Author Edwin Black to expose misuse
of charitable funds in Israel at Nov. 6 lecture
Human rights investigative reporter Edwin Black will discuss the “robust use” of U.S. tax-exempt and public money funds to “foment agitation, systematically destabilize the Israel Defense Forces and finance terrorists in Israel” on Nov. 6 at SMU.
The free public event is sponsored by the Embrey Human Rights Program in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences.
Black’s new book, Financing the Flames: How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation and Terrorism in Israel, reveals that “highly politicized, American taxpayer-supported human rights organizations and NGOs … are financing the flames that make peace in Israel difficult if not impossible,” Black says.
Instead of promoting peace and reconciliation for the Arab-Israeli conflict, such key charitable organizations as the Ford Foundation and New Israel Fund “have funded a culture where peace does not pay, but warfare and confrontation do,” he contends.
“Most Americans who donate to humanitarian causes don’t track how their contributions are made, so Black’s work will be a jolt to the conscience of many well-intentioned people,” says Embrey Human Rights Program Director Rick Halperin.
Halperin also notes, “It’s easy for the average person to have great sympathy for the state that emerged after the Holocaust, but this is a new world and a new Israel, and just like any other country, its human rights record should be subject to the same scrutiny as its neighbors. Financing the Flames will only heighten emotions about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as well as its own human rights activists.”
To see the book’s trailer, visit http://vimeo.com/78249602.
For more details, contact Sherry Aikman at saikman@smu.edu or 214-768-8347.