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| DATE: | 24 November, 2004 |
| TYPE: | Action Item |
| SCOPE: | Global |
| SUBJ: | New Israel Fund Supports Anti-Israel School |
An article by Joseph Lerner of IMRA (see below) reported on a so-called "School for Peace" in Israel that is supported by The New Israel Fund and 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.
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New Israel Fund 1101 14th Street NW, Sixth Floor Washington, DC 20005-5639 |
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phone: fax: web: |
202-842-0900 202-842-0991 www.nif.org |
| Peter Edelman, President | |
| email: | info@nif.org |
| Marc Breslaw, Chief Operating Officer | |
| email: | marc@nif.org |
| Doug Maas, Chief Financial Officer | |
| email: | doug@nif.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.
The full name of the school is "Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salem: School for Peace (SFP)". See this New Israel Fund web page for their description of it:
For Daniel Pipes's comments, click here.
Here is a comment on this matter from the village of Neve Shalom Wahat Al-Salem (NSWAS).
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