Jerusalem, 28 August, 2022 (TPS) — Nearly one billion shekels have been funneled to radical left-wing organizations operating in Israel in the past decade, primarily from Germany, the Im Tirzu Zionist organization has found, while circumventing Israel’s laws in many cases.
Germany is the world’s leading country in funding Israeli far-left organizations, with a sum of about NIS 155 million over the past decade, even more than the European Union. Despite passing a law in 2019 equating the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement with anti-Semitism, Germany has funneled millions to radical left-wing organizations, many of which promote BDS.
Im Tirtzu discovered that a significant amount of the millions transferred to Israel through German organizations was done in deceitful ways, of questionable legality. Much of the funds that are funneled into Israel are done through political entities linked with German political parties represented in the Bundestag. Despite the money being designated for political use within the German political system, it is used to influence policies within Israel.
To receive grants from the German government, the recipient organization has to ensure that the use of the funds is aligned with the political party’s agenda. This broad definition has essentially allowed German funds to be transferred to whichever NGO a party desires.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation has not submitted financial reports in Israel since 2014. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is associated with the Die Linke (left) Party, has skirted the laws for years and does not have a valid operating license in the country. The Heinz Seidel Foundation sent over 900,000 shekels to the Palestinian Authority, which contradicts the agenda of the Foundation, a public-benefit corporation, apparently legal grounds for having it shut down.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is linked to the Konrad Adenauer Organization, which has consistently broken Israeli Law by failing to submit financial reports required of organizations whose source of funding is not Israeli.
Israeli law stipulates that any NGO primarily funded by foreign donations needs to state that fact clearly in its publications, reports, and formal communications with any public or government body. It also stipulates that such NGOs’ annual reports, and their communications with state bodies, would need to include the full details of their funding sources.
Many of these organizations work to alter or influence Israeli policies and policy-making, fund projects that act in contravention of Israeli law, and act as foreign agents within the Jewish state.
Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirtzu, recently noted that “the Germans have a long-standing obsession with the Jewish people. On a historical level, this is a phenomenon that preceded the invention of the word anti-Semitism in the 19th century. Thus, even the Holocaust of the Jews perpetrated by them did not appear out of thin air.”
“Even today, when examining the sums that Germany transfers to anti-Zionist propaganda organizations, which work to defame the State of Israel and IDF soldiers, one realizes that at the end of the day, nothing has changed and all they seek is to salve their consciences after the Holocaust, by funding organizations that tell them that the Jews are the source of the so-called global evil and thus they are ‘saving’ the weak – the Arabs,” he explained.
“The State of Israel should not stand helpless in the face of this phenomenon, certainly not when it accepts the form of political subversion that threatens the character and proper conduct of the state,” Im Tirzu stated.
It called on the Foreign Ministry to demand “an immediate halt to funds transferred illegally through German branches to Israeli NGOs, and expects the Ministry to file a formal complaint with the German government “to prosecute those responsible for the violations of the law.”
“The Israel Police and the State Attorney’s Office must also enforce the law and prosecute those responsible,” said Im Tirzu.
