To read the original article (Hebrew), click here.

[Excerpt translated by NGO Monitor:]

A good word about Naomi Chazan and the NIF. NGO Monitor, the organization headed by Prof. Gerald Steinberg, published a comprehensive report on activities of the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP). This is a coalition, in which the member organizations and their activists support prosecuting Israelis, boycotting Israel, implementing the right of return, and denying Israel’s rights to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. The report accused the NIF of supporting CWP. In response, the NIF claimed that the report was inaccurate and that the funding had stopped. The Coalition itself intervened in the argument and published a condemnation of the NIF for allegedly caving in to NGO Monitor pressure.

NGO Monitor was right. But in the end, the channeling of money stopped. The NIF also demanded that the Coalition remove its name from the list of CWP supporters. More importantly, the NIF understood, even if belatedly, that they need to cut their ties with some organizations.

And there’s more, NIF president Naomi Chazan visited Australia recently. She received scathing criticism there. But it turns out, this time it was because she spoke bluntly and pointedly against the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. Here we had the embodiment of Israeli stupidity. Instead of broadening the anti-boycott camp, the extreme right imposed an unnecessary law, which only strengthens the boycott supporters, not only against the settlements but against all of Israel.

In her speeches, Chazan detailed the reasons she opposes the boycott: the boycott undermines Israel’s existence; the boycott is code for one-state advocates and undermines both people’s right to self- determination; the boycott helps the right, the victimhood mentality and the perception that “everyone is against us”; the boycott is contrary to academic freedom and discriminates against Israeli academics; the boycott is a double standard against Israel. Here, almost everything we wrote against the boycott was said by Chazan.

We can assume that the NIF will continue to supply this column with material, but when the president of the NIF comes out strongly against BDS, a good word is necessary.