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| Fifth Column |
| Ford Foundation funds hate, author charges |
| 2003-10-19 |
| EFL from National Post via World Wire An award-winning author and journalist has published a four-part investigative series alleging the Ford Foundation gives millions of dollars to Palestinian organizations that engage in anti-Israel agitation, anti-Semitic activity and anti-Americanism, though not terrorism. I didn’t know that there were Palestinian organizations that didn’t engage in terrorism. Edwin Black, author of War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, spent two months probing the foundation’s grant operation system. He reviewed more than 9,000 pages of documents and interviewed people in seven countries for the series, titled Funding Hate. Gee, Mr Black doesn’t sound like a member of the right-wing conspiracy. It raises questions about how the foundation, an institution with about US$10-billion in assets that disburses US$500-million worldwide each year, allocates funds to groups in Palestinian areas and whether it exercises enough control over how its money is spent. I thought most of that money whent to that kook on PBS. "There is a completely uncharted and unscrutinized segment of American society and our economy which is conducting its own foreign policy," Mr. Black said yesterday. Is Mr Black describing the State Department? "I’ve been able to document that corporate philanthropy is engaged in funding hate speech, and anti-Zionist agitation, and anti-Israel agitation and anti-Americanism. We need to scrutinize this sector of our society. It comes down to one word: transparency." Trannsparancy only exposes if people turn off the the fantasy of Reality TV and pay attention. He notes the foundation gave more than US$35-million to more than 270 Arab and Palestinian organizations in 2000 and 2001, the most recent years for which figures are available. The foundation has granted millions of dollars to American Jewish and Israeli peace groups and funds several Israeli-based dissident and human rights groups campaigning for Palestinian justice, Mr. Black says. It also funds the Washington-based New Israel Fund (NIF) for activities supporting social change in Israel. (A week ago, just before Mr. Black’s series was released, the foundation and NIF announced a new five-year, US$20-million grant to support organizations in Israel working to strengthen the country’s democracy and advance human rights for its citizens.) But most of the Ford Foundation’s money goes to pro-Palestinian and Islamic-rights groups, Mr. Black alleges. The Ford Foundation refused to speak with Mr. Black over the course of his investigation, but later issued a six-page statement. According to Mr. Black’s sources, the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (known commonly by the acronym LAW) has received three Ford grants worth US$1.1-million since 1997 to engage in "advocacy" and participate at international conferences. LAW helped create an "anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic" focus at the high-profile UN-sponsored conference on racism held in Durban, South Africa, in September, 2001, Mr. Black says. The United States and Israel walked out of the conference in protest; Canada expressed displeasure but stayed. Walking out was too strong a statement against anti-semitism. Mr. Black’s series is posted in its entirety on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Web site at www. jta.org/ford.asp. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #4 The Ford Foundation has been funding leftist causes for at least 20 years. But only now people are starting to take a look at them, which is a very good thing. They're favorite trick is to fund groups that style themselves as leaders of some "community," who are never actually chosen or elected by the community, and then give them millions. See MALDEF, for example. These groups are pretty uniformly radical. It's really time to take a hard look at the Ford Foundation and see who is getting what money and for what purposes. You just KNOW some of this money is ending up in the hands of Paleo terrorists. |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-10-19 11:15:05 PM |
| #3 Ford Foundation--liberal? Ole Henry must be rolling over in his grave--but they do have an INCREDIBLE building on 42nd St |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-10-19 10:36:20 PM |
| #2 When liberals rant about taxing the rich, do they mean the liberal foundations too? Of course they do, they're rich aren't they? |
| Posted by: Jabba the Nutt 2003-10-19 4:36:03 PM |
| #1 Interesting - if you google Ford Foundation and history, you get hits on a bunch of lefty articles alleging the FF has been colluding with the CIA - apparently they've switched teams, huh? I mean, really...NPR? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-19 4:09:00 PM |