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{{Short description|Pro-Israel non-governmental organization}}
{{POV|date=May 2013}}
{{COI|date=May 2013}} {{pp-30-500|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox Non-profit
{{COI|date=March 2024}}
| Non-profit_name = NGO Monitor
{{Infobox organization
| Non-profit_logo = ]
| name = NGO Monitor
| Non-profit_type = ]<br>]
| logo = ]
| founded_date = 2001<ref name="about"/>
| type = ]<br/>]
| tax_id =
| founded_date = {{start date and age|2001}}<ref name="about">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?type=about |title=About NGO Monitor |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref>
| founder = ] | founder = ]
| location = Jerusalem | location = Jerusalem
| origins =
| key_people = ] (President); Naftali Balanson, Managing Editor; Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor<ref name="about"/> | key_people = ] (President); Naftali Balanson, Managing Editor; Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor<ref name="about"/>
| area_served = Israel | area_served = Israel
| product =
| mission = "to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community "<ref name="about"/>
| focus = End promotion of "politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas" by certain NGOs.<ref name="about"/> | focus = End promotion of "politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas" by certain NGOs.<ref name="about"/>
| revenue = US$ 385,000 (2008)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/annual_report_web2008.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009210711/http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/annual_report_web2008.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 October 2009|title=2008 Annual Report|year=2008|publisher=NGO Monitor|access-date=9 June 2010}}</ref>
| method = Academic research institute
| revenue = US$ 385,000 (2008)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/annual_report_web2008.pdf|title=2008 Annual Report|year=2008|publisher=NGO Monitor|accessdate=9 June 2010}}</ref>
| endowment =
| num_volunteers =
| num_employees = 13 (November 2010)<ref name="NGO Monitor Staff"/> | num_employees = 13 (November 2010)<ref name="NGO Monitor Staff"/>
| num_members =
| subsid =
| owner = NGO Monitor
| Non-profit_slogan = Making NGOs Accountable
| homepage = | homepage =
| dissolved =
| footnotes =
}} }}
<!-- Deleted image removed: ] --> <!-- Deleted image removed: ] -->
'''NGO Monitor''' is a ] organization based in ] that reports on international ] (non-governmental organisation) activity from a pro-Israel perspective.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Rubin | first1=A. | last2=Sarfati | first2=Y. | last3=Akman | first3=C.A. | last4=Erdeniz | first4=G. | last5=Fishman | first5=L. | last6=Golan-Nadir | first6=N. | last7=Michaeli | first7=I. | last8=Tepe | first8=S. | title=The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State–Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey | publisher=Lexington Books | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-4985-2508-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTTVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 | page=6|access-date=2021-12-10|quote=Right-wing organizations Im Tirzu and NGO Monitor ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Stetter | first=Stephan | title=The Middle East and Globalization: Encounters and Horizons | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-137-03176-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xt7YAZOioLQC&pg=PA206 | access-date=2021-12-10|quote=Transnational NGOs usually do not become a conflict party and are less likely to be associated with one of the conflict parties-although, to pick but two examples, as the campaign of the right-wing NGO Monitor in Israel against the involvement of "external actors"|page=206}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Khalidi | first=Rashid | title=Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East | publisher=Beacon Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-8070-4476-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHYPnxwPnlwC&pg=RA1-PT127 | access-date=2021-12-10|quote=Several other right-wing Israeli NGOs follow the same approach, including NGO Monitor}}</ref><ref name="jta.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.jta.org/2007/08/31/news-opinion/haaretz-columnist-dropped-by-british-zionists |title=Ha'aretz columnist dropped by British Zionists | publisher=] |date=31 August 2007}}</ref>
'''NGO Monitor''' ('''Non-governmental Organization Monitor''') is a ] based in the western part of ], whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations, and the general public.<ref name="about">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?type=about |title=About NGO Monitor |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> NGO Monitor says in its ] that it was founded to "to promote accountability, and advance a vigorous discussion on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the framework of the Arab–Israeli conflict". The organization was founded in 2001 by ] under the auspices of the ] (with funding from the Wechsler Family Foundation) as part of "an array of cutting-edge programs to present Israel's case to the world".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jcpa.org/about-jun04.htm |title=About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs |publisher=Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs}}</ref><ref name="ngo-monitor.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?cat_id=17 |title=Donors |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> NGO Monitor became a legally and financially independent organization in 2007 when it registered with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations in Israel.<ref>{{dead link|date=June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guidestar.org.il/en/organization/580465508 |title=העמותה לאחריות ארגונים לא ממשלתיים (ע"ר) |language=Hebrew |trans_title=NGO Monitor |publisher=Guidestar}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.organizations.co.il/%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%92%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%9E%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D-(%D7%A2%22%D7%A8)-580465508 |title=העמותה לאחריות ארגונים לא ממשלתיים (ע"ר) |language=Hebrew |trans_title=NGO Monitor |publisher=organizations.co.il}}</ref> NGO Monitor has been characterized as being pro-Israel<ref name="economist.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.economist.com/node/9804231 |title=Boycotting Israel: New pariah on the block |work=The Economist |date=September 13, 2007}}</ref><ref name="jta.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.jta.org/2007/08/31/news-opinion/haaretz-columnist-dropped-by-british-zionists |title=Ha'aretz columnist dropped by British Zionists | publisher=] |date=August 31, 2007}}</ref> and is often described as right-wing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20130617-biased-wikipedia-israel-political-meddling-arnie-draiman-monitor-ngo |title=Biased Misplaced Pages editing in Israel raises concerns of political meddling |publisher=France24 |agency=Haaretz |date=June 17, 2013 |quote=Draiman concealed the facts that he was an employee of NGO Monitor, often described as a right-wing group, and that he was using a second username, which is forbidden under Misplaced Pages's rules.}}</ref>


The organization was founded in 2001 by ] under the auspices of the ], before becoming a legally and financially independent organization in 2007.{{cn|date=July 2023}}
==Objectives==
NGO Monitor states that its mission is to "end the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas".<ref name="about"/> A number of academics have written that NGO Monitor's aims and activities are political in nature.<ref name="Edwards2012"/><ref name=NC>{{cite book|last=Chazan|first=Naomi|title=Israel in the World: Legitimacy and Exceptionalism|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0415624150|pages=79–80|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VXkerb_JH2UC&lpg=PA80&dq=NGO%20monitor%20right%20wing&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=NGO%20monitor%20right%20wing&f=false}}</ref><ref name=JPeters/>


NGO Monitor has been criticized by academic figures, diplomats, and journalists for allowing its research and conclusions to be driven by politics,<ref name="Friedman">{{cite news |last1=Friedman |first1=Matti |date=30 November 2014 |title=What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/3/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201004200/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/ |archive-date=1 December 2014 |access-date=10 December 2014 |publisher=The Atlantic}}</ref><ref name=JPeters /><ref name="Edwards2012" /> for not examining right-wing NGOs,<ref name="Edwards2012" /> and for spreading misinformation.<ref name="EUobserver" /> NGO Monitor's stated mission is to "end the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas".<ref name="about"/> A number of academics have written that NGO Monitor's aims and activities are political in nature.<ref name="Edwards2012"/><ref name=NC>{{cite book|last=Chazan|first=Naomi|title=Israel in the World: Legitimacy and Exceptionalism|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415624152|pages=79–80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXkerb_JH2UC&q=NGO+monitor+right+wing&pg=PA79}}</ref><ref name=JPeters/>
] lists NGO Monitor among a group of organisations who use deficiencies in NGO accountability as a pretext for politically motivated attacks to silence views with which they disagree. Edwards states that they "single out liberal or progressive groups for criticism while ignoring the same problems, if that is what they are, among NGO's allied with conservative views".<ref name="Edwards2012">{{cite book|author=Michael Edwards|title=NGO Accountability: "Politics, Principles and Innovations"|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QIkM5htEZ98C&pg=PT7|accessdate=29 May 2013|date=4 May 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-56042-2|page=7}}</ref> According to Joel Peters, NGO Monitor's activities include "high profile campaigns with the aim of delegitimizing the activities of Israeli civil society and human rights organisations, especially those advocating the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and/or address the question of violations of human rights in the Occupied Territories",<ref name=JPeters>{{cite book|last=Peters|first=Joel|title=The European Union and the Arab Spring: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East|year=2012|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=0739174452|page=85|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3IgxQPm0kpMC&lpg=PA85&dq=%22right%20wing%22%20ngo%20monitor&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> to which NGO Monitor responded by saying, "Our aims and objectives (holding political advocacy NGOs accountable, providing checks and balances, researching and publishing on these issues) are clearly spelled out."<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/letter_to_prof_joel_peters_author_the_european_union_and_the_arab_spring |date=March 18, 2013 |title=Letter to Prof. Joel Peters, author: The European Union and the Arab Spring |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref>


The organization's leader, Gerald M. Steinberg, has reportedly worked for the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Prime Minister while heading NGO Monitor.<ref></ref>
According to ], NGO Monitor is closely linked to a "tightly knit, coordinated set of associations" whose goal is to undermine liberal voices in Israel and entrench a negative image of them by means of having "continuously hammered away at their key message—in this instance, the abject disloyalty of certain civil society organizations and their funders and their collusion with Israel's most nefarious external detractors". Chazan states the aim is that "by reinforcing this mantra by every available means, innuendo could be transformed into fact".<ref name="NC"/>


==Structure and staff== ==Structure and staff==
NGO Monitor is the central project of the Organization for NGO Responsibility, an independent non-profit organization registered in Israel. Its president is Gerald M. Steinberg, professor of Political Science at ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geraldsteinberg.com/ |title=Professor Gerald Steinberg}}</ref> NGO Monitor is the central project of the Organization for NGO Responsibility, an independent nonprofit organization registered in Israel. Its president is Gerald M. Steinberg, professor emeritus of Political Science at ].<ref>{{cite web | last=Steinberg | first=Gerald | title=Gerald Steinberg, Author at ngomonitor | website=ngomonitor | date=2022-04-20 | url=https://www.ngo-monitor.org/expert/gerald/ | access-date=2022-06-22}}</ref>


Its staff includes:<ref name="about" /> Its staff includes:<ref name="about" />
* Gerald M. Steinberg, president * ], president
* Naftali Balanson, managing editor * Naftali Balanson, managing editor
* Anne Herzberg, legal advisor * Anne Herzberg, legal advisor
* Dov Yarden, chief executive officer * Dov Yarden, chief executive officer
* Arnie Draiman, online communications<ref name="NGO Monitor Staff">{{cite web |title=NGO Monitor Staff |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles/staff |accessdate=17 June 2013}}</ref><ref name=OY2013/> * Arnie Draiman, online communications<ref name="NGO Monitor Staff">{{cite web |title=NGO Monitor Staff |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles/staff |access-date=17 June 2013}}</ref><ref name=OY2013/>

As of 2015, NGO Monitor advisory council members were said to include ], ], ] and ].<ref name=Bath15>{{cite report |last1=Marusek |first1=Sarah |last2=Miller |first2=David |date=2015 |isbn=9780957027459 |title=How Israel attempts to mislead the United Nations: Deconstructing Israel's campaign against the Palestinian Return Centre |publisher=Public Interest Investigations |url=https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/how-israel-attempts-to-mislead-the-united-nations-deconstructing-}}</ref>


==Funding== ==Funding==
NGO Monitor has stated that originally, when it was part of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), it was funded by the Wechsler Family Foundation.<ref name="ngo-monitor.org"/> Since its separation from JCPA, and formation as an independent organization in 2007, NGO Monitor has drawn on a wider range of funding sources. NGO Monitor has said it receives no governmental support and is currently funded by private donors and foundations, although it did receive some funds, in 2010 and 2011, via The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), a quasi-governmental agency.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/pdf/NGOM_signed_audit2010english.pdf |title=The Amutah For Financial Responsibility (R.A.) Financial Statements as of December 31, 2010 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/NGOM_signed_audit2011english.pdf |title=The Amutah For Financial Responsibility (R.A.) Financial Statements as of December 31, 2011 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> Other significant donors include Research + Evaluation = Promoting Organizational Responsibility and Transparency' (REPORT), formerly known as American Friends of NGO Monitor (AFNGOM), who provided a $500,000 grant in 2010. More recent donors have been Peter Simpson of Jerusalem; ]<!-- and ] (deleted because UJA folded in 1999 before NGO Monitor was founded)-->; Orion Foundation; Matan; The Center for Jewish Community Studies (part of JCPA); and the Wechsler Family Foundation. NGO Monitor's financial reports for 2009, 2010, and 2011, which includes all legally mandatory information about any donations above NIS 20,000 (approximately US$5,200.00 as of 2012), are available on its website.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> According to a report by ], NGO Monitor is not transparent about its funding.<ref name="haaretz.co.il"/><ref name="jpost.com">. Jerusalem Post, 14 December 2015</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205061624/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Right%20Wing%20Funding.pdf |date=5 February 2016 }}. Ilan Sheizaf, September 2015</ref> The Wechsler Family Foundation is one of NGO Monitor's founding donors. Other acknowledged supporters are ] and Newt Becker.<ref>. NGO Monitor. Archived on 12 April 2008</ref> Since its separation from the ] (JCPA) and its formation as an independent organization in 2007, NGO Monitor has drawn on a wider range of funding sources. NGO Monitor has said it receives no governmental support and is funded by private donors and foundations, though it did receive some funds, in 2010 and 2011, via The ] (JAFI), a quasi-governmental agency.<ref name=financial_reports>; . </ref>


In 2010, the organization received a $500,000 grant from Research + Evaluation = Promoting Organizational Responsibility and Transparency (REPORT), formerly known as American Friends of NGO Monitor (AFNGOM). Private donors in the U.S. were asked on NGO Monitor's website to donate via REPORT.<ref name=ngo_donation>. NGO Monitor. Archived on 21 September 2013</ref> Other donors include The Center for Jewish Community Studies (part of JCPA),<ref></ref> the Orion Foundation, Matan, Peter Simpson, Nir Ben Josef,<ref name=financial_reports/> Real Property Investment DR. Tuchmen,<ref></ref> and ]<!-- and ] (deleted because UJA folded in 1999 before NGO Monitor was founded)-->.<ref name=ngo_donation/> NGO Monitor's financial reports for 2009 to 2012, which include donations above NIS 20,000 (approximately $5,200 as of 2012), are available on its website.<ref name=ngo_donation/>
According to a February 2012 article written by ] in ''Haaretz'', his examination of NGO Monitor's finances revealed that "the organization sought to block the publication of one contributor and to get hundreds of thousands of Shekels from anonymous sources".<ref name="haaretz.co.il">{{cite news |author=Uri Blau |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1636887 |title=העמותה שעוקבת אחר ארגוני השמאל לא רוצה שתדעו מי תורם לה |newspaper=Haaretz |language=Hebrew |trans_title=NGO Monitor: The association that tracks organizations of the Left does not want you to know who contributes to it |date=10 February 2012 |accessdate=June 20, 2013}}</ref> The donations in question were from the ] and Matan, and originated with unnamed donors from outside Israel. In the same article, Jason Edelstein, NGO Monitor's communications director, is quoted as saying "all of our financial information is fully disclosed with the Registrar for Non-Profits as required by law".<ref name="haaretz.co.il"/>

According to a February 2012 article by ] in ''Haaretz'', his examination of NGO Monitor's finances revealed that "the organization sought to block the publication of one contributor and to get hundreds of thousands of Shekels from anonymous sources".<ref name="haaretz.co.il">{{cite news |author=Uri Blau |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1636887 |script-title=he:העמותה שעוקבת אחר ארגוני השמאל לא רוצה שתדעו מי תורם לה |newspaper=Haaretz |language=he |trans-title=NGO Monitor: The association that tracks organizations of the Left does not want you to know who contributes to it |date=10 February 2012 |access-date=20 June 2013}}</ref> The donations in question were channeled through the ] and Matan, and originated with undisclosed donors from outside Israel. In the same article, Jason Edelstein, NGO Monitor's communications director, is quoted as saying "all of our financial information is fully disclosed with the Registrar for Non-Profits as required by law".<ref name="haaretz.co.il"/>

A 2015 report published by the ] movement discovered that NGO Monitor failed to file a legally required disclosure regarding the source of its funding, and that many of the group's funding sources are hidden from the public.<ref name="jpost.com"/><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205061624/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Right%20Wing%20Funding.pdf |date=5 February 2016 }}. Ilan Sheizaf, September 2015</ref>

NGO Monitor's U.S. sources of funding, as revealed by U.S. tax filings, have included the Abstraction Fund, ], Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, CJM Foundation, Jewish Community Federation, ], Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, ], MZ Foundation, ], Paul E. Singer Foundation, Milstein Family Foundation, Newton and Rochelle Becker affiliated charities, Shillman Foundation, Sinder Foundation, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Fund, and the William P. Goldman and Brothers Foundation.<ref name=Bath15/>


==Activities== ==Activities==


===Publications=== ===Legal activities===
] has called NGO Monitor an organisation that opposes legal means against Israel and at the same time a proponent of the use of legal means against those who criticise Israel.<ref name="Khalidi2013">{{cite book|author=Rashid Khalidi|title=Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHYPnxwPnlwC&pg=RA1-PT127|access-date=30 May 2013|date=12 March 2013|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-4476-6}}</ref> Sabine Lang writes that NGO Monitor has focused on the use of legal means to limit funding to NGOs.<ref name="Lang2012">{{cite book|author=Sabine Lang|title=NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vMl-Rgs8nRoC&pg=PA116|access-date=30 May 2013|date=15 October 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02499-1|pages=116–}}</ref>


Neve Gordon, writing in '']'', describes the term as part of a campaign to portray human rights as a national security threat and to impede organizations that expose human rights abuses, using NGO Monitor's activities as one of its main examples.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Neve|last1=Gordon|title=Human Rights as a Security Threat: Lawfare and the Campaign against Human Rights NGOs|url=https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lasr.12074|journal=Law & Society Review|date=3 June 2014|issn=1540-5893|pages=311–344|volume=48|issue=2|doi=10.1111/lasr.12074}}</ref>
NGO Monitor maintains an online directory of NGOs worldwide,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngo_index.php?letter=A |title=NGO Index A-Z |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> which generally includes a description of each organization, a quote from the organization itself, its funding sources, and selected quotes about the organization from publications and officials. NGO Monitor also has considerable material related to the first ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/durban_conference_0 |title=Durban Conference Review 2009 |publisher=NGO Monitor |date=June 15, 2009}}</ref> and the ]
of ],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaigns |title=Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Resource Page |date=July 14, 2011 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> as well as considerable discussion regarding the 2009 ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_forum_at_durban_conference_ |title=NGO Forum at Durban Conference 2001 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref>


In January 2010, Steinberg brought a case before the ] arguing that it was wrong of the ] to withhold some of the contents of over 200 financial documents that NGO Monitor had requested regarding the funding of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs.<ref name=EJC2012>{{cite web | title = Order Of The General Court (Fifth Chamber), Case T‑17/10 | date = 27 November 2012 | author = Court of Justice of the European Union| url = http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=131828&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1 |access-date=26 December 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| author = Dan Izenberg | title = NGO Monitor turns to EU court for transparency | newspaper = The Jerusalem Post | date = 21 January 2010 | url = http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=166271 |access-date=26 December 2012 }}</ref> In November 2012, the court said that NGO Monitor could not receive the financial documents regarding 16 projects of ] organizations in Israel, calling it "in part, manifestly inadmissible and, in part, manifestly lacking any foundation in law".<ref name=EJC2012/> The EU said "that the Middle East is an unstable region, and therefore such information may pose a danger to human rights groups".<ref name=HaarEU>{{cite news| author = Chaim Levinson | title = EU court rejects NGO Monitor petition to release details on Israeli rights groups | newspaper = Haaretz | date = 25 December 2012 | url = http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eu-court-rejects-ngo-monitor-petition-to-release-details-on-israeli-rights-groups-1.489919 |access-date=26 December 2012 }}</ref>
NGO Monitor staff have co-authored two books relating to NGOs: ''Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding'' (with founder and president, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor's Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg, and NGO Monitor's Best Practices Legal Fellow, Jordan Berman)<ref>{{cite web |title=Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding (Nijhoff Law Specials) |url=http://www.amazon.com/Practices-Humanitarian-Fact-Finding-Nijhoff-Specials/dp/9004218114/ |publisher=Amazon}}</ref> and ''The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis'' (with Prof. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg).<ref>{{cite web |title=The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis |url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Goldstone-Report-Reconsidered-Critical/dp/9659179308/ |publisher=Amazon}}</ref>


In 2013, NGO Monitor issued a report on the findings of the 2011 Israeli law requiring Israeli non-governmental organizations to disclose financial contributions from foreign donors and governments. The report assessed that foreign funding of Israeli NGOs totalled NIS 34,355,579 in 2012.<ref name=jp302155>{{cite news |author=Sam Sokol |url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=302155 |title=Groups spar with NGO Monitor over foreign funding |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=5 February 2013}}</ref> Steinberg called the new law an "international model for transparency". He also said, "the amount of foreign funding going to NGOs involved in polarizing activity in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict alarming."<ref name=jp302155/> The ] (ACRI) spokesman Marc Grey said that ACRI's donors were already listed on its website, making the law "redundant", and that the donations allowed organizations to protect human rights and freedoms, adding, "the basis for Israel's relations with democratic countries is shared values – democracy and human rights above all – the State of Israel itself is a recipient of funds from these very same countries, in the framework of trade agreements, investments, loans, and donations."<ref name=jp302155/> A spokesman for ] said the information had been published on its website for years and that NGO Monitor is a group of "Israeli government apologists masquerading as an objective watchdog. They do not even practice what they preach in terms of their own transparency and their sloppy, third-rate research."<ref name=jp302155/>
In 2009, NGO Monitor published a monograph titled "Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of ]",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/experts_or_ideologues_systematic_analysis_of_human_rights_watch |title=Experts or Ideologues: Systematic Analysis of Human Rights Watch |publisher=NGO Monitor |date=September 8, 2009}}</ref> which includes analysis of key HRW staff members, five case studies of HRW campaigns, and quantitative analysis comparing HRW publications in the Middle East, covering the period from 2002 to 2009.


===Criticisms of NGOs===
NGO Monitor released a document comparing ]'s response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence during the ] to its treatment of Israel.<ref name = "NGOM2004">{{Cite web| url = http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n12/NGOsAndSudan.htm
NGO Monitor criticized the ] for funding the 2001 ] in ], ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?id=53 |title=Ford Foundation NGO Funding Update - Implementation of Post-Durban Guidelines is Slow and Lacks Transparency |date=28 April 2005 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netwmd.com/articles/article293.html |publisher=War to Mobilize Democracy (netWMD) |title='Stunning Reversal:' Ford Foundation Agrees to Stop Funding Anti-Israeli and Anti-Semitic Groups |author=Andrew L. Jaffee |date=21 November 2003 |access-date=12 November 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201092449/http://www.netwmd.com/articles/article293.html |archive-date=1 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It also has taken exception to such accusations and says its involvement in the Palestinian territories reflects its belief that a just solution to the conflict is vitally important to the region and the peoples directly affected and that it also funds groups such as the ].<ref>{{cite news |author1=Bradford Smith |author2=Vice President |author3=Ford Foundation |url=http://forward.com/articles/6922/letter-october--/ |newspaper=The Forward |title=Ford Foundation Backs Proponents of Peace |date=24 October 2003}}</ref>
| title = Asleep at the Wheel: Comparing the Performance of Human Rights NGO's on Sudan and Arab-Israeli Issues
| accessdate = 2006-07-27
| last = Fredman
| first = Asher Ahuvia
| date = August 26, 2004
| publisher = NGO Monitor
}}
</ref>


NGO Monitor also criticized B'Tselem, "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n12/v2n12-4.htm |title=Betselem: Report Uses Outdated Sources and the Rhetoric of Demonization, ''NGO Monitor Analysis'' (Vol. 2 No. 12) |date=15 August 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102104059/http://ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n12/v2n12-4.htm |archive-date=2 January 2016 }}</ref>
===Lawfare===
] describes NGO Monitor as an organisation that opposes legal means against Israel while at the same time being a proponent of the use of legal means against those who criticise Israel.<ref name="Khalidi2013">{{cite book|author=Rashid Khalidi|title=Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=LHYPnxwPnlwC&pg=RA1-PT127|accessdate=30 May 2013|date=12 March 2013|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-4476-6}}</ref> Sabine Lang writes that NGO Monitor has focused on the use of legal means to limit funding to NGOs.<ref name="Lang2012">{{cite book|author=Sabine Lang|title=NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vMl-Rgs8nRoC&pg=PA116|accessdate=30 May 2013|date=15 October 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02499-1|pages=116–}}</ref>


NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund, which says its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nif.org/about/new-israel-fund-principles |title=New Israel Fund Principles |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528072709/http://www.nif.org/about/new-israel-fund-principles |archive-date=28 May 2013 }}</ref> Larry Garber, then executive director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Ya'ari, then NIF's Israel director and a retired Israeli air force major,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2008/09/24/new-israel-fund-director-responds-to-criticism |newspaper=The Jewish Tribune |title=New Israel Fund director responds to criticism |date=24 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006072725/http://www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2008/09/24/new-israel-fund-director-responds-to-criticism |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref> wrote in an op-ed in ''The Jerusalem Post'' that if Israel accepts Steinberg's premises, then "Israel's credibility—and, more important, the nation's morality—will suffer."<ref>{{cite news |author1=Larry Garber |author2=Eliezar Ya'ari |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |title=Who's really damaging Israel's image? |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Whos-really-damaging-Israels-image |date=19 March 2006}}</ref>
In January 2010, Gerald Steinberg brought a case before the ] arguing that it was wrong of the ] to withhold some of the contents of over 200 financial documents that NGO Monitor had requested, regarding the funding of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs.<ref name=EJC2012>{{cite web | title = Order Of The General Court (Fifth Chamber), Case T‑17/10 | date = 27 November 2012 | author = Court of Justice of the European Union| url = http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=131828&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=1173783 |accessdate=26 December 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| author = Dan Izenberg | title = NGO Monitor turns to EU court for transparency | newspaper = The Jerusalem Post | date = 21 January 2010 | url = http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=166271 |accessdate=26 December 2012 }}</ref> In November 2012, the court said that NGO Monitor could not receive the financial documents regarding 16 projects of ] organizations in Israel, calling it "in part, manifestly inadmissible and, in part, manifestly lacking any foundation in law".<ref name=EJC2012/> The EU commented "that the Middle East is an unstable region, and therefore such information may pose a danger to human rights groups". Steinberg said that "for over 10 years the EU has been keeping the information regarding funding of NGOs in complete secrecy. My conclusion is that they have something to hide. In addition to a violation of basic principles of government transparency, the secret funding is trying to manipulate the democratic process in Israel." ], a lawyer specializing in international human rights law said Steinberg "invents demons and then chases them.... All the data about the donations of foreign countries to Israeli human rights organizations are published on the Web sites of the organizations, as required by law."<ref name=HaarEU>{{cite news| author = Chaim Levinson | title = EU court rejects NGO Monitor petition to release details on Israeli rights groups | newspaper = Haaretz | date = 25 December 2012 | url = http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eu-court-rejects-ngo-monitor-petition-to-release-details-on-israeli-rights-groups-1.489919 |accessdate=26 December 2012 }}</ref>


With the stated aim of encouraging critical debate on the role of NGOs in the Middle East conflict, NGO Monitor held a 2006 conference in Jerusalem with 21 humanitarian aid groups in attendance. A panel discussed the pros and cons of NGOs dealing with ].<ref name=EJP>{{cite news|url=http://www.ejpress.org/article/9479 |publisher=European Jewish Press |title=EU to discuss Middle East NGOs funding |date=7 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214001158/http://www.ejpress.org/article/9479 |archive-date=14 February 2012 }}</ref><ref name=JP>{{cite news |author=Yoav Appel | newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |title=Major NGOs skip 'unfair' monitoring conference |date=14 June 2006 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Major-NGOs-skip-unfair-monitoring-conference}}</ref> NGOs such as ], B'Tselem and ] were invited to speak but declined.<ref name=EJP /> Amnesty International said the conference did "not give a balanced ground for open and fair dialogue" while another human rights group accused NGO Monitor of "partiality".<ref name=JP/>
In 2013, NGO Monitor issued a report on the findings of the 2011 Israeli law requiring Israeli non-governmental organizations to disclose financial contributions from foreign donors and governments. The report assessed that foreign funding of Israeli NGOs totaled NIS 34,355,579 in 2012.<ref name=jp302155>{{cite news |author=Sam Sokol |url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=302155 |title=Groups spar with NGO Monitor over foreign funding |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=February 5, 2013}}</ref> Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, called the new law an "international model for transparency". Steinberg also stated his opinion that "the amount of foreign funding going to NGOs involved in polarizing activity in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict as 'alarming'."<ref name=jp302155/> The ] (ACRI) spokesman Marc Grey stated that donors to ACRI were already listed on its website making the law "redundant", the donations allowed organizations to protect human rights and freedoms, adding that "the basis for Israel's relations with democratic countries is shared values – democracy and human rights above all – the State of Israel itself is a recipient of funds from these very same countries, in the framework of trade agreements, investments, loans, and donations."<ref name=jp302155/> A spokesman for ] said the information had been published on their website for years and said that NGO Monitor is a group of "Israeli government apologists masquerading as an objective watchdog. They do not even practice what they preach in terms of their own transparency and their sloppy, third-rate research."<ref name=jp302155/>


===Criticisms of NGOs=== ===Editing Misplaced Pages===
NGO Monitor's online communications editor, Arnie Draiman, was indefinitely banned from editing Misplaced Pages articles about the Israeli-Arab conflict due to biased editing, concealing his place of work and using a second account in a way forbidden by Misplaced Pages policy.<ref name=OY2013>{{cite web|author1=Oded Yaron|title=Aligning text to the right: Is a political organization editing Misplaced Pages to suit its interests? - Features|url=https://www.haaretz.com/2013-06-17/ty-article/.premium/the-israeli-editing-wars-on-wikipedia/0000017f-f95b-d044-adff-fbfbb3b30000|website=haaretz.com|publisher=Haaretz|access-date=4 November 2016|date=17 June 2013}}</ref> Draiman was a major contributor to the articles on NGO Monitor and ], and performed hundreds of edits on articles about human rights organizations, such as ], the ], ], and many others that Steinberg opposes.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Haaretz|title=Biased Misplaced Pages editing in Israel raises concerns of political meddling - France 24|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20130617-biased-wikipedia-israel-political-meddling-arnie-draiman-monitor-ngo|website=France 24|access-date=4 November 2016|date=17 June 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003062705/http://www.france24.com/en/20130617-biased-wikipedia-israel-political-meddling-arnie-draiman-monitor-ngo|archive-date=3 October 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
The organization formerly criticized the ] for funding the 2001 ], which took place in ], ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?id=53 |title=Ford Foundation NGO Funding Update - Implementation of Post-Durban Guidelines is Slow and Lacks Transparency |date=April 28, 2005 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netwmd.com/articles/article293.html |publisher=War to Mobilize Democracy (netWMD) |title='Stunning Reversal:' Ford Foundation Agrees to Stop Funding Anti-Israeli and Anti-Semitic Groups |author=Andrew L. Jaffee |date=November 21, 2003}}</ref> It also has taken exception to such accusations and says its involvement in the Palestinian territories reflects its belief that a just solution to the conflict is vitally important to the region and the peoples directly affected and that it also funds groups such as the ].<ref>{{cite news |author=Bradford Smith, Vice President, Ford Foundation |url=http://forward.com/articles/6922/letter-october--/ |newspaper=The Forward |title=Ford Foundation Backs Proponents of Peace |date=October 24, 2003}}</ref>


==Reception==
NGO Monitor also criticized B'Tselem, "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n12/v2n12-4.htm |title=Betselem: Report Uses Outdated Sources and the Rhetoric of Demonization, ''NGO Monitor Analysis'' (Vol. 2 No. 12) |date=August 15, 2004}}</ref>
Political research conducted at ] in 2019 rated NGO Monitor highly for "counter-democratic activities" and found that the organization was "heavily involved in denunciation" of human rights NGOs by depicting them as "unprofessional and biased".<ref name=Kalm19/> In all of NGO Monitor's reports, it was found to criticize NGOs that "had a perspective of promoting Palestinian human rights and/or taking a critical stance toward Israeli Government policies vis-à-vis Palestinians". The research also found that NGO Monitor appeared to "be promoting pro-Israel views regarding the conflict in a partisan way" and that, organizationally, NGO Monitor "might be less independent" and "tied to strong political interests and actors".<ref name=Kalm19>{{cite journal |first1=Sara |last1=Kalm |first2=Lisa |last2=Strömbom |first3=Anders |last3=Uhlin |date=2019 |title=Civil Society Democratising Global Governance? Potentials and Limitations of "Counter-Democracy" |journal=Global Society |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=499–519 |doi=10.1080/13600826.2019.1640189 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


], writing for '']'' in 2005, said that NGO Monitor is "an organization that believes that the best way to defend Israel is to condemn anyone who criticizes it."<ref name="forward"/>
NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund, which states that its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nif.org/about/new-israel-fund-principles |title=New Israel Fund Principles}}</ref> Larry Garber, then executive director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Ya'ari, then NIF's Israel director and a retired Israeli air force major,<ref>{{cite news | |url=http://www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2008/09/24/new-israel-fund-director-responds-to-criticism |newspaper=The Jewish Tribune |title=New Israel Fund director responds to criticism |date=September 24, 2008}}</ref> wrote in an op-ed in ''The Jerusalem Post'' that if Israel were to accept the premises of Gerald Steinberg, the director of NGO Monitor, then "Israel's credibility—and, more important, the nation's morality—will suffer."<ref>{{cite news |author1=Larry Garber |author2=Eliezar Ya'ari |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |title=Who's really damaging Israel's image? |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Whos-really-damaging-Israels-image |date=March 19, 2006}}</ref>


Yehudit Karp, a member of the International Council of the New Israel Fund and a former deputy attorney general of Israel, said that NGO Monitor has released information "it knew to be wrong, along with some manipulative interpretation".<ref>{{cite web |author=Yehudit Karp |date=6 March 2012 |url=http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-undisguised-agenda/ |title=NGO Monitor and Adalah: The thinly veiled agenda |publisher=Times of Israel}}</ref>
With the stated aim of encouraging critical debate on the role of NGOs in the Middle East conflict, NGO Monitor held a 2006 conference in Jerusalem with 21 humanitarian aid groups in attendance. A panel discussed the pros and cons of NGOs dealing with ].<ref name=EJP>{{cite news |url=http://www.ejpress.org/article/9479 |publisher=European Jewish Press |title=EU to discuss Middle East NGOs funding |date=July 7, 2006}}</ref><ref name=JP>{{cite news |author=Yoav Appel | newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |title=Major NGOs skip 'unfair' monitoring conference |date=June 14, 2006 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Major-NGOs-skip-unfair-monitoring-conference}}</ref> NGOs such as ], B'Tselem and ] were invited to speak but declined.<ref name=EJP /> Amnesty International said the conference did "not give a balanced ground for open and fair dialogue" while another human rights group accused NGO Monitor of "partiality".<ref name=JP/>


The New Israel Fund said in May 2011 that NGO Monitor "knowingly published false information in its newsletter" about the NIF funding of ] (CWP). NIF said that NGO Monitor's director was given the correct information verbally in advance.<ref>{{cite press release|last=Paiss |first=Naomi |title=NGO Monitor Attacks New Israel Fund Based on Information It Knew to Be Wrong |date=12 May 2011 |publisher=New Israel Fund |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1054-ngo-monitor-attacks-new-israel-fund-based-on-information-it-knew-to-be-wrong |access-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106162834/http://www.nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1054-ngo-monitor-attacks-new-israel-fund-based-on-information-it-knew-to-be-wrong |archive-date=6 November 2013 }}</ref> NGO Monitor responded by asserting that its report was based on NIF grant information.<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/letter_to_nif_israel_executive_director |title=Letter to Rachel Liel - NIF-Israel Executive Director |date=13 May 2011 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> NIF's rejoined that its public records lag the end of the reporting year by several months, but reiterated that updated information was given to NGO Monitor verbally. NIF also said that it asked CWP to remove mention of NIF's name from the CWP website.<ref>{{cite press release|last=Paiss |first=Naomi |title=More (to put it charitably) mistakes from NGO Monitor |date=15 May 2011 |publisher=New Israel Fund |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1055-more-to-put-it-charitably-mistakes-from-ngo-monitor |access-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209082148/http://nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1055-more-to-put-it-charitably-mistakes-from-ngo-monitor |archive-date=9 February 2014 }}</ref>
===Social media===
According to '']'', Arnie Draiman, a social-media employee of NGO Monitor, edited under the username Soosim, ] articles related to the ] and was subsequently topic-banned for a ]. The editor in question is reported to have promoted the company's agenda in his editing, particularly with regard to NGO monitor's Misplaced Pages page, and to pages dealing with organizations, such as B'Tselem, the New Israel Fund and Human Rights Watch, to which the Monitor's president, Professor Gerald Steinberg, is opposed.<ref name=OY2013>Oded Yaron, '']'', 18 June 2013.</ref>


], a former adviser to Likud leader ] who is now a columnist at '']'', said that NGO Monitor is a "serious voice in the field".<ref name=handel>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org.il/data/images/File/YAHendel310812.jpg |script-title=he:בעיטת קרן |trans-title=Corner Kick |publisher=NGO Monitor |language=he}} image of a clipping from ''Yediot Acharanot'' from September 2012</ref>
== Reception ==
Dr. Yoaz Hendel, a former adviser to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who is now a columnist at '']'', said that NGO Monitor is a "serious voice in the field".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org.il/data/images/File/YAHendel310812.jpg |title=בעיטת קרן |trans_title=Corner Kick |publisher=NGO Monitor |language=Hebrew}} image of a clipping from ''Yediot Acharanot'' from September 2012</ref>


In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying, "NGO Monitor ... conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/en/node/84956 |title=Visit to Saudi Arabia and False Allegations of Human Rights Watch 'Bias' |date=6 August 2009 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=4 December 2016 |archive-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315205544/http://www.hrw.org/en/node/84956 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
'']'', in an article written by Nathan Jeffay in January 2011, said that NGO Monitor is "Israel's most prominent watchdog of human rights groups".<ref>{{cite news |author=Nathan Jeffay |url=http://www.forward.com/articles/134820/ |title=Does Arab Money Fund Left-wing Israeli NGOs? |newspaper=The Forward |date=January 28, 2011}}</ref>


Uriel Heilman, a managing editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and a senior reporter for '']'', wrote in an online opinion column that there were a "couple of disingenuous (read: inaccurate) elements" in the May 2009 digest of NGO Monitor. Heilman rhetorically asked whether the situation itself was "enough for Steinberg and NGO Monitor's followers without Steinberg having to stretch the truth?" Steinberg later conceded that the statement's phrasing was confusing and revised it.<ref>{{cite news |author=Uriel Heilman |url=http://www.jta.org/2009/06/17/news-opinion/the-telegraph/playing-fast-and-loose-with-the-facts-at-ngo-monitor-updated |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |title=Playing fast and loose with the facts at NGO Monitor |date=17 June 2009}}</ref>
], in an opinion piece on the website of '']'' in December 2010, said that NGO Monitor is "an organization that investigates and sharply criticizes many self-described human rights groups as thinly disguised anti-Israel outfits".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-turn/2010/12/international_human_rights_day.html |title=Mourning on International Human Rights Day |date=December 9, 2010 |publisher=The Washington Post}}</ref>


Kathleen Peratis, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch, called into question the research methodology underlying an op-ed by Steinberg for not saying specifically where or when HRW statements have been unverifiable.<ref name="Kathleen Peratis">{{cite news |author=Kathleen Peratis |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901045.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Diversionary Strike On a Rights Group |date=30 August 2006}}</ref> In 2006, she criticized NGO Monitor for accusations against HRW and its "executive director, whose father fled Nazi Germany". Peratis took issue with an op-ed by Steinberg titled "Ken Roth's Blood Libel",<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |title=Ken Roth's Blood Libel |date=26 August 2006 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Ken-Roths-blood-libel |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref> and argues those like NGO Monitor "who want selective exemption of Israel from the rules of war" may not "have faced the implications of getting what they wish for".<ref name="Kathleen Peratis"/>
Yossi Alpher, writing in ''The Forward'', said that since its inception, NGO Monitor has "exposed the manipulation of some human rights campaigns to malign Israel unjustly and even to undermine its viability as a Jewish state". But Alpher also complains that NGO Monitor "seems dead set on eliminating human rights monitoring of Israel entirely and smearing anyone who supports this vital activity".<ref>{{cite news |author=Yossi Alpher |url=http://forward.com/articles/121170/ngo-monitor-needs-a-monitor |date=December 25, 2009 |newspaper=The Forward |title=NGO Monitor needs a monitor}}</ref>


In 2009, David Newman criticized NGO Monitor for concentrating "almost entirely with a critique of peace-related NGOs and especially those which focus on human rights, as though there were no other NGOs to examine". He said that NGO Monitor, which he called a right-wing organization, had consistently refused requests to investigate the activities and funding of right-wing NGOs, many of which, Newman said, were facilitating illegal activity in the West Bank.<ref name=DNJP>{{cite news|url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=161865|last=Newman|first=David|title=Borderline Views: Who's monitoring the monitor?|access-date=6 May 2012|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|date=30 November 2009}}</ref>


In January 2010, 13 Israeli human rights organizations released a common statement calling NGO Monitor and ] "extremist", and criticised an "unbridled and incendiary attack" by them against human rights groups.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acri.org.il/pdf/lettertoperes310110.pdf |date=31 January 2010 |title=Re: Assault and delegitimization of human rights organizations in Israel – warning and request of meeting}} letter to Shimon Peres, President of Israel; Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker; and Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel signed by the CEOs of 13 NGOs</ref>
=== Criticism ===


The 2013 ] was awarded to NGO Monitor, "a leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people." The Begin Prize is awarded for "extraordinary act(s) for the benefit of the State of Israel and/or the Jewish People." ] said, "NGO Monitor is the leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people."<ref name =Sharnaksy></ref>
Yehudit Karp, a member of the International Council of the New Israel Fund and a former deputy attorney general of Israel, said that NGO Monitor has released information "it knew to be wrong, along with some manipulative interpretation".<ref>{{cite web |author=Yehudit Karp |date=March 6, 2012 |url=http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-undisguised-agenda/ |title=NGO Monitor and Adalah: The thinly veiled agenda |publisher=Times of Israel}}</ref>


Ambassador Andrew Stanley, the EU representative to Israel, took issue with NGO Monitor's description of EU policy as operating in secret, writing, "as Prof. Steinberg is fully aware from the various conversations we have had with him, funding of projects by the European Union worldwide is carried out by open and public calls for proposals published on EU websites, including the website of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Letters/January-19-More-on-NGO-funding|title=January 19: More on NGO funding - Opinion - Jerusalem Post|website=www.jpost.com|date=19 January 2011 |access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref>
The New Israel Fund said in May 2011 that NGO Monitor "knowingly published false information in its newsletter", regarding the NIF funding of ] (CWP). NIF stated that NGO Monitor's director was provided the correct information verbally in advance.<ref>{{cite press release |last=Paiss |first=Naomi |title=NGO Monitor Attacks New Israel Fund Based on Information It Knew to Be Wrong |date=12 May 2011 |publisher=New Israel Fund |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1054-ngo-monitor-attacks-new-israel-fund-based-on-information-it-knew-to-be-wrong|accessdate=2013-06-21}}</ref> NGO Monitor responded that its report was based on NIF grant information, which is public.<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/letter_to_nif_israel_executive_director |title=Letter to Rachel Liel - NIF-Israel Executive Director |date=May 13, 2011 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> NIF's rejoinder stated that its public records lag the end of the reporting year by several months, but reiterated that updated information was provided to NGO Monitor verbally. NIF also stated that it asked CWP to remove mention of NIF's name from the CWP website.<ref>{{cite press release |last=Paiss |first=Naomi |title=More (to put it charitably) mistakes from NGO Monitor |date=15 May 2011 |publisher=New Israel Fund |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://nif.org/media-center/press-releases/1055-more-to-put-it-charitably-mistakes-from-ngo-monitor |accessdate=2013-06-21}}</ref>


] lists NGO Monitor among a group of organisations who use deficiencies in NGO accountability as a pretext for politically motivated attacks to silence views with which they disagree. Edwards writes that they "single out liberal or progressive groups for criticism while ignoring the same problems, if that is what they are, among NGOs allied with conservative views".<ref name="Edwards2012">{{cite book|author=Michael Edwards|title=NGO Accountability: "Politics, Principles and Innovations"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIkM5htEZ98C&pg=PT7|access-date=29 May 2013|date=4 May 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-56042-2|page=7}}</ref> According to Joel Peters, NGO Monitor's activities include "high profile campaigns with the aim of delegitimizing the activities of Israeli civil society and human rights organisations, especially those advocating the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and/or address the question of violations of human rights in the Occupied Territories",<ref name=JPeters>{{cite book|last=Peters|first=Joel|title=The European Union and the Arab Spring: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East|year=2012|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0739174456|page=85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IgxQPm0kpMC&q=%22right%20wing%22%20ngo%20monitor&pg=PA85}}</ref> to which NGO Monitor responded, "Our aims and objectives (holding political advocacy NGOs accountable, providing checks and balances, researching and publishing on these issues) are clearly spelled out."<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/letter_to_prof_joel_peters_author_the_european_union_and_the_arab_spring |date=18 March 2013 |title=Letter to Prof. Joel Peters, author: The European Union and the Arab Spring |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref>
In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying, "NGO Monitor ... conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hrw.org/en/node/84956 |title=Visit to Saudi Arabia and False Allegations of Human Rights Watch 'Bias' |date=6 August 2009 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref>


According to ], NGO Monitor is closely linked to a "tightly knit, coordinated set of associations" whose goal is to undermine liberal voices in Israel and entrench a negative image of them by "continuously hammer away at their key message—in this instance, the abject disloyalty of certain civil society organizations and their funders and their collusion with Israel's most nefarious external detractors". According to Chazan, "by reinforcing this mantra by every available means, innuendo could be transformed into fact".<ref name="NC"/>
Uriel Heilman, a managing editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and a senior reporter for '']'', wrote in an online opinion column that there were a "couple of disingenuous (read: inaccurate) elements" in the May 2009 digest of NGO Monitor. Heilman rhetorically asked whether the situation itself was "enough for Steinberg and NGO Monitor's followers without Steinberg having to stretch the truth?" Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor, later conceded the phrasing was confusing and revised the statement.<ref>{{cite news |author=Uriel Heilman |url=http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/06/17/1005957/playing-fast-and-loose-with-the-facts-at-ngo-monitor |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |title=Playing fast and loose with the facts at NGO Monitor |date=June 17, 2009}}</ref>


In an editorial published by ''The Forward'', ] called NGO Monitor "one of the smoothest left-bashing operations."<ref>{{cite web |author=JJ Goldberg |url=http://forward.com/articles/199099/turning-israel-day-parade-into-right-wing-echo-cha/ |date=29 May 2014|title=Turning Israel Day Parade Into Right-Wing Echo Chamber Rolling Down Fifth Ave |publisher=The Forward}}</ref>
Kathleen Peratis, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch, called into question the research methodology underlying an op-ed by NGO Monitor's Steinberg for not saying specifically where or when HRW statements have been unverifiable.<ref>{{cite news |author=Kathleen Peratis |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901045.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Diversionary Strike On a Rights Group |date=August 30, 2006}}</ref> In 2006, she criticized NGO Monitor for accusations against Human Right Watch and its "executive director, whose father fled Nazi Germany". Peratis took issue with an op-ed by NGO Monitor's Gerald Steinberg titled "Ken Roth's Blood Libel",<ref>{{cite web |author=Gerald M. Steinberg |title=Ken Roth's Blood Libel |date=August 26, 2006 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Ken-Roths-blood-libel |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref> and argues those like NGO Monitor "who want selective exemption of Israel from the rules of war" may not "have faced the implications of getting what they wish for".<ref>{{cite news |author=Kathleen Peratis |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901045.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Diversionary Strike On a Rights Group |date=August 30, 2006}}</ref>


Ilan Baruch, Israel's former ambassador to South Africa, said in a September 2018 report by the Policy Working Group (PWG) that NGO Monitor "disseminates misleading and tendentious information, which it presents as factual in-depth research". NGO Monitor's efforts are designed to "defend and sustain government policies that help uphold Israel's occupation of ...the Palestinian territories".<ref name="EUobserver">{{Cite news|url=https://euobserver.com/foreign/142973|title=Former diplomats raise alarm on Israeli lobby group|last=Rettman|first=Andrew|date=2018-09-28|access-date=2018-10-01|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 2018 |title=SHRINKING SPACE, NGO Monitor: Defaming human rights organizations that criticize the Israeli occupation |url=http://policyworkinggroup.org.il/report_en.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929114910/http://policyworkinggroup.org.il/report_en.pdf |archive-date=29 September 2018 |website=Policy Working Group}}</ref> The Dutch government has also criticised NGO Monitor, singling out the unreliability of its accusations against human rights defenders. Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said "the government is familiar with the accusations by NGO Monitor against a broad group of Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations, as well as with criticism of the conduct of NGO Monitor itself", citing the PWG report. "This research shows that many of NGO Monitor's accusations are based on selective citations, half-facts and insinuations, but not necessarily on hard evidence", Blok added.<ref>{{cite news |date=17 January 2020 |title=Dutch government criticises pro-Israel lobby group NGO Monitor's 'half-facts and insinuations' |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200117-dutch-government-criticises-pro-israel-lobby-group-ngo-monitors-half-facts-and-insinuations/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117194834/https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200117-dutch-government-criticises-pro-israel-lobby-group-ngo-monitors-half-facts-and-insinuations/ |archive-date=17 January 2020 |access-date=3 December 2020 |publisher=MEMO}}</ref>
In 2009 David Newman criticized NGO Monitor for concentrating "almost entirely with a critique of peace-related NGOs and especially those which focus on human rights, as though there were no other NGOs to examine". He said that NGO Monitor, which he describes as a right-wing organization, had consistently refused requests to investigate the activities and funding of right-wing NGOs, many of which, Newman said, were facilitating illegal activity in the West Bank.<ref name=DNJP>{{cite news|url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=161865|last=Newman|first=David|title=Borderline Views: Who's monitoring the monitor?|accessdate=6/5/2012|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|date=11/30/2009}}</ref> In response, NGO Monitor wrote that it is "an independent research organization, providing detailed, systematic, and source-based analysis and publications regarding the activities of NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The ideological label employed by Newman, 'right wing', is neither accurate nor relevant".<ref>{{cite web |author=Yishai Hughes |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/newman_is_wrong_on_ngo_monitor |title=Newman is wrong on NGO Monitor |date=April 1, 2010 |publisher=NGO Monitor}}</ref> Newman also criticized NGO Monitor again in 2009, as well as in 2010 and 2012.<ref>{{cite news |author=Asaf Shtull-Trauring |url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/left-and-right-at-the-lectern-1.304989 |title=Left and right at the lectern date=July 30, 2010 |newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=David Newman |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=269792 |title=Borderline Views: Time to promote the humanities |date=May 13, 2012 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>


In 2024, the ] reached a consensus to prohibit the use of NGO Monitor as a source.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Elia-Shalev |first=Asaf |date=June 18, 2024 |title=ADL Faces Misplaced Pages Ban Over Reliability Concerns on Israel, Antisemitism |url=https://www.jta.org/2024/06/18/united-states/adl-faces-wikipedia-ban-over-reliability-concerns-on-israel-antisemitism |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619082259/https://www.jta.org/2024/06/18/united-states/adl-faces-wikipedia-ban-over-reliability-concerns-on-israel-antisemitism |archive-date=June 19, 2024 |access-date=June 20, 2024 |agency=]}}</ref>
In January 2010, thirteen Israeli human rights organizations released a common statement describing NGO Monitor and ] as "extremist", and criticised an "unbridled and incendiary attack" by them against human rights groups.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acri.org.il/pdf/lettertoperes310110.pdf |date=January 31, 2010 |title=Re: Assault and delegitimization of human rights organizations in Israel – warning and request of meeting}} letter to Shimon Peres, President of Israel; Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker; and Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel signed by the CEOs of 13 NGOs</ref>


== Political Orientation == ==Political orientation==
NGO Monitor attempted in 2010 to cut the funding of '']'' by the Dutch foundation Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation by asserting that the website was "anti-Semitic and frequently compares Israeli policies with those of the Nazi regime." It also said that EI's executive director campaigned to delegitimize and demonize Israel. The ICCO's website praised Electronic Intifada as "an internationally recognized daily news source", functioning as a counterweight to pro-Israeli reportage. The ICCO's chairman, Marinus Verweij, stated in reply:
According to a United States diplomatic cable, uncovered in the ] documents, Prof. Gerald Steinberg said that "he did not want the NGO legislation to feed into the delegitimizing rhetoric, but that such an unintended consequence might be an acceptable cost to reduce the power of the NGOs' current monopolization of human rights rhetoric for politicized purposes."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=10TELAVIV439 |title=Knesset Considers Controversial NGO Legislation To Register As Foreign Agents |publisher=wikileaks}}</ref>


<blockquote>''Electronic Intifada'' ... has become an important source of information from the occupied Palestinian territories. Newspapers such as '']'' and the '']'' have frequently used material from the Electronic Intifada, and the rights of Palestinian people to a decent way of living are central in the news brought by the EI. The EI reports frequently about the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the State of Israel. In no way is the EI anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.<ref>{{cite web|author=Benjamin Weinthal |url=http://www.jpost.com/International/Dutch-will-look-into-NGO-funding-of-anti-Semitic-website |title=Dutch will look into NGO funding of anti-Semitic website |work=] |date=26 November 2010}}</ref></blockquote>
In a 2009 opinion column he writes for ''The Jerusalem Post,'' ] asserted that "NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of criticism for Israel, nor a word of acknowledgment, even grudging, for any detail in any human rights report that shows Israel to be less than utterly blameless. In fact, on the subject of Israel's human rights record, NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of disagreement with the Prime Minister's Office."<ref name="JP-Derfner-2009-07-22">
{{Cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Rattling-the-Cage-The-smearing-of-human-rights-organizations |title=Rattling the Cage: The smearing of human rights organizations |last=Derfner |first=Larry |date=2009-07-22 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=2013-06-21}}</ref>


EI's ], answering the accusations, noted that in the "scurrilous" claims, not one piece of evidence from the over 12,000 articles printed by EI since its inception in 2001 had been cited by the NGO.<ref>], ] 7 December 2010.</ref>
John H. Richardson, writing in ]'s online magazine in 2009 described NGO Monitor as a "rabidly partisan organization that attacks just about anyone who dares to criticize Israel on any grounds". It notes that Steinberg is dedicated to fighting "the narrative war", and has made a "special project" of attacking Human Rights Watch.<ref name=Esquire>{{Cite news|last=Richardson |first=John |url=http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/marc-garlasco-nazi-controversy-101309 |title=Why Is This Good Man Getting Hung Out to Dry? |work=] |date=2009-10 |accessdate=2010-03-29}}</ref>


In a 2009 opinion column written for ''The Jerusalem Post'', ] asserted that "NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of criticism for Israel, nor a word of acknowledgment, even grudging, for any detail in any human rights report that shows Israel to be less than utterly blameless. In fact, on the subject of Israel's human rights record, NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of disagreement with the Prime Minister's Office."<ref name="JP-Derfner-2009-07-22">{{Cite news |last=Derfner |first=Larry |date=22 July 2009 |title=Rattling the Cage: The smearing of human rights organizations |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Rattling-the-Cage-The-smearing-of-human-rights-organizations |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006142822/http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Rattling-the-Cage-The-smearing-of-human-rights-organizations |archive-date=6 October 2014 |access-date=21 June 2013 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>
Didi Remez, a former spokesperson for the ] group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.benor.co.il/benor/team.asp |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080616184210/www.benor.co.il/benor/team.asp |title=Who We are |publisher=Ben-Or Consulting |archivedate=June 16, 2008}}</ref> which was co-founded by ] of ],<ref>{{cite news |author=Ben Birnbaum |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/30/jewish-group-pays-pr-firm-co-owned-by-president/ |title=Jewish group pays PR firm co-owned by its president |publisher=The Washington Times |date=December 30, 2010}}</ref> said NGO Monitor "is not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/bring-on-the-transparency-1.3326 |author=Didi Remez |title=Bring on the transparency |newspaper=Haaretz |date=November 26, 2009}}</ref>


John H. Richardson, writing for ] magazine's website in 2009, called NGO Monitor a "rabidly partisan organization that attacks just about anyone who dares to criticize Israel on any grounds". It notes that Steinberg is dedicated to fighting "the narrative war" and has made a "special project" of attacking Human Rights Watch.<ref name=Esquire>{{Cite news |last=Richardson |first=John |url=http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/marc-garlasco-nazi-controversy-101309 |title=Why Is This Good Man Getting Hung Out to Dry? |work=] |date=October 2009 |access-date=29 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015073334/http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/marc-garlasco-nazi-controversy-101309 |archive-date=15 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In an ] published in 2005 by '']'', ], a former professor of politics and Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at ], takes issue with NGO Monitor's statement that Human Rights Watch (HRW) places "extreme emphasis on critical assessments of Israel" and has issued more reports about HRW than on any other of the 75 NGOs it concerns itself with. In his op-ed, Leonard Fein wrote that HRW has devoted more attention to five other nations in the region — ], ], ], ] and ] — than they have to Israel; but that, despite extensive correspondence, Mr Steinberg has failed to correct the "misleading" statement about HRW on the NGO Watch website. Fein argues that NGO Monitor may not be free of the "narrow political and ideological preferences" of which it accuses HRW.<ref name="forward">{{Cite news
|title=Monitoring The Monitor
|author=Leonard Fein
|url=http://www.forward.com/articles/3517/
|newspaper=]
|date=2005-05-20
}}</ref> '']'' writes NGO Monitor says it has increased Human Right Watch's reporting on Hamas, ] and the ] while Human Rights Watch has rejected the statements and said it was dealing with counterterrorism in a post-9/11 world.<!-- Preceding sentence needs cleanup.--><ref name="forward.com">{{cite news |title=Human Rights Watch To Increase Focus on Terrorism |author=Marc Perelman |date=July 29, 2005 |newspaper=The Forward |url=http://forward.com/articles/2462/human-rights-watch-to-increase-focus-on-terrorism/ }}</ref>


Didi Remez, a former spokesperson for the ] group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.benor.co.il/benor/team.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616184210/http://www.benor.co.il/benor/team.asp |title=Who We are |publisher=Ben-Or Consulting |archive-date=16 June 2008}}</ref> which was co-founded by ] of ],<ref>{{cite news |author=Ben Birnbaum |date=30 December 2010 |title=Jewish group pays PR firm co-owned by its president |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/30/jewish-group-pays-pr-firm-co-owned-by-president/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102221448/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/30/jewish-group-pays-pr-firm-co-owned-by-president/ |archive-date=2 January 2011 |work=The Washington Times}}</ref> said NGO Monitor "is not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/bring-on-the-transparency-1.3326 |author=Didi Remez |title=Bring on the transparency |newspaper=Haaretz |date=26 November 2009}}</ref>
In a 2004 article for the ], Jean Hardisty and Elizabeth Furdon describe NGO Monitor as a "conservative NGO watchdog group ... which focuses on perceived threats to Israeli interests", adding that "the ideological slant of NGO Monitor's work is unabashedly pro-Israeli. It does not claim to be a politically neutral examination of NGO activities and practices."<ref>{{cite web |author1=Jean Hardisty |author2=Elizabeth Furdon |url=http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v18n1/hardisty_ngo.html |title=Policing Civil Society:NGO Watch |date=Spring 2004 |publisher=Political Research Associates |work=The Public Eye |volume=18 |issue=1}}</ref>


In an ] published in 2005 by '']'', ], a former professor of politics and Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at ], takes issue with NGO Monitor's statement that Human Rights Watch places "extreme emphasis on critical assessments of Israel" and has issued more reports about HRW than on any other of the 75 NGOs it concerns itself with. Fein wrote that HRW has devoted more attention to five other nations in the region—], ], ], ] and ]—than it has to Israel; but that, despite extensive correspondence, Steinberg has failed to correct the "misleading" statement about HRW on the NGO Watch website. Fein argues that NGO Monitor may not be free of the "narrow political and ideological preferences" of which it accuses HRW.<ref name="forward">{{Cite news
], Union of Arab Community-Based Organisations in Israel, has said NGO Monitor represents the interests and the say of the Israeli state rather than civil society's voice based on human rights values. Ittijah further states that NGO Monitor is guided by the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ittijah.org/?intLanguage=2&chrSystem=item&intPMenu=319&intMenu=319&intMenuType=2&intCategory=386&intItem=1769&intItemType=2&intItemDisplayType=4 |title=Ittijah: Statement on Israel's Pronouncement to Boycott}}{{dead link|date=June 2013}}</ref>
|title=Monitoring The Monitor|author=Leonard Fein|url=http://www.forward.com/articles/3517/|newspaper=]|date=20 May 2005}}</ref> '']'' wrote that NGO Monitor says it has increased Human Right Watch's reporting on Hamas, ] and the ], while Human Rights Watch has rejected the statements and said it was dealing with counterterrorism in a post-9/11 world.<!-- Preceding sentence needs cleanup.--><ref name="forward.com">{{cite news |author=Perelman |first=Marc |date=29 July 2005 |title=Human Rights Watch To Increase Focus on Terrorism |url=http://forward.com/articles/2462/human-rights-watch-to-increase-focus-on-terrorism/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117023213/http://forward.com/news/2462/human-rights-watch-to-increase-focus-on-terrorism/ |archive-date=17 November 2015 |newspaper=The Forward}}</ref>

In a 2004 article for the ], Jean Hardisty and Elizabeth Furdon call NGO Monitor a "conservative NGO watchdog group ... which focuses on perceived threats to Israeli interests", adding that "the ideological slant of NGO Monitor's work is unabashedly pro-Israeli. It does not claim to be a politically neutral examination of NGO activities and practices."<ref>{{cite web |author1=Hardisty |first=Jean |author2=Furdon |first2=Elizabeth |date=Spring 2004 |title=Policing Civil Society:NGO Watch |url=http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v18n1/hardisty_ngo.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425052256/http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v18n1/hardisty_ngo.html |archive-date=25 April 2024 |work=The Public Eye |publisher=Political Research Associates |volume=18 |issue=1}}</ref>

], Union of Arab Community-Based Organisations in Israel, has said NGO Monitor represents the interests and the say of the Israeli state rather than civil society's voice based on human rights values. Ittijah further states that NGO Monitor is guided by the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ittijah.org/?intLanguage=2&chrSystem=item&intPMenu=319&intMenu=319&intMenuType=2&intCategory=386&intItem=1769&intItemType=2&intItemDisplayType=4 |title=Ittijah: Statement on Israel's Pronouncement to Boycott |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727022923/http://www.ittijah.org/?intLanguage=2&chrSystem=item&intPMenu=319&intMenu=319&intMenuType=2&intCategory=386&intItem=1769&intItemType=2&intItemDisplayType=4 |archive-date=27 July 2011 }}</ref>


According to Naomi Chazan, former New Israel Fund president, NGO Monitor is "tied to the national-religious right".<ref name=NC /> According to Naomi Chazan, former New Israel Fund president, NGO Monitor is "tied to the national-religious right".<ref name=NC />


In an op-ed published in '']'' in 2016, Noam Shelef wrote that NGO Monitor's leaders are affiliated with the Israeli government, and that the organization only scrutinizes progressive critics of government policies.<ref>{{cite news|last=Shelef|first=Noam|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/false_equivalence_in_israel|title=False equivalence in Israel|work=Jewish Journal
|date=29 January 2016|access-date=20 August 2019}}</ref>

==Associated Press "ban"==

According to former ] reporter ], the AP bureau in Jerusalem gave "explicit orders to reporters...to never quote or its director, an American-raised professor named Gerald Steinberg." Friedman continues, "In my time as an AP writer moving through the local conflict, with its myriad lunatics, bigots, and killers, the only person I ever saw subjected to an interview ban was this professor."<ref>{{cite news | title =What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel | newspaper =The Atlantic | date =30 November 2014 | url =https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/?single_page=true | access-date = 4 December 2014}}</ref>

The AP responded by saying, "There was no 'ban' on using Prof. Gerald Steinberg. He and his NGO Monitor group are cited in at least a half-dozen stories since the 2009 Gaza war."<ref>{{cite news | title =AP statement on Mideast coverage | newspaper =Associated Press | date =1 December 2014 | url =http://www.ap.org/content/press-release/2014/ap-statement-on-mideast-coverage | access-date =4 December 2014 | url-status =dead | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20141204110131/http://www.ap.org/content/press-release/2014/ap-statement-on-mideast-coverage | archive-date =4 December 2014 | df =dmy-all }}</ref>

Examining the evidence, law professor ] surmises that while there may not have been a written ban, there was a clear bias by the AP in terms of what it chose not to cover and which sources it chose not to use, that the problem "might not primarily be who is being quoted, but whether NGO influence and possible bias are considered newsworthy to begin with."<ref name="BernsteinMonitor">{{cite news |last1=Bernstein |first1=David |title=Who is right about the AP's alleged blacklisting of pro-Israel watchdog NGO Monitor? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/12/03/who-is-right-about-the-aps-alleged-blacklisting-of-pro-israel-watchdog-ngo-monitor/ |access-date=18 June 2019 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=3 December 2014}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
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* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|2}} {{Reflist}}


==External links== ==External links==
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===Publications=== ===Publications===
* ''Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding''; Gerald Steinberg, Anne Herzberg, Jordan Berman; ISBN 9004218114 * ''Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding''; Gerald Steinberg, Anne Herzberg, Jordan Berman; {{ISBN|9004218114}}
* ''The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis''; Gerald Steinberg and Anne Herzberg; ISBN 9659179308 * ''The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis''; Gerald Steinberg and Anne Herzberg; {{ISBN|9659179308}}


===News articles related to NGO Monitor=== ===News articles related to NGO Monitor===
* by Benjamin Weinthal, ''The Jerusalem Post'', February 25, 2010 * by Benjamin Weinthal, ''The Jerusalem Post'', 25 February 2010
* by Dan Izenberg, ''The Jerusalem Post'', January 21, 2010 * by Dan Izenberg, ''The Jerusalem Post'', 21 January 2010
* by Naftali Balanson, ''The Jerusalem Post'', December 2, 2009 * by Naftali Balanson, ''The Jerusalem Post'', 2 December 2009
* By Craig Whitlock, ''The Washington Post'', January 14, 2009 * By Craig Whitlock, ''The Washington Post'', 14 January 2009

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngo Monitor}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngo Monitor}}
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] ]
] ]
] ]
]

Latest revision as of 17:07, 27 August 2024

Pro-Israel non-governmental organization

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Misplaced Pages's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
NGO Monitor
Founded2001; 23 years ago (2001)
FounderGerald M. Steinberg
TypeNon-profit
NGO
FocusEnd promotion of "politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas" by certain NGOs.
Location
  • Jerusalem
Area served Israel
Key peopleGerald M. Steinberg (President); Naftali Balanson, Managing Editor; Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor
RevenueUS$ 385,000 (2008)
Employees13 (November 2010)
Websitengo-monitor.org

NGO Monitor is a right-wing organization based in Jerusalem that reports on international NGO (non-governmental organisation) activity from a pro-Israel perspective.

The organization was founded in 2001 by Gerald M. Steinberg under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, before becoming a legally and financially independent organization in 2007.

NGO Monitor has been criticized by academic figures, diplomats, and journalists for allowing its research and conclusions to be driven by politics, for not examining right-wing NGOs, and for spreading misinformation. NGO Monitor's stated mission is to "end the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas". A number of academics have written that NGO Monitor's aims and activities are political in nature.

The organization's leader, Gerald M. Steinberg, has reportedly worked for the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Prime Minister while heading NGO Monitor.

Structure and staff

NGO Monitor is the central project of the Organization for NGO Responsibility, an independent nonprofit organization registered in Israel. Its president is Gerald M. Steinberg, professor emeritus of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University.

Its staff includes:

  • Gerald M. Steinberg, president
  • Naftali Balanson, managing editor
  • Anne Herzberg, legal advisor
  • Dov Yarden, chief executive officer
  • Arnie Draiman, online communications

As of 2015, NGO Monitor advisory council members were said to include Elliott Abrams, Alan Dershowitz, Douglas Murray and R. James Woolsey.

Funding

According to a report by Peace Now, NGO Monitor is not transparent about its funding. The Wechsler Family Foundation is one of NGO Monitor's founding donors. Other acknowledged supporters are Nina Rosenwald and Newt Becker. Since its separation from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and its formation as an independent organization in 2007, NGO Monitor has drawn on a wider range of funding sources. NGO Monitor has said it receives no governmental support and is funded by private donors and foundations, though it did receive some funds, in 2010 and 2011, via The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), a quasi-governmental agency.

In 2010, the organization received a $500,000 grant from Research + Evaluation = Promoting Organizational Responsibility and Transparency (REPORT), formerly known as American Friends of NGO Monitor (AFNGOM). Private donors in the U.S. were asked on NGO Monitor's website to donate via REPORT. Other donors include The Center for Jewish Community Studies (part of JCPA), the Orion Foundation, Matan, Peter Simpson, Nir Ben Josef, Real Property Investment DR. Tuchmen, and Jewish Federations of North America. NGO Monitor's financial reports for 2009 to 2012, which include donations above NIS 20,000 (approximately $5,200 as of 2012), are available on its website.

According to a February 2012 article by Uri Blau in Haaretz, his examination of NGO Monitor's finances revealed that "the organization sought to block the publication of one contributor and to get hundreds of thousands of Shekels from anonymous sources". The donations in question were channeled through the Jewish Agency for Israel and Matan, and originated with undisclosed donors from outside Israel. In the same article, Jason Edelstein, NGO Monitor's communications director, is quoted as saying "all of our financial information is fully disclosed with the Registrar for Non-Profits as required by law".

A 2015 report published by the Peace Now movement discovered that NGO Monitor failed to file a legally required disclosure regarding the source of its funding, and that many of the group's funding sources are hidden from the public.

NGO Monitor's U.S. sources of funding, as revealed by U.S. tax filings, have included the Abstraction Fund, American Jewish Committee, Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, CJM Foundation, Jewish Community Federation, Koret Foundation, Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, Middle East Forum, MZ Foundation, Network for Good, Paul E. Singer Foundation, Milstein Family Foundation, Newton and Rochelle Becker affiliated charities, Shillman Foundation, Sinder Foundation, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Fund, and the William P. Goldman and Brothers Foundation.

Activities

Legal activities

Rashid Khalidi has called NGO Monitor an organisation that opposes legal means against Israel and at the same time a proponent of the use of legal means against those who criticise Israel. Sabine Lang writes that NGO Monitor has focused on the use of legal means to limit funding to NGOs.

Neve Gordon, writing in Law & Society Review, describes the term as part of a campaign to portray human rights as a national security threat and to impede organizations that expose human rights abuses, using NGO Monitor's activities as one of its main examples.

In January 2010, Steinberg brought a case before the European Court of Justice arguing that it was wrong of the European Commission to withhold some of the contents of over 200 financial documents that NGO Monitor had requested regarding the funding of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. In November 2012, the court said that NGO Monitor could not receive the financial documents regarding 16 projects of human rights organizations in Israel, calling it "in part, manifestly inadmissible and, in part, manifestly lacking any foundation in law". The EU said "that the Middle East is an unstable region, and therefore such information may pose a danger to human rights groups".

In 2013, NGO Monitor issued a report on the findings of the 2011 Israeli law requiring Israeli non-governmental organizations to disclose financial contributions from foreign donors and governments. The report assessed that foreign funding of Israeli NGOs totalled NIS 34,355,579 in 2012. Steinberg called the new law an "international model for transparency". He also said, "the amount of foreign funding going to NGOs involved in polarizing activity in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict alarming." The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) spokesman Marc Grey said that ACRI's donors were already listed on its website, making the law "redundant", and that the donations allowed organizations to protect human rights and freedoms, adding, "the basis for Israel's relations with democratic countries is shared values – democracy and human rights above all – the State of Israel itself is a recipient of funds from these very same countries, in the framework of trade agreements, investments, loans, and donations." A spokesman for B'Tselem said the information had been published on its website for years and that NGO Monitor is a group of "Israeli government apologists masquerading as an objective watchdog. They do not even practice what they preach in terms of their own transparency and their sloppy, third-rate research."

Criticisms of NGOs

NGO Monitor criticized the Ford Foundation for funding the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. The Ford Foundation has modified its policies regarding funding of NGOs. It also has taken exception to such accusations and says its involvement in the Palestinian territories reflects its belief that a just solution to the conflict is vitally important to the region and the peoples directly affected and that it also funds groups such as the New Israel Fund.

NGO Monitor also criticized B'Tselem, "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories".

NGO Monitor has criticized the New Israel Fund, which says its primary objective is "to strengthen Israel's democracy". Larry Garber, then executive director of the New Israel Fund, and Eliezer Ya'ari, then NIF's Israel director and a retired Israeli air force major, wrote in an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post that if Israel accepts Steinberg's premises, then "Israel's credibility—and, more important, the nation's morality—will suffer."

With the stated aim of encouraging critical debate on the role of NGOs in the Middle East conflict, NGO Monitor held a 2006 conference in Jerusalem with 21 humanitarian aid groups in attendance. A panel discussed the pros and cons of NGOs dealing with Hamas. NGOs such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights were invited to speak but declined. Amnesty International said the conference did "not give a balanced ground for open and fair dialogue" while another human rights group accused NGO Monitor of "partiality".

Editing Misplaced Pages

NGO Monitor's online communications editor, Arnie Draiman, was indefinitely banned from editing Misplaced Pages articles about the Israeli-Arab conflict due to biased editing, concealing his place of work and using a second account in a way forbidden by Misplaced Pages policy. Draiman was a major contributor to the articles on NGO Monitor and Gerald Steinberg, and performed hundreds of edits on articles about human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem, the New Israel Fund, Human Rights Watch, and many others that Steinberg opposes.

Reception

Political research conducted at Lund University in 2019 rated NGO Monitor highly for "counter-democratic activities" and found that the organization was "heavily involved in denunciation" of human rights NGOs by depicting them as "unprofessional and biased". In all of NGO Monitor's reports, it was found to criticize NGOs that "had a perspective of promoting Palestinian human rights and/or taking a critical stance toward Israeli Government policies vis-à-vis Palestinians". The research also found that NGO Monitor appeared to "be promoting pro-Israel views regarding the conflict in a partisan way" and that, organizationally, NGO Monitor "might be less independent" and "tied to strong political interests and actors".

Leonard Fein, writing for The Forward in 2005, said that NGO Monitor is "an organization that believes that the best way to defend Israel is to condemn anyone who criticizes it."

Yehudit Karp, a member of the International Council of the New Israel Fund and a former deputy attorney general of Israel, said that NGO Monitor has released information "it knew to be wrong, along with some manipulative interpretation".

The New Israel Fund said in May 2011 that NGO Monitor "knowingly published false information in its newsletter" about the NIF funding of Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP). NIF said that NGO Monitor's director was given the correct information verbally in advance. NGO Monitor responded by asserting that its report was based on NIF grant information. NIF's rejoined that its public records lag the end of the reporting year by several months, but reiterated that updated information was given to NGO Monitor verbally. NIF also said that it asked CWP to remove mention of NIF's name from the CWP website.

Yoaz Hendel, a former adviser to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who is now a columnist at Yediot Aharonot, said that NGO Monitor is a "serious voice in the field".

In July 2009, HRW issued a statement saying, "NGO Monitor ... conducts no field investigations and condemns anyone who criticizes Israel".

Uriel Heilman, a managing editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and a senior reporter for The Jerusalem Post, wrote in an online opinion column that there were a "couple of disingenuous (read: inaccurate) elements" in the May 2009 digest of NGO Monitor. Heilman rhetorically asked whether the situation itself was "enough for Steinberg and NGO Monitor's followers without Steinberg having to stretch the truth?" Steinberg later conceded that the statement's phrasing was confusing and revised it.

Kathleen Peratis, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch, called into question the research methodology underlying an op-ed by Steinberg for not saying specifically where or when HRW statements have been unverifiable. In 2006, she criticized NGO Monitor for accusations against HRW and its "executive director, whose father fled Nazi Germany". Peratis took issue with an op-ed by Steinberg titled "Ken Roth's Blood Libel", and argues those like NGO Monitor "who want selective exemption of Israel from the rules of war" may not "have faced the implications of getting what they wish for".

In 2009, David Newman criticized NGO Monitor for concentrating "almost entirely with a critique of peace-related NGOs and especially those which focus on human rights, as though there were no other NGOs to examine". He said that NGO Monitor, which he called a right-wing organization, had consistently refused requests to investigate the activities and funding of right-wing NGOs, many of which, Newman said, were facilitating illegal activity in the West Bank.

In January 2010, 13 Israeli human rights organizations released a common statement calling NGO Monitor and Im Tirtzu "extremist", and criticised an "unbridled and incendiary attack" by them against human rights groups.

The 2013 Menachem Begin Prize was awarded to NGO Monitor, "a leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people." The Begin Prize is awarded for "extraordinary act(s) for the benefit of the State of Israel and/or the Jewish People." Natan Sharansky said, "NGO Monitor is the leading organization defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people."

Ambassador Andrew Stanley, the EU representative to Israel, took issue with NGO Monitor's description of EU policy as operating in secret, writing, "as Prof. Steinberg is fully aware from the various conversations we have had with him, funding of projects by the European Union worldwide is carried out by open and public calls for proposals published on EU websites, including the website of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel."

Michael Edwards lists NGO Monitor among a group of organisations who use deficiencies in NGO accountability as a pretext for politically motivated attacks to silence views with which they disagree. Edwards writes that they "single out liberal or progressive groups for criticism while ignoring the same problems, if that is what they are, among NGOs allied with conservative views". According to Joel Peters, NGO Monitor's activities include "high profile campaigns with the aim of delegitimizing the activities of Israeli civil society and human rights organisations, especially those advocating the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and/or address the question of violations of human rights in the Occupied Territories", to which NGO Monitor responded, "Our aims and objectives (holding political advocacy NGOs accountable, providing checks and balances, researching and publishing on these issues) are clearly spelled out."

According to Naomi Chazan, NGO Monitor is closely linked to a "tightly knit, coordinated set of associations" whose goal is to undermine liberal voices in Israel and entrench a negative image of them by "continuously hammer away at their key message—in this instance, the abject disloyalty of certain civil society organizations and their funders and their collusion with Israel's most nefarious external detractors". According to Chazan, "by reinforcing this mantra by every available means, innuendo could be transformed into fact".

In an editorial published by The Forward, J.J. Goldberg called NGO Monitor "one of the smoothest left-bashing operations."

Ilan Baruch, Israel's former ambassador to South Africa, said in a September 2018 report by the Policy Working Group (PWG) that NGO Monitor "disseminates misleading and tendentious information, which it presents as factual in-depth research". NGO Monitor's efforts are designed to "defend and sustain government policies that help uphold Israel's occupation of ...the Palestinian territories". The Dutch government has also criticised NGO Monitor, singling out the unreliability of its accusations against human rights defenders. Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said "the government is familiar with the accusations by NGO Monitor against a broad group of Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations, as well as with criticism of the conduct of NGO Monitor itself", citing the PWG report. "This research shows that many of NGO Monitor's accusations are based on selective citations, half-facts and insinuations, but not necessarily on hard evidence", Blok added.

In 2024, the Misplaced Pages community reached a consensus to prohibit the use of NGO Monitor as a source.

Political orientation

NGO Monitor attempted in 2010 to cut the funding of The Electronic Intifada by the Dutch foundation Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation by asserting that the website was "anti-Semitic and frequently compares Israeli policies with those of the Nazi regime." It also said that EI's executive director campaigned to delegitimize and demonize Israel. The ICCO's website praised Electronic Intifada as "an internationally recognized daily news source", functioning as a counterweight to pro-Israeli reportage. The ICCO's chairman, Marinus Verweij, stated in reply:

Electronic Intifada ... has become an important source of information from the occupied Palestinian territories. Newspapers such as The Washington Post and the Financial Times have frequently used material from the Electronic Intifada, and the rights of Palestinian people to a decent way of living are central in the news brought by the EI. The EI reports frequently about the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the State of Israel. In no way is the EI anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.

EI's Ali Abunimah, answering the accusations, noted that in the "scurrilous" claims, not one piece of evidence from the over 12,000 articles printed by EI since its inception in 2001 had been cited by the NGO.

In a 2009 opinion column written for The Jerusalem Post, Larry Derfner asserted that "NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of criticism for Israel, nor a word of acknowledgment, even grudging, for any detail in any human rights report that shows Israel to be less than utterly blameless. In fact, on the subject of Israel's human rights record, NGO Monitor doesn't have a word of disagreement with the Prime Minister's Office."

John H. Richardson, writing for Esquire magazine's website in 2009, called NGO Monitor a "rabidly partisan organization that attacks just about anyone who dares to criticize Israel on any grounds". It notes that Steinberg is dedicated to fighting "the narrative war" and has made a "special project" of attacking Human Rights Watch.

Didi Remez, a former spokesperson for the Peace Now group and former consultant to BenOr Consulting, which was co-founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, said NGO Monitor "is not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts".

In an op-ed published in 2005 by The Forward, Leonard Fein, a former professor of politics and Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, takes issue with NGO Monitor's statement that Human Rights Watch places "extreme emphasis on critical assessments of Israel" and has issued more reports about HRW than on any other of the 75 NGOs it concerns itself with. Fein wrote that HRW has devoted more attention to five other nations in the region—Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Turkey and Iran—than it has to Israel; but that, despite extensive correspondence, Steinberg has failed to correct the "misleading" statement about HRW on the NGO Watch website. Fein argues that NGO Monitor may not be free of the "narrow political and ideological preferences" of which it accuses HRW. The Forward wrote that NGO Monitor says it has increased Human Right Watch's reporting on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority, while Human Rights Watch has rejected the statements and said it was dealing with counterterrorism in a post-9/11 world.

In a 2004 article for the Political Research Associates, Jean Hardisty and Elizabeth Furdon call NGO Monitor a "conservative NGO watchdog group ... which focuses on perceived threats to Israeli interests", adding that "the ideological slant of NGO Monitor's work is unabashedly pro-Israeli. It does not claim to be a politically neutral examination of NGO activities and practices."

Ittijah, Union of Arab Community-Based Organisations in Israel, has said NGO Monitor represents the interests and the say of the Israeli state rather than civil society's voice based on human rights values. Ittijah further states that NGO Monitor is guided by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Naomi Chazan, former New Israel Fund president, NGO Monitor is "tied to the national-religious right".

In an op-ed published in Jewish Journal in 2016, Noam Shelef wrote that NGO Monitor's leaders are affiliated with the Israeli government, and that the organization only scrutinizes progressive critics of government policies.

Associated Press "ban"

According to former Associated Press reporter Matti Friedman, the AP bureau in Jerusalem gave "explicit orders to reporters...to never quote or its director, an American-raised professor named Gerald Steinberg." Friedman continues, "In my time as an AP writer moving through the local conflict, with its myriad lunatics, bigots, and killers, the only person I ever saw subjected to an interview ban was this professor."

The AP responded by saying, "There was no 'ban' on using Prof. Gerald Steinberg. He and his NGO Monitor group are cited in at least a half-dozen stories since the 2009 Gaza war."

Examining the evidence, law professor David Bernstein surmises that while there may not have been a written ban, there was a clear bias by the AP in terms of what it chose not to cover and which sources it chose not to use, that the problem "might not primarily be who is being quoted, but whether NGO influence and possible bias are considered newsworthy to begin with."

See also

References

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  3. ^ "NGO Monitor Staff". Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  4. Rubin, A.; Sarfati, Y.; Akman, C.A.; Erdeniz, G.; Fishman, L.; Golan-Nadir, N.; Michaeli, I.; Tepe, S. (2016). The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State–Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey. Lexington Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-4985-2508-4. Retrieved 10 December 2021. Right-wing organizations Im Tirzu and NGO Monitor ...
  5. Stetter, Stephan (2012). The Middle East and Globalization: Encounters and Horizons. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-137-03176-1. Retrieved 10 December 2021. Transnational NGOs usually do not become a conflict party and are less likely to be associated with one of the conflict parties-although, to pick but two examples, as the campaign of the right-wing NGO Monitor in Israel against the involvement of "external actors"
  6. Khalidi, Rashid (2013). Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-4476-6. Retrieved 10 December 2021. Several other right-wing Israeli NGOs follow the same approach, including NGO Monitor
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External links

Official Links

Publications

  • Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding; Gerald Steinberg, Anne Herzberg, Jordan Berman; ISBN 9004218114
  • The Goldstone Report 'Reconsidered': A Critical Analysis; Gerald Steinberg and Anne Herzberg; ISBN 9659179308

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