NED responds to complaints about its support for NGO with Jew-hating leader

On Sunday I reported (for the second time) about the virulent antisemitism of the leader of the Palestinian Commission for Refugees Rights Protection and how that organization has been funded and/or supported by places like  USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the UN Development Program and others.

Many of my readers wrote to these organizations. So far, only the National Endowment for Democracy has responded, and in fact NED's spokesperson pro-actively wrote to me as well. Here is her response:

Dear EoZ,

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been made aware of your recent blog post about the Palestinian Commission for Refugees Right Protection (PCRP) by some of your readers.

While we are working on a more thorough response, I did want to let you know that NED has not supported this group for several  years.  NED did provide 4 grants to this group from 2007 – 2011, and to the best of our knowledge,  Dr. Gamal Abdel Nasser Mohammed Abu Nahel was not affiliated with the group during that period, and until your post, we knew nothing about him.  I want to assure you that NED has zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or incitement to violence.

I will get back to you as soon as I can with a more detailed reply – but wanted it to be clear that NED has not provided support to this group since 2011.

Sincerely,

Jane Riley Jacobsen Senior Director, Public Affairs, National Endowment for Democracy 

This is exactly what I predicted in my article. Here was my response:

Hi Jane,

I appreciate your response.

Given your past support, I think it would be appropriate for the NED to publicly (and privately) respond to this pattern of antisemitism at the PCRP by telling them that they cannot expect any future funding as long as Dr. Nahel is allowed to be part of that organization, and that this behavior is unacceptable.

I firmly believe that the only way to combat endemic antisemitism in the PA is to publicly denounce it, and as a former partner, NED has a chance to not only dissociate itself from the organization but to actively help fix the problem. For too long the media and NGOs have been treating this hate as "one of those things" and it is past time to demand the same accountability from the Palestinian side that would rightly be demanded from Israel. NED can be part of the solution.

Thanks again,

Elder

I have not seen any responses from USAID, Anna Lindh or UNDP. Please write to these organizations and demand answers as to why they support an antisemitic organization (the hateful articles are linked to from the PCRP's official Facebook page) and ask what they plan to do to counter it.

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