Pro-Israel Views Get NGO in Iraq Defunded by Catholic Charity
Doing good work apparently means little to Caritas if you hold politically incorrect positions.
The letter dated June 10, 2008 from the Swiss section of the relief agency Caritas to the German aid organization Wadi begins with a thoroughly positive evaluation:
“Our colleague Barbara D. was able recently to form her own impression of the work of Wadi on location. Ms. D. found the projects she visited convincing. She was impressed by the competence and commitment of the local members of the Wadi team … We realize that it is not a simple matter to work as an NGO in northern Iraq. Nonetheless, the Wadi projects — in particular the project on FGM [Female Genital Mutilation] — appear to be highly successful.”
Wadi has been active in Iraq since 1994. It started its campaign against female circumcision three years ago. The fact that the genital mutilation of young girls is not only an African problem, but also related to Islam had been largely avoided in NGO circles on political grounds. But for Wadi this was not an issue. Likewise in contrast to most other aid organizations, Wadi did not leave Iraq following the American invasion. Indeed, its German founders welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The Kurds of north Iraq appreciated the group’s constancy. The local population responded positively to the campaign against female circumcision.
The Swiss section of Caritas could be proud of such a success. The Catholic aid agency provides one-fourth of the project’s modest annual budget of €200,000. But now the funding is to be stopped.
“We find it all the more regrettable to have to inform you,” Caritas writes in the above-cited letter, “that we will be ending our cooperation with Wadi starting in February/March 2009. The grounds for our decision concern the political positions taken by Wadi on the Middle East conflict.”
In effect, the aid organization is too pro-Israel for Caritas.
According to the account given by Caritas, the termination notice was provoked by a series of blog entries by Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, the managing director of Wadi and the driving force behind the organization. According to Caritas, Osten-Sacken is supposed to have advocated a military strike against Iran in the event that the Iranian regime could not otherwise be prevented from building a nuclear weapon. Osten-Sacken claims, on the contrary, that he precisely warned against a military intervention. What is true, however, is that the Wadi managing director has persistently condemned the rule of the mullahs in Iran and warned that the regime has long been engaged in a “war” against the West that cannot simply be ignored.
Osten-Sacken has also criticized the idea of a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and opposed calls for a boycott of Israel. According to Norbert Kieliger, the head of the “international cooperation” division of Caritas Switzerland, Osten-Sacken thereby took positions that are incompatible with continued support from the aid agency. “We reject all forms of violence,” he says. “Political partisanship puts our mission at risk.”
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Alex Baur writes for the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche.
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11 Comments
1. PhilA:I worked for an American NGO in Northern Iraq, and while I never had the opportunity to meet anybody from Wadi, I did hear success stories, both through the NGO grapevine and through local partners, of Wadi’s projects. Wadi is respected by the local population for being loyal and not leaving at the first sign of trouble like many others. Many Kurds are apolitical, and when they hear that popular initiatives have been cut back because some donor didn’t like what the NGO was saying, only Caritas will be losing face. Caritas seems to have forgotten the NGO Code of Conduct (which ironically, they helped to develop), whose first point says that the Humanitarian imperative comes first.
Aug 14, 2008 - 5:35 am 2. ZEITGEIST:[...] TOO PRO-ISRAEL for Catholic charity? [...]
Aug 14, 2008 - 6:03 am 3. Uhlenspiegel:Why not organize a fundraiser for WADI?
Aug 14, 2008 - 10:25 am 4. Tom Paine:This is another example of NGO subversion…
I want NGO governance to be as strictly transparent? exposed? regulated? …? as any other multi-national business.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
Aug 14, 2008 - 11:39 am 5. Steynian 224 « Free Mark Steyn!:[...] PRO-ISRAEL VIEWS Gets NGO in Iraq Defunded by Catholic Charity …. [...]
Aug 14, 2008 - 3:48 pm 6. cubanbob:The best thing to do with these NGO’s is to simply kick them out. Israel and Colombia have a responsibilty to their own people, not to placate the friends of their enemies.
As sovereign nations they have the right and the obligation to choose whom to let in to their countries and on what terms. So there will be bad press and outcry. So what. That is all there will be. Just ask the Russians.
Aug 14, 2008 - 4:00 pm 7. Don Kenner:Let’s not miss the point here. Caritas, like all Catholic social justice organizations, is vehemently anti-Israel. Their office in Jerusalem regularly issues denunciations of Israeli defensive actions (even non-violent ones like checkpoints), and they are SILENT when it comes to Islamic terror and violence, even when that violence is directed at Arab Christians.
This all meshes quite well with Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Sabbah, a Palestinian, who was best friends with Arafat and recently denied the legitimacy of the Jewish state. Ditto with European and American Bishops.
But why should the Catholic Church stop is viscous bias against Israel? Has any Catholic (other than myself) ever stopped giving money to the Church in protest? Do American Catholics, even “conservative” ones ever call the Church or these organizations on the carpet?
Is there any downside for the Church sticking it to Israel? If so, I’ve never seen it. Any Catholic leader who goes to Israel will immediately be treated like the long-awaited Messiah by the Israeli government. When Catholics stop funding Caritas you’ll see some back-pedaling on the perfidious Israelis. Not for the right reasons, of course.
Aug 14, 2008 - 6:16 pm 8. Javelin:Mr. Kenner,
Aug 14, 2008 - 7:37 pm 9. John Moore:Good point, then why do so many pro Israeli cons pretend that the Church is Israel’s and the Jew’s best friend? Jeez, from some of the trash I’ve read on NRO and other Papist blogs you’d think that the Pope and his family were conducting acts of sabotague and subversion (and the Vatican was an armed resistance camp) against the Nazis when in reality they obeyed the Party’s orders like 99% of the Germans. And like 99% of the Germans, said they hated the Nazis but couldn’t do a thing about it, which of course, they knew nothing of.
Mr Kenner,
The idea that the Catholic Church has a viscous[sic] bias against Israel is just plain wrong. That some Catholic groups would be anti-Israel is not surprising, just as some were pro-Sandinista (liberation theologists.
However, you slander the Church by imputing to it the behavior of a Catholic Charity. As for “social justice organizations” - that term is code for leftist, liberationist organizations, which tend to be anti-Israeli, regardless of what organization or religion they are associated with.
Nowhere does the article tie the Catholic church to the reported anti-Israel behavior of Caritas. Including “Catholic” in the title is thus inappropriate and offensive. The organization is as European as it is Catholic. Why wasn’t it described as a European Charity?
Shall we mention Jewish social justice organizations that have long supported communists, including communist dictators? I think it would be highly inappropriate to mention their Jewish association when discussing their politics.
Aug 14, 2008 - 10:30 pm 10. Maria Lamberti:Here is more information about the great campaign they are doing against Female Genital Mutiliation in Iraq: http://www.stopfgmkurdistan.org
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:59 pm 11. Filipa Mendes:Caritas Catholica is without the shadow of a doubt a Catholic and European charity.
Their Swiss website bears no mention of “Catholica” and no logo with the cross. There is a lot of hypocrisy - they, like most Catholic charities and NGOs - hide the fact/or are very discreet about it - that they are Catholic.
http://web.caritas.ch/page2.php?lang=fr
They are definitely anti-Israel.
Aug 17, 2008 - 5:28 am