Leftist sponsor spooks Likud, Jewish Home away from confab

Parties distance themselves from Haaretz diplomatic conference over backing from New Israel Fund

By Tamar Pileggi 2 February 2015, 5:54 pm

Edit

Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Naftali Bennett addresses supporters of his Jewish Home party in Ramat Gan on Thursday, January 15, 2015 (photo credit: Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

Both the Likud and Jewish Home parties canceled their planned participation in Haaretz’s annual “Israel Democracy Conference” after discovering the event was sponsored by the left-wing organization the New Israel Fund this week.

After the conference program was published Sunday, the parties and their MKs were quick to disassociate themselves with the event, which is scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv February 17.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Likud cited NIF’s funding of “radical” leftist groups, including B’tselem, Breaking the Silence and Adalah, and said it would not cooperate with “entities who are continually working to slander Israel,” according to Mida, a Hebrew publication associated with the right wing.

The Fund, which gives grants to liberal and left-wing organizations, has come under fire many times in the past. Critics say the group promotes anti-Zionist values and distributes money to civil organizations that actively work against Israel.

Right-wing activists dressed as Arabs demonstrate against the New Israel Fund in January 2010. The signs show the NIF's president Naomi Chazan with a horn sprouting from her head and accuse the fund of financing organizations that contributed to the Goldstone report (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty) — Right-wing activists dressed as Arabs demonstrate against the New Israel Fund in January 2010. The signs show the NIF’s former president Naomi Chazan with a horn sprouting from her head (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

Initially, the Jewish Home party said it would participate in the conference despite the sponsorship, to represent Israel’s right-wing constituents.

However, party chairman Naftali Bennett quickly retracted, announcing Monday that Jewish Home MKs would not take part in an event together with an “anti-Zionist” organization that “invests its time and money attacking Israeli soldiers and the State of Israel as a Jewish State,” the party’s statement said.

Both Likud and the Jewish Home party said they would reconsider participation in the pre-election conference if Haaretz dropped the New Israel Fund as co-sponsor, Mida reported.

The NIF told the publication that although it fully supports the event, the conference was Haaretz’s initiative alone.

The conference will be opened by President Reuven Rivlin and is set to discuss issues facing Israel, including a democratic/Jewish state, minority rights and the role of the judicial branch in the political arena.

Bennett was heckled and says he was punched by an attendee during an appearance at the Haaretz Peace Conference in Tel Aviv last year.