As time passed, hundreds
of organizations for social change in
For instance, the main problem in the field
of labor rights is the process that is being lead by large employers (some of
which are invested in the NIF), which is to break down labor organizations and
to employ workers through personal contracts, "human resources"
companies and thereby to weaken employees' force to stand for their labor
rights and interests. [10]
Workers' organizations approaching elimination usually turn to "Kav La'oved" ("a line
for the worker") – the largest labor-rights organization in
Furthermore, an organization requesting
funding from the NIF is required to give out to the fund a lot of information
regarding their activity and lines of work. The NIF is free to pass on this
information to any of the businesses invested in the fund.
2. Assembling coalitions of organizations:
Most of the organizations for human rights
and environmental and social change in Israel work under the structure of dozens
of "coalitions" and "forums", where at the head of each
stands a coordinator, who is a worker of "Shatil"'s.
In reality, that coordinator is usually the only active decision maker at the
"coalition". The job of the coordinator is to trace down organizations
working in the field of their particular coalition and to persuade them into
abandoning their independent activity partially or completely and join their
"coalition" – meaning letting the coordinator be their spokesman. The
coordinator, again, initiates inwards activity: mainly internal gatherings and
correspondence between the activists themselves or between them and
establishment representatives, without letting information or protest out of
the organization itself. Meaning, only a so called activity that promotes the
elusion that something is being done. Sometimes the coordinator is in charge of
several coalitions in different fields, a fact that points out the lack of
intention to perform real campaigns. [12] Nonetheless,
when the issue that the coalition deals with comes to the attention of the
media and there is a public debate over it, the coordinator responds to the
matter on the behalf of the organizations under the coalition's management, and
presents the issue in a way that would not harm the interests of the businesses
invested in the NIF (who sponsors and provides most of these coordinators) that
may clash with an activist campaign. It is interesting to look at the job
description of "Shatil"'s coordinator at
the "Coalition for a Healthy Environment in Ramat
Hovav", according to their own document: "Goals
and missions of the position: arranging meetings with local committees,
collecting and processing information, documenting the work of the coalition
and helping the management of the fluent work, organizing the coalition's media
work".
This is our impression of the matter after
years of working with organizations under "Shatil".
We recommend you to personally check the activity of environmental, social
change and human rights organizations in
Israel (nearly all of them are funded by the NIF and are coordinated by "Shatil"), and see if they indeed distribute information
and strong protests (demonstrations, street displays, handing out flyers,
distributing information via chain-emails, internet clips, direct actions) – or
– if they mainly perform false displays of action towards their volunteer
activists (lectures, conferences for actives, fund raisings, applications to
the establishment and endless researches and books).
For example, in recent years many independent
researches were published which have clearly demonstrated the health damages
caused to humans by the late increase in exposure to electromagnetic radiation
(cellular phones and antennas). [13]
Many spontaneous organizations of
individuals, families or groups of neighbors had organized together against the
placing of antennas near their homes, often with significant success. Their
campaigns usually included distribution of their fight to the public through
rallies and demonstrations, publishing information on the internet and direct
action. In reaction, the NIF with the financial help of "Cellcom" (the largest cellular company in
3. Offering "social change
specializing" services:
"Shatil"
workers turn to organizations, present themselves as experts on social change, spokesmanship and political lobbyism and offer to escort
and support these organizations. In that way, they collect information on
activists and their plans; influence their decisions and screw-up their work;
take responsibility for performing various missions and avoid doing them and in
that way they many times mange to prevent these missions from ever being done.
If the campaign fails, they do not mention it on their "resume", and
if it goes on successfully despite their efforts, they take credit for it and
use it and its reputation in order to get a hold of additional campaigns. [17]
4. Offering workshops for
"specialization in social change" and empowering the myth saying
"social change requires expertise":
One of the main reasons for the passiveness
and lack of social involvement by many citizens in
Furthermore, in this way "Shatil" presents itself as an organization of experts
on social change, and makes it easier for its people to get a hold of important
positions in campaigns and organizations, as mentioned before.
5. Controlling messages distributed on the
internet:
Another one of "Shatil"'s
lines of work is trying to control messages and content distributed on the
internet. This issue is coordinated by their internet expert, Hanan Cohen. [19]
"Shatil"
operates a website that gathers
information on campaigns and organizations, in order to assemble information on
these matters for the NIF's investors and gain
control over the information that is being passed on by activists to the
public. "Shatil" use this website to
present campaigns in a way that is convenient to its investors. [20] In
addition, Cohen contacts operators of websites for social change and offers
them "support", which is basically adding a RSS chanel to their
website that allows to track changes done on it. Cohen insists of adding the
RSS by himself, by giving him the website’s password, thus giving "Shatil"
control over the website:.
"In addition to established mainstream
news channels, publishing RSS channels by websites of small organizations'
websites may bring to an exposure of their contents in other websites.
Recently, I have created on "Shatil"'s
website a page called 'headlines of social change', in which headlines from
various websites dealing with social change are gathered. Publishing all
headlines in one page allows easy reading of all information in one place, but also
so much more than that: an organization is an assembling of information an
actions made towards a mutual goal. Creating centers of information on social
change (like the page on "Shatil"'s
website) can form a base for cooperation between organizations based on
information and actions they publish anyway. Publishing the information on an
organization's website and on other organizations' websites (without effort)
could enable greater exposure of the organization's activity to people outside
of it, and encourage new people to join it and other organizations to cooperate
with it. Besides "Shatil"'s website itself,
I currently tracked down just four websites of organizations for social change
that are publishing RSS channels. I hope
that an understanding of the enormous power found in this format and the usage
of this power will allow a join of forces needed to fix society and its flaws.
I am offering assistance to any organization seeking to combine an RSS channel
on their website. The more websites there are publishing alternative
information through RSS channels, the closer we will get to realize the vision
of a true alternative news-paper […]. Hanan Cohen is
the manager of "Shatil"'s website". ("RSS
and social change revolution" by Hanan Cohen,
"Captain Internet" section, "Ha'aretz").
Meaning, the idea is that "Shatil" will gather all updates of websites working
for social change, and in that way it could strengthen their control over
issues and messages that are conveyed to the public, under the condition that
this plan will work and many people would update on news through their website.
The more Cohen succeeds in promoting "Shatil"'s
website (with significant success one must say) as a sort of head-organization
where activists update on activities and messages, the more power he will have
to decide what information to distribute and what not. This is an overwhelming
power that is found in the hands of an organizations almost completely unknown
to the public, that even organizations themselves do not know how it is being
run, how it is built or who stands behind it. An organization which is under
the “YNET” inquiry, previously mentioned, as the least visible of all the
organizations who were checked. Hanan Cohen’s project
was having this organization coordinate the social change’s news as he sees
fit.
Hanan Cohen also
operates a website called "Irrelevant".
[21] It
is meant to present as irrelevant campaigns and claims that are inconvenient to
the NIF and "Shatil"'s investors, and that
are passed on to the public through e-mail – one of the most efficient means of
distributing information that the bias mainstream media ignores due to unholy
relations between them and big companies and their owners. The website advises
on how to regard chain-letters distributed on the internet through e-mail, and
whenever a piece of information that is inconvenient to one of NIF's investors is being distributed in that way, the
website systematically recommends discarding the campaign. "Shatil" like to present itself as an organization
working for social activism, but their internet manager Hanan
Cohen is consistently blocking and suppressing social change initiatives on the
internet. [22]
For example, on his website
"Irrelevant" Hanan Cohen has advised to
ignore letters containing information on
aspartame's harmful consequences on human health, has tried to silence
information distributed on the existence of toxic chemicals in cups
manufactured by "Elit" (largest Israeli
food corporation) and animal-rights activists who called for a boycott on
"Castro" (large Israeli clothes distributer),
and more. Recently, the website posed a recommendation to
ignore and to not distribute a link to a clip made by us,
containing information on the "fluoridation" of water in
6. The privatization of the educational
system – passing the control over it to the hands of the New
The primary project of the NIF is "Project
IVN, Education Services": out of six programs that were stated on the
"Fund's
Programs", four of them were actually the same program, IVN, with a
change of name/headline. On the "About
the Fund" page on the NIF website, it said: "The New
It is important to understand how the
projects of "social marketing" work in the field of education and the
privatization of different services to foundations. It goes something like
this: an investment fund of businessmen, presenting itself as philanthropic,
offers to give 20 million shekels (about 5 million dollars) as a donation to an
important issue – an after school child care facility for Ethiopians in a remote
town for example, so that their parents could work more hours and improve their
financial situation and in that way to reduce the economic gaps in the Israeli
society. The foundation then asks the government for an additional billion
shekels (about 250 million dollars), an extra 50 million shekels from the local
authority and a little bit more from the parents. The foundation gets a shelter
or few rooms in a community center for free for this important project, hires a
bunch of minimum wage workers, who operate a few volunteers. The expenses on
the project tiny and in fact not only did the foundation not put in their
promised 20 million shekels – it ended up rolling into its pockets, for its
seniors that are invested in the foundation, 150 million shekels, and also
allowed them to launder their money (avoid tax payment) through the help of the
project and the foundation. [25]
One of the most outraging examples for social
marketing (regular business marketing on false pretences of a social project)
is the project "Tafur alai": marketing
company "Prolog" and the food and drug companies it represents
(Strauss, Teva, Promedico,
Unilever and others) run, with the support of the ministry of education, the
biggest project in Israel for "health and healthy nutrition" that is
marketed to school students – according to messages chosen by these industries
and commercial companies.(More information about this in a presentation we did
about the privatization of the pulic education
system: http://meshanim.com/h.pps)
7. Encouraging cooperation between
organizations and the businesses they are supposed to be fighting:
"Shatil"
workers present themselves as experts on fund raising to organizations for
social change and encourage organizations through workshops, tight escort and
written information to financially associate with businesses, even at the price
giving up on strategic means of action and ideological goals, and connect
organizations to businesses. [26] [27]
Shay Dawidowicz, an
activist from "Meshanim" group:
"For several months, I have been
attending meetings of the 'Forum of Organizations Fighting Unemployment'",
a coalition of dozens of known social organizations in
This conduct on the behalf S.H.A.T.I.L.
organization, and organization financed, guided and controlled by S.H.A.T.I.L.,
as it was described above, is one such whose likes i
have also witnessed in course of time, on the occasions of my participation in
various other struggles for social change. Every campaign I was initiated, I
was contacted by one or more of S.H.A.T.I.L.’S organizations, which tried to
convince me not to do this campaign, by saying that they will do everything,
that I am not qualified enough, that it is too difficult, that there is no use
in giving the information to the public or protesting and it is enough to give
the information only to the politicians, or that there isn’t really such a
problem and the newspapers are exaggerating, and other reason why I shouldn’t
do anything about what is happening. When they could’t
convince me not be be involved, is saw haw they tried
to convince other people who were active in the campaign not to help and stop
their activism. This is what happened in my campaigns about the hazards of
cellular radiation (at which S.H.A.T.I.L. have been continuously pursuing their
approach of hampering and immobilizing different local struggles); against the
privatization of the water economy (were they tried to stop my campaign using Pe'ula Yeruka ("Green
Action") and “Yedidey Kadur-Ha'Arets”
(“Friends of the Earth”)); the campaign against fluoridation and industrial
pollution (they used green organizations and parties such as “Adam, Teva', VeDin” ("Man, Nature,
and Verdict"), “Hayerukim” (the Green party), “Hatnua Hayeruka” (“Green
Movement” party) and others; In a campaign for the homeless people in, the city
of Be'er-Sheva (they used an “expert” from S.H.A.T.I.L.; a campaign against women
trafficking (they used their women rights organizations); a campaign against
illegal arrests of refugees, and a campaign against the work immigrants policy,
(they used human rights organizations); a campaign against privatization of
transportation and against road accidents (they used “megama
yeruka” organization (“green course)); a project of
creating a community center managed by the people themselves and not from above
(they used “Mahapah” organization, which controls
local struggles); and other campaigns.
An important comment!
The vast majority of activists in organizations
for social change and probably even many of the workers of "Shatil" (at least in the low and middle levels of the
organization), are wonderful people who wish to do good things. The problem is
that when an organization is centralized and there are very few policy makers,
and most organizations are built this way (similar to schools, army and other
decision making bodies), it is relatively easy to take over them, their
messages and lines of work, while exploiting their financial dependency, unawareness
and lack of thorough check of the problems on the agenda, insecurity and
tendency of people to go after people in high positions in the organization and
outside of it, naivete and greed of heads of
organizations, lack of awareness and self criticism and other weaknesses of a
centralized management. It is not an accident that "Shatil"
has built itself and the organizations working under it in a radically
hierarchical formation. We believe it is possible to overcome these weaknesses.
It is easy to see that organizations that are less centralized and more
democratic are a lot harder to gain control of from the outside and manipulate.
We advise activists in organizations: demand full transparency, demand to
participate in the decision making, check the funding sources and their
influence over your organization, always criticize, always raise problematic
issues and try to work them out, and try to base as least as possible on large
donations – experience shows that organizations that work with a small budget
or without any budget at all, are far more effective than rich organizations
which are dependent on budgets, arrangement of fund raising and a constant
desire and need to please the donors. See for instance the poor "Black
Panthers", "Green activity" (before it was taken over and given
to the hands of rich foundations), the Zapatistas' struggle in
"Shatil"'s
response to accusations against it from members of the "Forum for Sane
Cellular" in regard to the claims about conflicts of interests in Shatil and in the "Forum for Sane Cellular" (this
email was sent by Avi Dabush,
manager of the “Forum for sane cellular” http://shatil.org.il/cellular ):
Dear members of the forum [for sane
cellular],
In response to questions and wonderings
that were raised regarding the policy and activity of the New
"Shatil"
is part of the New
The new
The fund has a clear social agenda, which
is found too in all its publishing. The claim as though the fund changes its
agenda according to the interests of its donors raises heavy doubts on anyone
donating money to a social/environmental activity, and at the same time stains
the motives of anyone ever received money from an Israeli, American or any
other donor (which includes nearly all organizations for social change in
Israel).
"Shatil"
offers professional assistance to organizations working for social change. The
assistance it gives to the "Forum for Sane Cellular" is part of this
mission and is given to the forum because we at the fund and "Shatil" believe that it is the citizens' right to
influence the environment in which they live, in order to change a policy that
seems harmful and discriminating to them, and be part of the decision-making
procedure.
The decision against which bodies the
forum will act and with whom it will cooperate, as well as which strategies it
will choose in order to achieve its goal is just like in any organization –
your decision.
We will help in any way we can in the
professional field so that the forum will succeed in promoting it campaign.
We will always be happy to receive
feedback on the way "Shatil" is helping
your campaign.
Best wishes for the New Year,
Alona Vardi, coordinator of project environment and community,
"Shatil"
Carlos Stiglitz,
vice-manager of "Shatil"
Source:
Meshanim group
Meshanim.com
[1] On this matter see
for example map of media control in
[2] Taken from a report
the American fund has given to the authorities there: http://foundationcenter.org/cgi-bin/ffindershow.cgi?id=NEWI002
[3] Based on NIF's website: http://www.nif.org.il/about
[4] Taken from NIF's income tax report, page 7: http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org//990_pdf_archive/942/942607722/942607722_200412_990.pdf
[7] "Social change? Definitely. Transparency? Not
necessarily", http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1.7340.L-3257095.00.html
Following an investigation which has
lasted for three weeks, representatives of Shatil (
Services of Support and Counselling for Organizations
which promote Social Change ), being one the bodies which exerts the most
influence upon the local community of activists for social change in the State
of Israel, that Shatil is not interested at
participating in that article, or, in other words, Shatil
were not interested to be revealing to us any of their aforementioned data. The
strange explanation which they gave for this decision theirs, was given upon
their behalf by the Counsellor of communications to Shatil by the very following statement : "We are bound
from participating in this article, due to the fact that Shatil
is not an independent body which has its own legal status, but that Shatil is rather a sub-divison of
The New Fund for Israel ; this very organization ( i.e., The New Fund for
Israel ) is also active in the United States of America, where it is legally
registered as a foreign company, which expresses the will by thousands of
supporters who are spreaded around Northern America,
Europe, and Israel to make a contribution toward the strengthening and
upholding of democracy and civil society in the state of Israel. Some part of this data, as well as some of
those questions, which this certain questionnaire reffers
unto, also appear on the internet website which is operated and maintained by
U.S. Internal Revenue Service Agency ( IRS ), or also on the website of "
It is only to be asked then, how will this organization
could show a way toward making a social change, whilst at the same time, that
very organization is not willing at all to adopt for its own conduct such
elementary standards, as transparency is ?... the organization which is known
as Shatil, which was founded in the year of 1,982 by
the New Fund for Israel, has indeed been functioning since then as an
meaningful part of the local Israeli community of activist people who wish to
promote social change, and it has also won itself recognition and esteem on the
behalf of the U.N., although that in despite of that, it is however unwilling
and disinterested at sharing its financial conduct with the local public of
Israel.” "
[8] NIF website: "NIF
distributes more than $15 million annually in grants to Israeli organizations
and allocates an additional $4 million a year for SHATIL, NIF's
training and capacity building center, which annually provides technical
assistance to approximately 1000 Israeli nongovernmental organizations": http://www.nif.org/about/staff/larry-garber.html
http://www.shatil.org.il/about
The list of organizations funded by "Shatil"
can be found in their annual reports: http://www.nif.org/about/financial-informaion/financials.html
9 Based on projects the NIF has financed,
information on activities done by organizations supported by the fund, and out
of our personal experience as experienced activists in
[10]" We have managed to utilize the
recent period of recession for the benefit of changing the rules of the game,
and to promote the most dramatic revolution of all -- the dismantling of
organized labour in Israel of its former
powers... ...organized labour has been diminished during the last few decades of
its relative portion of holding 70% of the local Israeli market, down to a mere
portion of 20% only. If we should/will have been able to carry out planned
reforms in the fields of education and agriculture, then the estimated portion of
this ( i.e., organized ) labour, will/should
already by then be dropped down to even
less than ( it's currently relative portion of ) 20% " -- As been told by
Mr. Uri Yogev, a former Chief Secretary to the
Treasury in the Department of Treasury of the government of Israel, and
currently holds the office of a Senior Advisor to the President of the State of
Israel, on an interview which he had given to a local Israeli newspaper which
is called Ha'Arets ; An original quotation of that
certain interview, could be found on the following weblink
:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=423771&contrassID=2&subContrassID=6&sbSubContrassID=0
[11] According to a phone
call made with the manager of the organization.
[12] For instance, Avi Dabush coordinated both the
"Forum for Sane Cellular" and the "Forum of Organizations
Fighting Unemployment" at the same time. A list of the coalitions "Shatil" coordinates can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/2007102513715/www.shatil.org.il/site/static.asp?apd=29
[13] Information exists,
for example, in the book "Cellular – Not what you had thought, the
information that is hidden from the public" by Iris Atzmon. An official representative of Shatil who is called Avi Dabush insists to ignore the information which presented in
this book, as well as he also insists to ignore any any
related information which was gathered from researches which had been performed
in this same field, and so Avi Dabsh
chooses on any given occassion or circumstance to
present to people his own lies, as he claims that there are no reports of any
empirical of evidence which prove radiation for being a cause as to negatively
inflict one's health, i.e., of radiation for actually being an health hazard.
[14] NIF's
reports show that nearly all of the donors are private people (mostly rich
businessmen) and other foundations, and only six companies one of whom is Cellcom. According to the NIF, there is a wide cooperation
between the fund and companies for cellular supplies, such as BRM: http://www.shatil.org.il/data/madrich_asakim_chapter.pdf
15 For instance, following below is a joint letter which
was sent in the past by Mr. Ronny Keller ( an activist protesting against the
dangers of radiation which is given off by cellular devices ), and by Dr. Zamir Shalita ( a known israeli expert in the field of cellular radiaion
) to Mr. Avi Dabush of
S.H.A.T.I.L. Organization :
Mr. Avi Dabush
The Coordinator of The Forum for Sane Cellularity,
S.H.A.T.I.L. Association Ltd.
Friday, the Seventh of July, 2,006
Dear Mr. Avi Dabush,
Subject of Letter : In regard of your previous letter to us, conssisting of updates concerning progress and achievements
of The Forum for Sane Cellulaity, which was sent to
us on the date of the Sixth of July, 2,006.
Beginning of quote from your aforementioned letter :
"...We continue in our progress, on one hand, for compiling a draft which
is to consist of a proposal for regulations and new ordinances, thanks to the
cadre which is coordinated by the Lawyer Ms. Tamy Ganot, on the behalf of Adam, Teva',
Ve'Din Association, which also includes the following
members : The Lawyer, Mr. Michael Bach, Doctor Zamir Shalita, Mr. Ronny Keller, and Mr. Yehuda
Dror.
Earlier on this week, a meeting has been held with the Assistant Director
General of the Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Yossi
'Inbar, and also with the Chief of the Department of
Radiation, Mr. Stiliyan Gelberg.
We were surprised for the positive of the stand exercised by this Ministry,
which views the participation of the public in the process of reviewing
regulations, and attempts to promote relocation and distancing away from
sensitive institutions or faculties, elimination of contact between business
firms and surveyors**, notification of the public, legal shifting of the
definition of all facilities, so as for a building permit to be required for
their construction, and more.
We should of course wish to view a proof for matters which were claimed.
..."
Ending of quote.
We would therefore wish to remind you, that you were requested by Mr. Ronny
Keller, and also by Dr. Zamir Shalita,
to provide us with notifications, as well as to require of us for our presence,
at any meeting with any given public figure ; you were further asked by us to
at least notify us of such meetings, in order for us to form an opinion which
would reflect our positions.
However, it appears to us that you have made of late some common decisions, in
accordance with the Assistant Director General of the Ministry of the
Environment on a meeting which has been held ( Whilst further to that, we also
have no knowledge regarding any other instances when you have had the occasion
of meeting with other figures, or of any other statements which you have made,
allegedly so in our name ), without giving us any notice of the prospected
holding up of that meeting on an earlier date in time, and added to that, then
we come now to an alleged understanding that decisions are being made behind
our backs, whilst a pretence of our approval of your opinions is being
continuously held up, and that as objective leaders of an approach, we then
approve of things which we have actually not had any share of.
In the light of this situation, as well as due to the fact that we have so far
failed to receive from you a complete transparency in regard of your meetings
with various public figures, including those of general managers and assistant
director generals of different ministries, then we do not see a further
occasion of continuing our association with you.
Further to that, then we ( i.e., Mr. Ronny Keller, and Dr. Zamir
Shalita ) shall wish to hereby make specific references
to your meetings with Mr. Stiliyan Gelberg, Assistant Director General of the Ministry of the
Environment, to your spokesman ship which is also given allegedly on our own
behalf on occasions of various conferences, as well as to other deeds which have
been committed by your own self, professedly claimed as relating for the
benefit of settling and regularazing matters which
are of relation to cellular communication companies.
Those actions and proclamations which we have mentioned above are not any such
ones which are found to be agreeable by us, they do not reflect our own
opinions, they have been executed whilst cynically exploiting our social regard
and good name, with the absence of our presence at those meetings, and lack of
our knowledge on their taking place, as well as without our expressed consent
to any matters which are related to them.
We ( i.e., Mr. Ronny Keller ,and Dr. Zamir Shalita ) wish to hereby
request for the removal of our names out of all and every correspondence which
you may have with any other personae, and also to cease of giving legitimacy
for your tales or fabrication, through the exploitation of names !
We would also wish to request of you cease and desist of your various
activities in the field of cellular radiation, since that your understanding of
the technical, medical, and judicial issues is greatly lacking, to the extent
that it is not clear for whom do you work ? and, what is your own personal
interest at the subject which is at hand ? you were never elected by the wide
public ! we lack any knowledge of your identity, we don't know who you are ?
and what are exactly your qualifications ?
Out of the avoidance of transparency which is exerted by yourself, there
appears to arise an alleged manner of hypocrisy, as well as an unpleasant smell,
along with the appearance of conflict of interests.
And so, due to this current state of affairs, then we ( i.e., Mr. Ronny Keller,
and Dr. Zamir Shalita )
have no wish of any services of this sort of spokesman ship, and we would therefore
life to ask you of you again, in a manner which is as lucid as possible,
without any occasion of reference to ambiguity of any sort, to severe our ties
with you, and of you to cease of including our names in any of your occasions
of making a correspondence with other personae, and to clearly avoid of
supporting any of your claims or personal affairs, through the use of
presenting our names to others !
We wish you luck in any course which you shall choose !
Sincerely Yours,
Mr. Ronny Keller,
and Dr. Zamir Shalita
[16] Lior Verona, spokesman of the Forum of Cellular Companies:
"In many aspects, the civilian activity that the cellular companies try to
encourage matches the activity of many green organizations, such as "The
Forum for Sane Cellular": http://www.nrg.co.il/online/35/ART1/442/376.html
17 Personal
impressions of us and of other experienced activists – from experiences we have
had in different activities and organizations we were part of, and from stories
we have heard from other activists.
[18] Personal impression
of us and of other experienced activists. Here is what one of the activists
from our groups said: "I was a spokesman of our organization, which has
paid "Shatil" for my participation in one
of their courses on media and spokesmanship. They
explained to us that these courses give only very little of the knowledge we
need in order to be good spokesmen, and
that it is an expertise that can only be acquired from years of practice".
[19] Hanan
Cohen is "Shatil"'s internet coordinator,
according to this website for instance: http://info.org/hanan/php
[21] Look in Hanan Cohen's website "Irrelevant" and come to a
conclusion yourself: http://www.info.org.il/irrelevant What does Hanan Cohen base his decisions on? Are his sources reliable
in your opinion? Does he support public campaign and spreading of essential
information to the public?
[22] For instance, all
links given in the "Irrelevant site http://www.info.org.il/irrelevant
website (on the lower right side of the page) are to websites that oppose the
usage of the internet as a tool for social change. Here is a quote from the
website "Break the Chain" that is recommended by Hanan
Cohen: “Armchair
Activism chain letters are those that encourage you to "sign" a
petition or participate in a boycott to effect change. They are, unfortunately,
typically based on the misguided belief that the sheer numbers of online
denizens will be enough to influence social, political or economic policy with
very little effort by individuals. They take many different forms, but all have
the underlying flaw that activism requires action and few things are more
inactive than sending e-mails to our friends. To learn more, read my Primer on
Armchair Activism”.
[24] More on the campaign
of the "Dovrat Committee" and the NIF for
the privatization of the educational system can be found in http://www.meshanim.com/h.pps
[25] For example, we
recommend for a wise read of the following article: "A new project will
raise 2 billion shekels for jeopardized children", Ruti
Sinai, "Ha'aretz": http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/1/542860
[26] "The cooperation between the business world and the
non-profit organizations has turned also in
[27] "In the next few pages we want to give you a draft of the
optimal procedure to effectively cooperate with businesses […] Cooperating with
businesses is a long term investment and is an inseparable part of an
organization's general resource development strategy […] each side has something
to gain: the organization has something to give to the business and a business
has something to give to the organization […] Like any other funder, a business could set the organization with some
conditions of its own […]": http://www.shatil.org.il/data/madrich_asakim_chapter.pdf