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The goal: "dismantling the Zionist myth" Israel today

2022-05-06T14:16:51.954Z


Documents from the NGO Monitor Institute reveal that the Swiss government is funding the activities of the "Trace" organization, which among other things requires the state to disclose confidential security materials. A scandal that a foreign government is trying to influence public opinion in the country "• Traces:" No society enjoys exposing an injustice for which its members are responsible, but it is important to open the way to reconciliation and peace "


One week before the date on which the Palestinians and some Westerners mark Nakba Day ("The Disaster of the Establishment of the State of Israel", as they define it) - the NGO Monitor (Institute for the Study of NGOs) publishes documents showing that the Swiss government funds activities to remove confidential archival material in Israel .

Purpose of the activity: Influence and change of the existing Zionist narrative in public opinion in Israel (especially Jewish) regarding the establishment of the state in 1948, through the exposure of crimes and injustices that Israel allegedly inflicted on the Palestinians.

Switzerland, which has been claiming neutrality for many years, documents, according to the documents, the activities of "Traces" - an Israeli organization that has been revealing information that has been confidential for many years, relating to the period of the War of Independence and the first years of the state.

Tracker personnel work with the State Archives, the Ministry of Defense Archives and other archives - also by legal means - in order to force the state to publish confidential, and often sensitive, materials.

By the way, the alleged injustices inflicted on the Palestinians throughout the years of the conflict are exposed.

The activity, NGO Monitor points out, is driven by a political agenda to change the existing internal Jewish narrative around the conflict, and is not only related to transparency or the public's right to know.

Traces, by definition, "plays a unique role in the archives and their potential for shattering narratives that fuel the conflict," but he does not, for example, expose al-Aqsa lies in danger, Palestinian terrorism targeting the civilian population or Palestinian hate and incitement and incitement. The extreme for generations.

His people focus their activities, investigations and publications on the Jewish-Israeli side only.

A signed agreement between the Swiss government and Traces from March 2021, obtained by NGO Monitor, shows that the Swiss government has been involved for several years in attempts to open Israel's security archives in order to "dismantle" the Israeli narrative of the conflict, especially the 1948 one.

This is a grant of 90,000 francs for 2021, under the title "Living Memory - Increasing the Space for Critical Reflection of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through Archival Documentation."

The grant, according to NGO Monitor, covers 67 percent of the Trace archive project, which has a total cost of 134,000 francs.

Despite the Israeli government's request from the Swiss back in 2018 (when Benjamin Netanyahu served as Prime Minister) to stop, the Swiss Foreign Ministry continues to fund the traces. According to the Registrar of Associations and reports from the Swiss government, in the last four years The direct money came from the Swiss Foreign Ministry, while the indirect money came through the Swiss church organization "Hex Appar" - a kind of trace partner in the project, entitled "Doubt - how a nation's story should be told." The church organization is also a partner of The anti-Zionist organization "Zochrot", which promotes the Nakba narrative and works to change the character of Israel as a Jewish state.

Archive - an effective weapon

The contract between the Swiss government and Traces, obtained by NGO Monitor investigators, sheds light on the organization's project objectives and the fact that the Swiss are directly involved in attempts to influence the design of the Israeli narrative among Israeli citizens, utilizing confidential archival material and disclosing it to the public.

Itai Reuveni, NGO Monitor's communications director in Israel and abroad, says that "according to our study, there is no longer a case in the world of a democratic state trying to open security archives of another democratic state, to change perceptions related to a particular conflict in that country.

"Unlike organizations such as Breaking the Silence," Reuveni adds, "which is also funded by the Swiss government. Israel as an aggressor, as someone who came to oust the Arabs from here, and as someone whose actions were often done maliciously. This fits in with the attempt of other organizations, some of which are also funded by the Swiss government, to present the State of Israel as an apartheid state.

"However, different footprints. They work smart. Archiving and documentation is a particularly powerful weapon, especially when you are the only one using it, when even the state does not publish things in an orderly fashion. Many of their publications have received media coverage in recent years; ", Or the country on the way, and portrayed it as cruel, criminal and unjust. The axis of their activity is 1948".

Traces, says Sean Sachs, a senior researcher at NGO Monitor, which centralizes the new information on Swiss funding for the organization, was established in 2013 by researchers from two Israeli political NGOs, from the left side of the map: "Yesh Din" and "Physicians for Human Rights - Israel".

He said, "Both are active in political campaigns dealing with Israel in the international arena. The documents that Trace reveals may provide references in petitions against the State of Israel, by organizations active against it in legal warfare, as a basis for writing reports, campaigns, lobbies and even information for international forums. UN.

Ideological funding

In the first year of its establishment, NGO Monitor claims, Trace managed to scan about 20,000 materials from the State Archives, and many of the founders, employees, committee members and the CEO, currently work or have previously worked for Yesh Din organizations, Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture, Breaking the Silence, the Association for Civil Rights, the Foundation for Human Rights Defenders, B'Tselem and Ta'ayush.

Political campaign.

Sachs,

A quick flick through the trace site clearly outlines the nature of his publications: exposing deleted ("black") excerpts from stangrams of 1948 government meetings, ostensibly indicating "that ministers knew in real time about suspicions of crimes and atrocities that took place during the war";

Prominent publication of a collection of documents on the period of military rule in the Arab areas of Israel between the years 1966-1948;

Exposing excerpts from David Ben-Gurion's diaries;

And other passages that have been blacked out in the past and opened for trace.

"The blackened sections," notes traces on the organization's website, "address issues such as the purchase of weapons from foreign countries, attitudes toward Arabs, atrocities and violence that occurred during the war, the immigration of Jews to Israel, and more."


The site also describes the afforestation operation in Israel as "land takeover," and presents "new evidence that reopens the question of the massacre that took place or did not occur on May 23, 1948 in the village of Tantura," following a new documentary about the controversial affair.

In general, the materials that reveal traces paint the act of establishing the State of Israel in a problematic and often negative light.

Sachs claims that a review of various sites and documents passed on to Swiss officials shows that one way to advance a solution to the conflict, in their view, is to dismantle the Zionist myth of the establishment of the state in Jewish-Israeli public opinion (following denial). Historical justice done. "

"This is debilitating and harmful talk," Sachs says. Against the Swiss government - this is a scandal that a foreign, European government is working to influence Jewish-Israeli public opinion against the cornerstones of the country.

"The same government also transfers funds to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, which aims to bring senior Israeli officials to justice in The Hague. It also transfers funds to B'Tselem and Adalah, which denounce Israel as an apartheid state. "For the crimes, violence and Arab terrorism that killed and injured thousands of Israeli civilians, or for firing rockets and missiles from Arab countries over decades."

Sachs, at the end of the conversation with him, also wondered about the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which is not working resolutely with Switzerland, to bring about the cessation of this funding. 

Switzerland: "Committed to a Society that Contributes to Human Rights"

The Swiss Embassy in Israel: "Switzerland is committed to an active civil society that contributes to human rights. This commitment includes support, as in the other organizations mentioned in the article. Switzerland is concerned about restrictions on civil society and freedom of expression ... "And to avoid unilateral measures, which could affect peace efforts. Switzerland is aware that some reports since the beginning of 2021, value Israeli actions against Palestinians, as actions that amount to apartheid."

Traces: "The institute engages in historical research, assisting human rights organizations, promoting transparency and removing illegal barriers to public access to government archives. Documentation and archival research play an important role in creating an atmosphere that encourages reconciliation, peace and human rights protection. However, recognizing the injustices of the past plays an important role in paving the way for reconciliation and peace. Of Israeli society to hold a friendly and political debate based on facts and not (only) on myths. "

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "As early as 2018, the relevant government ministries were instructed by the ombudsman that information regarding the activities of Israeli associations and their sources of funding should not be collected, and that such information collected before the directive should be deleted and not used.

As part of the State's response to the petition filed (and received) in the Supreme Court on the matter, we clarified that only in the event that he was randomly exposed to concrete and occasional information ... "There was no case that involved the internal intervention of a foreign entity in Israel's internal affairs, which justified an application to a foreign country, in accordance with the position presented to the court. This is true for 2018 regarding 'traces' and is still true today." 

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-05-06

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