Guess who financed those 'blockade busting' ships

Money is a commodity. One dollar is the same as another. Money is what economists refer to as a "highly fungible commodity." In Thursday's JPost (my apologies for holding this for so long, but it's been kind of busy here...), Dan Kosky of NGO Monitor looks into the financing of what he calls the 'ship of fools' that sailed into Gaza City last week.

Free Gaza is a coalition of several groups, including the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). ISM has a shameful record of placing foreign nationals in danger through encouraging "direct action," most recently as a leading force in the violent protests against the security barrier at Ni'lin. In 2003, ISM's ideology was underscored when terrorists, originating from the UK, used ISM as a cover to attack the Mike's Place bar in Tel Aviv, murdering three people. As part of Free Gaza, ISM attempts to veil its extremism beneath the cause of humanitarian aid.

Less notorious although no less pernicious are the activities of ICAHD. Manipulating the language of human rights to promote a similar ideological agenda, ICAHD refers to Israel as an "apartheid" state and promotes anti-Israel boycotts. ICAHD's director, Jeff Halper has been one of Free Gaza's leading spokesmen.

WORRYINGLY, SEVERAL European governments are hoodwinked by the "humanitarian" agenda of radical NGOs, allocating them significant funds. The European Union, under its Partnership for Peace program, awarded ICAHD a two-year grant of 473,000 euros in 2005, comprising the majority of ICAHD's 2006 annual budget. Recently the Spanish government too deemed ICAHD a worthy recipient of its funds. Meanwhile, another Free Gaza member, PCHR, receives funding from the Danish, Norwegian and Irish governments.

The EU and others argue that their funds are directed to specific projects, rather than organizations in their entirety. But, European government backing affords significant legitimacy to these NGOs and their politicized agendas, in which they too are implicated. The exploits of Free Gaza, Halper and his cohorts come with a European stamp of approval. European governments have, perhaps unwittingly, placed themselves in the midst of a stunt orchestrated by extreme groups and endorsed by Hamas.

One of the ships returned to Cyprus at the end of last week, apparently with several Gazans on board.

The Palestinians on board included a father and his 16-year-old son, who hopes to be fitted with an artificial leg abroad. The activists earlier claimed they would also take with them Palestinian students who were denied exit from Gaza on security grounds. The activists assert Israel does not have the right to prevent the exit of Palestinians from the Strip.

...

Hawida Araf, a law professor at al-Quds University and one of activists who sailed to Gaza, told Ynet that she and her group are prepared for the possibility of Israel forcibly preventing their journey. "They have no other way to keep us from leaving here with Palestinians who have already received visas and who have been accepted into European schools. It is their right," she said.

The activists said they waited for an answer from Cypriot authorities, as some of the Palestinians do not have entry visas to the country.

For those who don't remember who Hawaida Araf is, she is a 'Palestinian' who lives in the Detroit area and is married to a despicable excuse for a Jew named Adam Shapiro. Shapiro, who had breakfast with Yasser Arafat in his surrounded Mukhata several years ago, also sought human shields to protect Hezbullah terrorists in south Lebanon in addition to founding the International Solidarity Movement along with Araf.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.