The New Israel Fund is defending its sponsorship of three Arab groups behind a poster suggesting that IDF soldiers sexually violate Arab women (see the poster here).
The poster, in which an Israeli soldier is seen with his hand reaching for the breast of a woman in Palestinian garb, says, "Her husband needs a permit to touch her. The occupation penetrates her life everyday.” It’s part of a campaign titled "My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality: Palestinians in the Shadow of the Wall" and organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies.
Here’s what the coalition says was the purpose of its 11-country day of awareness, held Nov. 9:
We are seeking to break the “walls” of silence on daily violations of our sexual and bodily rights in the Palestinian society. We are principally highlighting the Israeli structural and legal violations of sexual, bodily, psychological, social and economic rights of Palestinians that intersect with the patriarchal social context, which restrain individual freedoms, perpetuates women’s inferior status and imposes silence on physical, psychological and sexual violations committed against women.
No word on the treatment of women by Arab countries (which, among other things, punish women for sexual activity outside of marriage and, in at least one case, outlaw women driving).
Three groups behind the Nov. 9 conference received some $340,000 from the NIF last year. Women Against Violence got $217,000, Mada Al-Carmel got $100,000 and the Arab Forum for Sexuality got $23,000.
NIF-UK chairman Nicholas Saphir defended the conference in the London Jewish Chronicle:
NIF chairman Nicholas Saphir defended the conference, saying there is a “real humanitarian problem” in Israel, where it is illegal to grant citizenship to Palestinians married to Israeli citizens.
“NIF supports free expression of the various views of our broad spectrum of grantees — whether we agree with all their positions or not,” he said. “As long as the work is within the framework of Israel’s charity law and other Israeli laws, NIF will continue to support them in the interests of sustaining its vibrant democracy.”
Conference organisers insisted that they were not claiming that IDF soldiers rape or sexually violate Palestinians.
Read the full story here.
UPDATE: NIF Communications Director Naomi Paiss told me: "While we certainly defend the conference as appropriate – and as always, may disagree with our grantees on some key issues but see no reason to force them into ideological lockstep — there’s no question that the poster in question is unnecessarily provocative and misleading."
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