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Published on 3 July 2018
#Crif #Delegation - Meeting with Olga Deutsch, from NGO Monitor
June 26th, 2018 - Jerusalem
Meeting with Olga Deutsch, NGO Monitor, in charge of monitoring and reporting the actions of international and local NGO networks
Crif - Last week, you have met Crif official delegation during its official travel to Israel. What was the main purpose of your meeting?
Olga Deutsch - It was a privilage to meet Crif official delegation. France is the largest Jewish community in Europe and also one that so strongly supports Israel which makes Crif delegation one of the strongest Jewish voices in Europe. We are happy that we could ellaborate in more details about the work we do at NGO Monitor as well as discuss how we might collaborate with Crif in France. I enjoyed discussing and exchanging thoughts with the delegation, and I learned a lot about the french Jewish community and politics. We look forward to working closely with crif both on central level in Paris as well as with Crif representatives in every region in the country.
Crif - You currently are the director of the Europe Desk at NGO Monitor, in charge of watching and reporting actions of international and local NGO networks. What do you think about the role of NGO's in Israel? Is it growing? Nowadays, do you feel that it can involve much more people than political parties?
Olga Deutsch - It is an excellent questions. The Arab Israeli conflict is highly politicized and as a result it is difficult to engage in an objective discussion surrounding fcats. Rather emotions and tensions immediately get really high becasue each side of the discourse is so passionate and convinced. We see that the NGOs play a crucial role in everything related to the conflict. We focus on NGOs that claim to promote human rights and humanitarian causes where in practice some of them promote blatant antisemitism, incite to violence, glorify terror and in some cases have reported ties to terrorist organizations. This is a very dangerous trend in which human rights issues are hijacked and radical narratives are whitewashed. The lines of what is a politically correct discourse have been completely blurred and antisemitic claims are spread freely and without any sanctions. It is all the more alarming when we see that these NGOs (mostly Palestinian) cooperate with French groups and thus contribute to the radicalization process in France itself as well. And their messages resonate with many because they are presented in the language of human rights and humanitarian causes. It is crucial to continue raising awareness on this especially with European governments as it is them who usually fund these groups without necessarily knowing where the funds are directed to.
Crif - What would you expect from Crif for NGO Monitor?
Olga Deutsch - We would hope that Crif would help us raise awareness in France on the importance of separating between civil society groups that do important work in their respective fields and those that operate on behalf of France or in France and instead of promoting human rights promote dangerous narratives that radicalize people. We are a research institute; so we are always looking for local partners who can use our work and take it to their decision makers to make them aware on what esentially their tax payers' money is being spent on. We appreciate the cooperation with Crif and look forward to exploring new avenues of this friendship and partnership. I would especially like to thank Mr. Kalifat and Mr. Ejnes for making this meeting happen and for recognizing the importance of our work.
Photo : Alain Azria