Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a conference in Tel Aviv on February 14. (photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELI
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed left-wing NGO the New Israel Fund on social media on Tuesday, calling it hostile to Israel. ''The main group to use European pressure on the government of Rwanda to withdraw from the plan to deport infiltrators from Israel is the New Israel Fund," said the Prime Minister in a Hebrew post on his official Facebook page.
Rwanda allegedly withdrew from a previous agreement with the State of Israel to accept deported migrants from Sudan and Eritrea because of ''European pressure'' used by the New Israel Fund, wrote Netanyahu, the same day he announced the cancellation of an agreement that would have allowed migrants to remain in the country or leave for a Western nation. Slamming the New Israel Fund, the prime minister went on to say that the New Israel Fund is ''a foreign organization receiving funds from foreign governments and groups which are hostile to Israel."
He then pointed the finger at Jewish millionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros as one example of such a funding source for NIF.
Netanyahu claimed that NIF, established in 1979, has been funding pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli groups for ''decades,' ''besmirching the name of Israeli soldiers'' and ''fighting for the civil-rights of terrorists."
"I do not know of any Western democracy," claimed Netanyahu, "that would tolerate hostile actions paid for by foreign governments for long."
As a result, the prime minister announced he had requested coalition head Dudi Amsalem to lead efforts to create a parliament committee of inquiry into the operations of NIF, "which endangers the security and future of the State of Israel," said Netanyahu.
MK Itzik Shmuly (Zionist Union), responded to Netanyahu's statements on NIF, saying: "This is the worst kind of McCarthyism. The only inquiry committee we need is about the dysfunction and the questionable faculties of Netanyahu. I would not be surprised if he reached this decision, too, based on the reactions on his Facebook wall. Instead of making decisions and leading, he is being dragged like a kite wherever the wind blows."
MK Michal Rozin (Meretz) called the prime minister a liar and claimed the state of Israel "presented an untruthful agreement with Rwanda" to the High Court.
She concluded by saying that "facts don't matter, again Netanyahu functions like a cowardly internet troll."
NIF stated that their organization had no contact whatsoever with the government of Rwanda and that all of their actions and all the groups they support are ''out there, transparent and reported on.''
They called on Israeli citizens ''who fear the danger Netanyahu poses for Israeli democracy'' to support them.
