Activity

• The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) aims to advance “social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.”
• The Fund’s Peacebuilding program, which approves grants related to the Arab-Israel conflict, aims to “advance just and durable peace by supporting innovative and collaborative approaches and policies for conflict prevention, management, and transformation; strengthening constituencies and political will for conflict transformation and durable peace; and exploring solutions to emerging transnational threats and drivers of conflict.”
• Daniel Levy, a trustee of the Fund, is the president of the US Middle East Project (USMEP), a co-founder of J Street, council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and a former member of the board of directors of Molad-The Center for the Renewal of Democracy, all recipients of RBF funding. In addition, Levy is a member of the board of directors of the New Israel Fund (NIF), which is affiliated with many of the Israeli NGO recipients.

Funding

• In 2022, total income was $37.5 million; total expenses were $89.3 million.

Funding to NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Rockefeller Brothers Fund funds highly politicized and biased NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including Jewish Voice for Peace, Al-Shabaka, Defense for Children International – Palestine, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Breaking the Silence, Akevot, Gisha, Yesh Din, and Who Profits.

Funding to American NGOs

• Jewish Voice for Peace
  • Latest grant: $150,000 in 2023-2026 for general support. JVP has received $630,000 since 2017.
  • JVP is highly active in anti-Israel BDS campaigns and considers itself the “Jewish wing of the Palestinian solidarity movement,” seeking to create “a wedge” within the American Jewish community over support for Israel, while working toward the goal of eliminating U.S. economic, military, and political aid.
• Palestine Legal via the Tides Center 
  • Latest grant $240,000 in 2023-2026. Palestine Legal has received $615,000 since 2017.
  •  Palestine Legal works to provide legal cover for those advancing the BDS agenda on college campuses. This includes legal guidance on campus activities such as posting mock eviction notices to dorm rooms and setting up mock checkpoints, as well as lobbying public officials on behalf of BDS activists and initiatives.
• Adalah Justice Project via the Tides Center
  • Latest grant $300,000 in 2023-2026. AJP has received $710,000 since 2017.
  • In 2014, the Israeli NGO Adalah created the “Adalah Justice Project” (AJP), based in Boston, with the goal of transforming “American perception, policy and practice in Palestine/Israel into a human rights approach that guarantees historical justice and equality for all.” Since its founding, AJP has been highly active in BDS campaigns and legal warfare.
• IfNotNow
  • Latest grant $60,000 in 2021-2023 for general support. IfNotNow has received $160,000 since 2017.
  • IfNotNow is a US-based fringe group that uses highly polarizing tactics in attacking American Jewish institutions, citing supposed “support for occupation.” IfNotNow has organized protests and sit-ins at the headquarters of leading American Jewish communal organizations, infiltrated Birthright trips, as well as “run[] small, weekend-long orientation trainings on our movement DNA – our collective strategy, story, and structure.”
• Al-Shabaka (Middle East Policy Network)
  • Latest grant $221,000 in 2024-2026 for its “Palestine nonpartition project.” Al-Shabaka has received $705,000 since 2017.
  • Claiming to be a “think tank without borders,” Al-Shabaka solely promotes an intense anti-Israel agenda, advocating BDS campaigns, a Palestinian “right of return” and featuring writers on its website who accuse Israel of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing,” without featuring alternative views.
• Education for Just Peace in the Middle East-US Campaign for Palestinian Rights 
  • Latest grant: $225,000 in 2023-2026  for general support. USCPR has received $640,000 since 2017. 
  • USCPR is a national coalition of hundreds of groups working to advocate for Palestinian rights and a shift in US policy and is a leader and mobilizer of anti-Israel BDS campaigns.
  • Accuses Israel of maintaining a “matrix of control” over the Palestinian population and enacting “laws that discriminate against [Palestinians], much as Black Americans had been treated during the Jim Crow era.”
• Middle East Children’s Alliance
  • Latest grant: $75,000 in 2023 for its project “Rawa: Creative Palestinian Communities Fund.” MECA has received $365,000 since 2019. 
  • MECA organizes delegations to “Palestine/Israel” where participants can “witness the impact of the Israeli occupation and…learn about refugees, land confiscation, political prisoners…” Trip highlights include learning “about the origins of the Palestinian refugees and the Right of Return, and how it can be implemented.”
  • MECA lists Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), is a PFLP-affiliated health committee active in Gaza, as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents. as an organization “we support.”

Funding to Palestinian NGOs

• Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P): 
  • Latest grant: $100,000 in 2020-2022 for its US program. DCI-P has received $190,000 since 2017.
  • Numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel, have been employed and appointed as board members at DCI-P. For more information on DCI-P’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
• Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
  • In 2020-2021, RBF granted PMRS $50,000 for general support.
  • In May 2019, PMRS President Mustafa Barghouti attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP. It centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.
  • In March 2019, Sajed Mizher, a “first aid volunteer” for Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), was killed by the Israeli security forces “during confrontations…in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem.” Mizher was a “comrade“ of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the S., EU, Canada, and Israel). Mizher’s funeral procession featured many individuals wearing military gear, PFLP paraphernalia, and PFLP banners. Mizher’s body was also adorned in PFLP paraphernalia, as well as a PMRS orange reflective vest.  (For more details, see NGO Monitor’s blog “Palestinian NGO Medic Killed in Bethlehem Clashes Had Ties to PFLP Terror Group.”)

Funding to Israeli NGOs

• Breaking the Silence
  • Latest grant: $300,000 in 2022-2025 for general support. Breaking the Silence has received $620,000 since 2018.
  • Breaking the Silence makes sweeping accusations based on anecdotal, anonymous, and unverifiable accounts of often low-ranked soldiers. These “testimonies” lack context, are politically biased, and erase the complicated reality in the West Bank. In addition, they reflect a distorted interpretation of the conflict in order to advance the political agenda of Breaking the Silence activists, thereby fueling the international campaigns against Israel.
• Akevot
  • Latest grant: $150,000 in 2022-2025 for general support. Akevot has received $340,000 since 2017.
  • Akevot alleges censoring Israeli archives due to potential harm to national security, and foreign relations are “political and image considerations, which are not based on factual and legitimate reasons.” Akevot also claims that restricting material “produces a distorted history of Israel’s early statehood, and harms public and political debate.”
  • Akevot exposes the “Jewish-Israeli Public” to what it sees as the “root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and pushes them to “recognize Israel’s responsibility for historical injustices.” 
• Gisha
  • Latest grant: $150,000 in 2022-2024 for general support. Gisha has received $450,000 since 2017.
  • Gisha employs “apartheid” and other international legal rhetoric to promote a partisan political and ideological agenda.
• Yesh Din
  • Latest grant: $100,000 in 2023-2025  for general support. Yesh Din has received $360,000 since 2017.
  • Yesh Din is central to the allegations that Israeli investigative and court systems are unable or unwilling to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and is part of a wider “lawfare” strategy of pressing “war crimes” cases against Israeli officials in foreign courts and in the International Criminal Court (ICC). These campaigns use faulty information and skewed statistics to promote their political claims.
• Who Profits
  • Latest grant: $180,000 in 2023-2026  for general support. Who Profits has received $665,000 since 2017.
  • Who Profits reports serve as the basis for international BDS campaigns, such as the supposed UN BDS “blacklist” of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line. 
  • Who Profits targets Israeli and foreign banks, security companies, civil infrastructure facilities, and private companies, claiming to expose “the commercial involvement of Israeli and international companies in the continued Israeli control over Palestinian and Syrian land.”

Grants for Peacebuilding Relating to the Arab-Israeli Conflict