But while the Jewish state may have been the target, the Ford Foundation also ultimately suffered a serious black eye after it emerged that many of the anti-Israel activists in Durban were egged on by Ford-backed, pro-Palestinian groups.
Hoping to head off a similar debacle, Ford says it will not pay for any organization to participate in the first follow-up conference to Durban, slated for April in Geneva.
This announcement comes nearly five years after Ford, America’s second-largest philanthropic institution, adopted what experts describe as the most stringent guidelines on grantees.
Yet despite such steps and the foundation’s public criticisms of what transpired seven years ago, Ford today is funding several organizations that engage in the "Durban strategy" — a two-pronged tactic launched at the ‘01 conference to paint Israel as a "racist, apartheid" state and isolate the Jewish nation through boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
The Ford slice of funds to anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations may pale compared to that provided by Europe and its myriad governmental agencies. But the Ford funding enables the groups to wage low-key, diplomatic and economic warfare against Israel, dragging the Palestinian conflict from the battlefield into international forums, media, the Internet and college campuses.
These revelations are the result of a months-long JTA investigation into Ford funding after the highly influential foundation revised its guidelines under pressure from the U.S. Congress.
The pressure followed an October 2003 JTA expose, “Funding Hate”, which found that Ford funneled millions of dollars to pro-Palestinian NGOs, enabling them to promote their vitriolic agenda against Israel in Durban. The NGO Forum, which accompanied the official gathering of countries, issued a lengthy document, including passages containing some of the most provocative attacks on Israel ever produced under the umbrella of the United Nations.
Despite its revised guidelines, Ford appears unable — or unwilling — to prevent some of its grantees from lending support to the movement that was launched in Durban.
The new JTA investigation, which examined a large cross-section of Ford grantees that speak out on the Middle East conflict, finds that several signed a major 2005 boycott and divestment petition against "Apartheid Israel.”
As Ford was announcing its decision not to support the 2009 anti-racism forum, its Web site touted a 2008-09 grant for $305,000 to the Arab NGO Network for Development, which features a map on its Web site that fails to note the existence of Israel.
One of the two Palestinian members on its coordination committee is the pro-boycott Palestinian NGO Network, or PNGO, a key organizer at Durban.
Although PNGO is no longer receiving grants from Ford, the network works closely with at least three Ford grantee organizations.
Ford, which has assets above $13 billion and gives away more than $500 million annually, was endowed with funds donated by Henry and Edsel Ford but no longer maintains any ties to the Ford Motor Co.
The foundation does not support groups that solely advocate boycotts, but signing onto a boycott or divestment effort is not itself a deal breaker for funding, according to Ford’s vice president of communications, Marta Tellado.
Tellado said there are no concrete red lines.
"We don’t have a glossary of terms that are not allowed," she said. "It’s not about the specific use of a word, but we look at the totality of that organization, if their activities as a whole still reflect our values and mission."
Tellado said the foundation never supported the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa, but it recognizes that "historically, boycott is seen as a legitimate, nonviolent means of expression."
”We don’t think the idea of a boycott can be generalized to mean it’s aimed at the destruction of a country," Tellado said. "But we understand that it’s a flashpoint" in the conflict today.
With preparations under way for the follow-up U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Geneva, there are strong indications that Israel again will be singled out for opprobrium.
Tellado said the Ford Foundation wants no part of it.
"Experience totally informs our decision,” she said. “This reflects our concern for the meeting’s ability to be constructive."
This and other steps — like severing relations with several zealous NGOs – garner Ford praise from even its toughest critics.
After JTA revealed the Ford-Durban link in 2003, Ford issued its new guidelines for grantees.
Experts say the revisions were the most extensive seen in philanthropic circles. They elicited howls of free-speech infringement from the American Civil Liberties Union and a slew of top U.S. universities.
Under the guidelines, Ford grantees must agree not to "carry on propaganda" or "promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any State, nor will it make subgrants to any entity that engages in these activities."
Although no Ford grantee was linked to terrorism per se, some appeared to condone violence and terror. Ford has since stopped funding those groups.
Yet JTA has uncovered several grantees that engage in the twin “Israel is apartheid” and “boycott and divest” campaigns.
“That is the essence of the Durban strategy: demonize and delegitimize Israel to the degree that it gains no external support and eventually is unable to function,” said Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor.
"I wouldn’t say this is a strong, consistent pattern, but it’s more than minor leakage. Ford should take a more proactive approach so its monies are not abused."
Beneficiaries of Ford funds include:
* Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights; Muwatin: Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy; The Palestinian Center for Human Rights; and Miftah: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. All these groups signed onto boycott and divestment petitions against "Apartheid Israel."
* Al Haq: Law in the Service of Man.* The West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva in the "Goals and Objectives" section of its Web page cites "participation in civil society discourse and activities regarding divestment, boycott, and sanctions." Last July it urged the U.N. General Assembly to recall the "political, economic, military and cultural isolation of South Africa" as "such measures must be considered in relation to Israel."
* The Arab NGO Network for Development.* Its Web site prominently features a section called "Eye on Gaza" with links to 10 related documents. Among them are an article titled "The Israeli Recipe for 2008: Genocide in Gaza" and a March news release of the Euro-Mediterranean NGO Platform — another Ford grantee — accusing Israel of “massacres,” “war crimes” and “genocide.”
Observers say that the activities of some Ford grantees point to the challenge that any huge, decentralized organization faces in monitoring its partners. Ford boasts 4,000 grantees around the world.
The issue may boil down to Ford’s interpretation of what terms such as “promote” or “bigotry” or “propaganda” mean, as stated in their guidelines.
“We’re not in the business of censorship because that flies in the face of our values,” Tellado said. “Having said that, you really do need to monitor because words do matter. We realize there is a lot of hyperbole bandied about and not backed up by fact.”
For their part, the Ford-funded NGOs say branding Israel “apartheid” is one way to “raise awareness” globally.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights received a two-year, $370,000 Ford grant for 2005-07 “for a program of legal advocacy and defense of human rights and the rule of law and promotion of democratic processes in Gaza.”
Even Steinberg of NGO Monitor praises the rights group for being one of the rare Palestinian organizations to condemn various abuses committed by the Palestinian authorities and police.
But in November 2006, the center also issued an "action alert" in which it joined with the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign — a network devoted to the boycott movement — in calling on the world to hold "Apartheid Israel" accountable for its "war crimes."
Jaber Wishah, the Palestinian Center’s deputy director, told JTA that by employing the term apartheid, "we are trying to raise awareness of the illegal and brutal behavior of the Israeli occupying force and the very discriminatory policies that the Israeli judicial system provides cover for.”
“The strategy of boycotts and divestment should be adopted to put an end to the Israeli policy of discrimination," he said in a phone interview from Gaza City.
Joharah Baker, an editorial writer for Miftah, another Ford grantee, concedes that equating Israel with South Africa is not quite accurate, as "no two situations are exactly the same.” But many comparisons can be drawn, she said — the separation between the two peoples, and also separating Palestinians from Palestinians.
The Ford-Durban link
The Ford Foundation, with its mission to "strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement," has provided through its Cairo office more than $200 million over the past half-century to some 350 NGOs in the Middle East.
So perhaps it was natural that Ford would support many groups attending the landmark Durban meeting.
Most of the media attention went to the accompanying NGO Forum in Durban, which attracted thousands of activists from around the world, aimed the harshest rhetoric at Israel and inspired several incidents of anti-Jewish epithets and the distribution of anti-Semitic literature.
The extremism sparked a walkout by the American and Israeli delegations.
But the real story, in retrospect, was the launch of the current “Israel is apartheid” movement.
In that Durban NGO document — mostly rejected by U.N. member-states during their official conference that followed — plotters unveiled a game plan: “Complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state, as was done in the case of South Africa … sanctions, embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, and military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel,” coupled with “condemnation of those states supporting, aiding, and abetting the Israeli apartheid state, and its perpetration of racist crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide.”
Ford’s vital funding of the Durban ringleaders helped re-inject terms like "apartheid," "boycott" and "divestment" into mainstream discourse about Israel.
The foundation’s then-president, Susan Berresford, apologized for its role in Durban in a Nov. 17, 2003 letter to U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on the heels of the four-part JTA investigation "Funding Hate.”
"We now recognize that we did not have a clear picture of the activities, organizations and people involved," Berresford wrote. "We deeply regret that Foundation grantees may have taken part in unacceptable behavior in Durban."
In 2003, Ford initially denied to JTA that any anti-Israel agitation or anti-Semitic activities took place in Durban. But as Nadler and 20 other U.S. lawmakers pressed for an investigation, and groups including the American Jewish Congress threatened a lawsuit, Ford reversed itself.
Berresford’s letter to Nadler said that Ford officials were "disgusted by the vicious anti-Semitic activity seen at Durban" and vowed, "If the Foundation finds allegations of bigotry and incitement of hatred by particular grantees to be true … we will cease funding."
Ford’s revised guidelines, produced in November 2003 with input from Nadler’s office and Jewish groups, altered a long-standing hands-off policy for its grantees and annual allocations worldwide.
Nadler said Ford’s revised policy has become a "benchmark" for the philanthropic and human rights world.
"In the face of that substantial pressure, Ford had stood strong, re-articulated their values and forcefully asserted their rights to deny funding to those organizations that violate their essential principles,"
Nadler told JTA. "They should be lauded for that."
After Ford’s role in the Durban conference was highlighted and the foundation tightened its grantee guidelines, it also doled out millions to assorted Jewish organizations. (See sidebar.)
Ford also earned kudos for its decision in February 2006 to withdraw support for an American Association of University Professors conference in Italy after The New York Sun revealed that some one-third of expected participants had publicly supported boycotts of Israeli universities.
Now comes the move to distance the foundation from the follow-up to Durban, which will be held in Geneva on U.N. grounds, where security and protocol can be more effectively controlled.
Yet a re-examination of that initial Berresford letter along with recent interviews with current Ford officials suggest that Ford’s rejection of groups that incite terror and anti-Semitism does not extend to the boycott and divestment movement.
The Palestinian NGO Network was one of the more notorious Durban ringleaders and continues to circle within the Ford orbit. PNGO, according to JTA’s 2003 series, had received $1.4 million from Ford over the years. Though it no longer receives Ford funding, its relations with several current Ford grantees raises questions about whether some funds Ford gives to groups associated with the network might end up supporting PNGO in some way.
PNGO is heavily involved with two of the prime campaigns associated with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movements, known as BDS: the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. The latter recently won U.N. accreditation to attend the 2009 anti-racism forum.
These two groups, along with PNGO, headlined a Nov. 22 conference on boycott and divestment strategy held in Ramallah.
PNGO’s advice to participants at the conference on how to publicly describe their objectives is on its Web site.
It reads: "Emphasize that the BDS campaign does not only target Israel’s economy, but challenges Israel’s legitimacy, being a colonial and apartheid state, as part of the international community. Therefore, efforts are needed not only to promote wide consumer boycotts, but also boycotts in the fields of academia, culture and sports."
PNGO is also linked to three current Ford grantees. It is a coordinating committee member of the Arab NGO Network for Development; an executive board member of the Euro-Mediterranean NGO Platform (the Arab NGO Network is also a member); and is associated with Muwatin, which it thanked online for lending a hand with the November strategy conference in Ramallah.
Even if money is not given specifically to bash Israel, NGO workers often speak of “fungibility” — money that is given from one donor, for one specific purpose, frees up money for NGOs to use for another purpose.
Alfred Ironside, a Ford spokesman, told JTA during a recent interview at the foundation’s Manhattan offices that the lines were clear.
“Ford grants are made for specific purposes, and we require a strict accounting of how funds are applied to grant-specific work,” he said.
Monitoring grantees
To monitor its grantees, Ford says it conducts random Web site checks and responds to specific complaints from peers in the field, lawmakers and other respected figures.
If Ford deems it necessary, Tellado said, the foundation will sever, freeze or even recover funding.
But Ford officials declined to name grantees they have punished this way, nor will the foundation say how many NGOs the foundation has cut loose since revising its guidelines.
Ford moved quickly in late 2003 to jettison a major Durban instigator – the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, also known as LAW. But that public announcement was made easier when the group’s serious financial improprieties also came to light.
With Berresford’s retirement last year, some on the left expressed hope that Ford’s incoming president, Luis Ubinas, would reverse the guidelines policy.
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