A report published yesterday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that grants provided by the State Department to the Israeli-Palestinian organization OneVoice were used to support the V15 campaign, which called for the replacement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last year's elections.
The report clearly states that the organization, which promotes a two-state solution, complied with its agreement with the US State Department while at the same time accusing Washington of failing to prevent the use of resources and infrastructure acquired using hundreds of thousands of dollars of US grants to influence the elections campaign.
“The State Department ignored warning signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards,” said Republican Senator Portman, subcommittee chairman.“It is completely unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed immediately after the grant ended against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East."
Subcommittee member Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill added, "While this report shows no wrongdoing by the Administration, and should put to rest such allegations, it certainly highlights deficiencies in the Department’s policies that should be addressed in order to best protect taxpayer dollars.”
The report says that several days after the Knesset was dissolved in December 2014, OneVoice which, together with its Palestinian counterpart, received almost $250,000 from the State Department for political activity supporting a two-state solution, in fact turned in into V15, which ran the slogan "Anyone but Bibi." The organization received grants during a 14 month period, ending in November 2014. The investigation was launched in February 2015.
Moreover, the report states that while US grants ended before the organizational change, OneVoice used its social media platforms, "which more than doubled during the State Department grant period," its database of voter and activist information and its network of activists, which received extensive training during the grant period all for the V15 campaign.
"The strategy was known to State Department seniors
"This pivot to electoral politics was consistent with a strategic plan developed by OneVoice leadership and emailed to State Department officials during the grant period," the report said. "The State Department diplomat who received the plan told the Subcommittee that he never reviewed it." Furthermore, according to the report, "OneVoice Israel’s conduct fully complied with the terms of its agreements with the State Department and governing grant guidelines. The experience under the OneVoice grants, however, reveals the ease with which recipient organizations can repurpose certain public-diplomacy resources for political activities."
The reports stated, "The State Department failed to foresee and guard against that risk from the outset. OneVoice was forthright with the Department about its political activity in 2013, and it was also clear that OneVoice would use grant funds to build or enhance resources that might be applied to political activities."
"OneVoice’s 2013 grant proposal called for using the funds for standard tools of a modern political campaign, including a voter/activist contact database, a trained grassroots network, and a social media presence. Immediately after the grant period ended, OneVoice deployed those grant-funded resources as part of the V15 campaign to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2015. Despite the fact that influencing a foreign election is across a “red line” for U.S. grantees, all of this activity was permissible under Department guidelines and the terms of the grants," the report added.
Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Zeev Elkin responded to the report, claiming that it "represents a gross infringement on Israel's democratic processes, and only proves the importance of the NGO foreign funding transparency laws" Elkin said. "The people of Israel elect a government to serve Israel's national and security interests, not to realize the dangerous plans that foreign governments try to set for us."
"This harsh Senate report determines that the US State Department clearly and grossly meddled in Israel's internal affairs," added MK Yoav Kisch, although the wording of the report avoided making such a clear cut statement. He claims that, "this is a scandal a gross attempt to replace the Israeli government using US Administration funds. Report conclusions further support the need to pass the 'V15 law' I initiated as quickly as possible. I will work with party leaders in order to pass the law in first readiness as early as the current Knesset session."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 13, 2016
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