And, on the record, NIF opposes any attempt by the Israeli government to sever such funding, either through legislation or diplomatic pressure. I can’t be any clearer than that. And, as we’ve taken quite a bit of heat for our funding of Breaking the Silence, it’s clear that we take unpopular stands on behalf of groups that have something important to say.

In general, we’re seeing an upswing in both official and unofficial attacks on Israeli human rights NGOs that dare to criticize the government, either relative to Gaza or generally, as well as attacks on the New Israel Fund for supporting them. Certainly we look for support to this blog and the many other American Jewish progressives who know that being ‘pro-Israel’ does not mean accepting or hiding human rights abuses, and that supporting such groups in a democracy like Israel is completely appropriate. As Larry stated in the article — a quote that does not appear here —

“In response to such arguments, Garber said that government funding for human rights groups in democracies was not at all unusual. Prior to his stint dealing with the West Bank and Gaza, he spent seven years at USAID negotiating the prickly issue of funding such groups in nascent democracies such as Russia.

Furthermore, under the umbrella of groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a process exists of democracies monitoring one another — the Helsinki groups of legislators who track human rights in each others’ nations is an example. The U.S. Helsinki Commission, for instance, routinely tracks discrimination against Roma and Jews in democracies such as Romania and the Baltic states.

“Democracies can work together,” Garber said. “How do you strengthen electoral systems? This is part of what we are as democracies.”

Don’t expect the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the American Jewish Congress, the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France or the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas to invite a B’Tselem spokesperson to give a talk anytime soon.

both Jewish representatives in the Diaspora and Israeli Jewish parties are doing everything they can to boycott them.

I think that’s imprecise. Actually, the 2 NGOs you mentioned and many other progressive Israeli ones actually raise quite a bit of funding from Diaspora Jews. So I wouldn’t say the latter are boycotting them though our leadership certainly finds them an inconvenient thorn as does the Israeli government.

“Last week, NIF grantee Breaking the Silence (BTS) issued a booklet containing testimonies by 30 Israeli soldiers of their experiences in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead (December 2008-January 2009). The testimonies describe “a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions.” The consequences included the destruction of hundreds of houses and private property for no military purpose, and the killing of many innocent civilians.”