Through secretly recorded conversations, a watchdog group learned how a left-wing NGO is actively supporting the families of convicted terrorists.

By World Israel News Staff

A left-wing Israeli NGO is providing active support to terrorists, including free legal counsel, advocating for them against house demolitions and arranging family visits to incarcerated murderers of Israelis, a watchdog group recently found.

HaMoked, also known as the Center for the Defense of the Individual, receives nearly all of its funding from European governments and left-wing organizations.

An in-depth investigation by right-wing NGO Ad Kan, which aired on Channel 14, revealed a number of disturbing revelations about the organization and how it operates.

In secretly recorded conversations, members of Ad Kan learned how HaMoked is actively supporting the families of convicted terrorists, including those who were complicit in their relatives’ attacks.

The family of Ashraf Naalwa, who killed two Israelis in the Barkan industrial park in 2018, told Ad Kan that HaMoked had provided them with free legal aid aimed at stopping the demolition of their family home.

HaMoked also assisted the family in obtaining permission to visit a relative held by security forces after the attack, they said. Notably, Naalwa’s family was aware of his intentions to carry out the deadly shooting and his mother was convicted of failing to prevent a terror attack.

There were multiple incidences of HaMoked supporting families that were clearly complicit in terror attacks, Ad Kan found.

Ad Kan discovered that over an 11-year period, HaMoked was gifted some $20 million by the United Nations and European Union, as well as the governments of France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium.

The remainder of HaMoked’s funding comes from the New York-based New Israel Fund, which provides financing for left-wing organizations in Israel and supports an organization behind the current mass protests against judicial reform.

Israeli lawmakers responded to the Ad Kan exposé, saying that the findings were outrageous.

“Imagine for a moment a father or mother who lost their daughter or son in a terrorist attack, the most precious thing to them. Now imagine these parents standing in court in front of the terrorist who murdered their loved ones, and the [terrorist] is being represented by an Israeli organization,” wrote Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Religious Zionism) on Twitter.

“Unfortunately, this is the reality. Ad Kan’s exposé… is shocking and worrying.”

“It is ridiculous how a small, extremist and anti-Israel organization which is funded by foreign governments causes the security and legal systems to change policies and undermine security,” said MK Ariel Kalner (Likud.)

“Ad Kan’s exposé on HaMoked shows how important it is to act against foreign political interference. The lobby for the fight against delegitimization under my leadership will act on the matter with all the tools at our disposal.”

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It appears likely that the Supreme Court will overturn the decision made by the Central Elections Committee.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

The Central Elections Committee voted 9-5 on Thursday to block the anti-Zionist Arab Balad party from running in the upcoming November national elections.

It was not only right-wing parties that voted against the run. Before the vote, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, head of the National Unity party, released a statement saying that his party’s representatives would oppose Balad.

“The Arab citizens of Israel deserve and are entitled to parliamentary representation, and even to coalition representation, but there are decisions that are above all narrow political considerations. There is no place in the Israeli Knesset for someone who operates in extremes against the state,” Gantz said.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party boycotted the vote. “Today, the circus continues to try to disqualify Balad in order to kosher [Arab parties] Ra’am, Hadash and Ta’al,” Likud stated. “We will not participate in this show.”

Left-wing Meretz party MK Gaby Lasky noted that “many of the parties that aren’t here [to vote] are ones that petitioned to dismiss Balad in the past or voted in favor.

According to Lasky, “now they have a different political interest… to enable Balad to run in order to lose votes in the Arab sector, and in this way to get to the 61st seat.” Balad is not expected to meet the electoral threshold, and therefore, any votes for the party would be wasted rather than strengthening the Arab bloc.

Notably, the Islamist Ra’am party was not barred.

It is likely that Balad will appeal the decision at the Supreme Court and succeed it having it overturned. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is opposed to disqualifying the party.

“Today’s discussion in the election committee has no meaning because the Supreme Court will in any case legalize the running of the Arab parties that support terrorism,” the Religious Zionism party said in a statement.

“The Supreme Court has become a political player which did and is doing everything to harm the right and continue the rule of the left and the Arabs. We will bring real change after the elections. We will outlaw the Arab parties that support terrorism, and we will put an end to the rule of the Supreme Court.”

Ahead of the hearing, the Ad Kan organization, which exposes the activities of anti-Israel NGOs and the Islamist Movement, fought to have the Ra’am party disqualified.

“There is no place in the Knesset for representatives of a movement that operates in an institutionalized manner to aid declared terrorist elements and for the benefit of elements in enemy countries in violation of the law. The Islamic movement should be disqualified from running for the 25th Knesset,” the organization stated.

“Just yesterday, the chairman of the Islamic Movement published a notice of mourning for the death of Yusef al-Qaradawi, who was the religious authority that allowed Hamas to carry out suicide attacks and allowed the murder of every Jewish-Israeli within the framework of the Palestinian struggle. The Islamic Movement is a sister movement of Hamas, as defined by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. And the party has no place in the Knesset,” the statement read.

According to Ad Kan, “the Islamic Movement owns a wide variety of non-profit organizations, public benefit companies, and commercial companies, some of which were established after Ra’am entered the coalition, to absorb the budgets promised to the Arab sector in the coalition negotiations. The movement collects charity from its Muslim supporters in Israel amounting to tens of millions of shekels per year and transfers them to its various institutions to allegedly forbidden destinations.”

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Palestinian Security Services exploited loophole to legally gather intelligence from Israeli nationals.

By David Hellerman

Seeking to close a loophole, the Knesset advanced legislation last week to prohibit Israelis from having contact with the Palestinian Security Services.

The Knesset plenum gave its approval to a preliminary reading of an amendment to Israel’s Penal Code. The amendment includes the Palestinian Security Services in the Penal Code’s definition of foreign agents by changing the wording from agents from “a foreign state” to agents from a “a foreign entity.”

Israel does not recognize the Palestinian Authority as a state. However, a loophole was created by the the removal of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Israel’s list of terror organizations.

Ad Kan, a right-wing Israeli organization, first exposed that the Palestinian Security Services was exploiting this loophole to legally gather intelligence from Israeli nationals.

The bill was submitted by Likud MK Avi Dichter, who previously served as director of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Minister of Internal Security.

“The prosecution of Israelis who cooperate or provide information to the PA or Israel’s hostile bodies hiding behind a European or international screen is not a matter of left or right, but a national matter that must be uprooted,” Dichter said.

The bill has more legislative hurdles to clear before becoming law.

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Attempts to remove reference to the EU in the title of a conference on incitement in Judea and Samaria have failed, due to pressure from right wing groups. 

By World Israel News staff

A conference titled “The European Union and extreme left-wing organizations as instigators of violence in Judea and Samaria” will go ahead in the Knesset under its full title after Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) bowed to pressure from right wing parties and organizations.

Levy had wanted the reference to the European Union removed over concerns it could damage diplomatic relations between the European Union and Israel, but backed down following criticism from various quarters, including Likud, which slammed his stance as a “new low” in the coalition’s “trampling on democracy”.

Likud had also accused Levy of mounting an illegitimate attempt to “censure political discourse,” and so welcomed his reversal on the matter. The conference, organized by Yamina MK Amichai Chikli and Likud MK Kathrin Shitrit will now go ahead on Monday under the original title.

In a statement, Im Tirtzu head Matan Peleg congratulated Shitrit and Chikli “for their determination,” adding: “For too long, the Knesset Speaker has chosen to run the Knesset as if it were the United Nations and not the sole parliament in the world that represents the Jewish People.”

Criticizing the EU’s interference in the region, as his organization sees it, Peleg continued: “The issue of the EU’s infiltration and the damage it inflicts on Israeli sovereignty, as well as the funding it provides to extremist groups is a critical one that must be addressed – and the right place to do so is in the Knesset.”

Ad Kan, which focuses on exposing EU interference in Israeli matters, also welcomed the news.

“It is high time that the European Union stopped thinking of Israel as yet another colony,” the organization said in a statement. “The British Mandate ended with the establishment of the State, and it is now time that the EU stopped its de facto support of Palestinian violence.

The statement continued: “The Israeli public expects the Knesset Speaker to represent the State of Israel with pride, and to stop managing Knesset affairs based on his fears of how foreign countries might react. As Ben Gurion said: ‘Our future will not be based on ‘what will the non-Jews say,’ but rather on what the Jews do.’”

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The two-count indictment doesn’t reflect Sheikh Albaz’s “frequent, ongoing and extremely public” incitement to terror, says Regavim.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The state prosecution service is acting negligently in indicting the imam of Lod on only two counts of incitement and hate speech, a group that agitates for protection of the rule of law charged Sunday.

Sheikh Yousef Albaz was charged Thursday with inciting violence against police and threatening a member of the Lod municipality in two videos he had posted online during the Arab riots in his city in May.

Albaz posted a clip from a movie showing the murder of two police officers with the caption, “The best way to deal with injustice.” And he blamed Deputy Mayor Yossi Harush for supposedly provoking the riots, saying, “With regards to the war that you wage against us… we promise you, we are responsible enough to make you understand that we will freely give up our souls for the goal of educating you and ending your bullying.”

The rioting, which spread to other mixed Arab-Jewish cities, came in the midst of a flare-up between Hamas and Israel. A state of emergency was declared and Border Police were brought in to quell the violence, which ended with two deaths (one Arab), many injuries and millions of shekels’ worth of damage to Jewish property, including synagogues, homes and cars.

Those two counts do not reflect the scope or seriousness of the imam’s actions, says the Regavim Movement.

“The watered-down indictment is a display of prosecutorial negligence,” said the group’s director general, Meir Deutsch. “It doesn’t take a specialized cyber unit to find explicit incitement to commit acts of violence, treasonous statements, or declarations by Albaz that he is a proud member of the Northern Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed organization, on Albaz’s Facebook page.

“Albaz all but admits to being a member of a terrorist organization. After years of incessant incitement by Albaz, is this all the State’s Attorney’s special Cyber Unit could come up with?”

The pro-Zionist organization filed a detailed police complaint against the 63-year-old cleric back in May, including Facebook posts from the past year which prominently featured hate-filled incitement. As soon as the indictment was publicized, Regavim’s legal department sent a formal request to the State’s Attorney to demand its correction on the basis of the evidence the group had provided.

This included statements in which Albaz had called Israel an “enemy state” and said that “anyone who believes in coexistence must be banished from among us because they will be a dagger in our backs.”

During the height of the rioting, the letter of complaint continued, he gave a speech in the main mosque of Lod saying that his city was ruled by “a gang of terrorists … a gang of criminals.”

The Arab Desk of the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu was also very involved in exposing the imam’s aggressive statements. Similarly, the CEO of right-wing organization Ad Kan, which had also presented evidence against the sheikh, backed up the call to expand the case against Albaz.

The imam’s mosque “is a major incitement center. Violent riots are coming out of it, means of attack are being stored there, and the place serves as a hotbed for terrorism against the Jews in Lod,” Gilad Ach said. “We hope that the indictment against the sheikh will include all his actions and not just a single case.”

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“Breaking the Silence cut and edited my testimony and took the parts they found relevant,” one soldier said.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A pro-Zionist NGO published a comprehensive report on Tuesday documenting a smear campaign run by Breaking the Silence against IDF soldiers following 2014’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Ad Kan (Hebrew for “Up to Here”), an activist organization known for exposing the anti-Israel activities of far-left groups in the country, examined a booklet of 111 testimonies by anonymous IDF soldiers published by Breaking the Silence that was widely covered in the international media. It accused soldiers of war crimes such as the intentional shooting of innocent civilians and burying an old Arab man while he was still alive, as well as less serious incidents such as looting and damaging property without operational purpose.

The organization followed up on 11 cases where the facts concerning specific incidents could be cross-checked and found that the extremist group had either published lies, twisted the soldiers’ words, or let contradictory testimonies stand without question.

One tank gunner attested that he and his crew unnecessarily fired, on their own initiative, at innocents “like in a computer game,” shelled civilian buildings in a memorial barrage for a fallen comrade, and ran over cars unnecessarily. When hauled in for questioning by the military police, he said that most of what was written had not actually occurred, and some could not have happened due to how the combat system worked.

He also admitted that as the gunner, he could only see a small part of what was happening at any given moment and that he did not know the intelligence information behind his commanders’ firing orders.

“Breaking the Silence cut and edited my testimony and took the parts they found relevant,” he said.

The description of the alleged buried-alive incident was malicious in two ways. First, five different versions of the same event were published in a way that made it seem as if such a crime happened more than once. Second, it was a lie. The IDF investigators found that the Arab had approached a unit in a suspicious manner, and the soldiers followed proper procedure to the letter. The soldiers warned him and shot in the air before shooting him in the legs. After being wounded, the man behaved in a way that made them think he was trying to detonate an explosive device on his body.

Even though in such cases the suspect should not be approached without protective gear, an unshielded officer risked his life to search him for booby-traps so that he could be treated for his wounds. The Arab didn’t survive, however, and the men covered him in sand as a mark of respect for the dead.

The Ad Kan report revealed that the entire event had been filmed by one soldier’s helmet-mounted camera, which proved that Breaking the Silence did not tell the truth.

Moreover, the IDF conducted a thorough examination of these, as well as all other, alleged war crimes during the campaign and found its soldiers innocent of wrongdoing and, in some cases, even deserving of commendation.

These false testimonies gave Israel a black eye half a decade ago but the serious damage may be yet to come, as it is possible that the International Criminal Court’s recent decision to investigate Israel for war crimes allegedly committed in the 2014 operation was based at least in part on this booklet’s contents.

The report noted that following publication of the pamphlet, various European countries upped their donations to the group, whose budget almost doubled as a result.

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Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked wants the spokeperson for NGO Breaking the Silence investigated for claiming he beat an unarmed Palestinian under IDF orders. Soldiers who served with him told World Israel News it never happened. 

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked appealed to the Attorney General, requesting that Dean Issacharoff be investigated after the spokesperson for the whistle-blowing Breaking the Silence NGO was caught on video claiming to have assaulted innocent Palestinians in Hebron while serving in the IDF. Soldiers from Issacharoff’s unit adamantly deny the veracity of his story.

“If it really happened he must be investigated and punished. If it didn’t happen the state needs to say so clearly.” Shaked told Army Radio Wednesday morning.

Dean Issacharoff  caused a firestorm after claiming at a rally to have beaten an unarmed Palestinian unconscious, allegedly at his commander’s orders. “I grabbed him by the neck and started to knee him in the face and chest until he was bleeding and unconscious,” Issacharoff said.

In response, Reservists on Duty released a hard-hitting video in which many soldiers from his unit strenuously deny his version of events and call him a liar. The video subsequently went viral, garnering more then a million views. Major Omri Steiner, who commanded Issacharoff, also took to Facebook, writing, “It never happened! There was no incident that was even close to the story you told.”

Gilad Ach, who heads the Ad Kan Israel advocacy NGO, had originally filed a police complaint against Issacharoff for War Crimes and Assault. “War crimes is a very serious thing,” Ach told World Israel News (WIN). “We see with Elor Azaria how important the ethical code is to the IDF, and a soldier who admits to carrying out such shocking actions should feel the full weight of the law coming down on him.”

Elor Azaria is a soldier currently on trial for killing a wounded terrorist in Hebron, in a controversial case that has divided Israel.

Phil Katz served in the same company as Issacharoff and scoffed at his claims of unlawful violence directed towards Arabs. “I never saw him hit anyone” Katz told WIN. “He didn’t, I didn’t, no one did. It never happened.”

The furor surrounding Issacharoff was reignited in May, after his father, Jeremy Issacharoff, was appointed ambassador to Germany. Many called for the appointment to be rescinded in the wake of his sons actions.

By: Tzvi Lev, World Israel News

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