Information obtained by Peace Now indicates that the Binyamin Regional Council concealed tens of millions of
shekels in funding for Amana, an organization that stands behind the establishment of most of the illegal outposts
in the West Bank and is involved wide scale illegal construction in settlements. Many more millions were granted to
political organizations, striving to affect public opinion and government bodies to support the settlements and to
help the right-wing ideas.
Every local authority in Israel, including those in the West Bank, is allowed to allocate funds to non-government
organizations for the benefit of its residence, in the framework of transparent criteria, and to limited list of
causes regulated by the Israeli Ministry of Interior. The funding for all of the West Bank local authorities is
coming from the Israeli government in addition to local taxation, collected by the localities from their
residence.
Following a Peace Now petition under the Freedom of Information Act, the Binyamin Regional Council was forced to
disclose detailed information about the funds it provides to non-governmental organizations. The information shows
that between 2013 and 2015, the Council distributed over NIS 65 million to various organizations. 85% of
the support funds (more than NIS 55 million) were transferred to political NGOs striving to affect public opinion
and government bodies to support the settlements, and to Amana, which engages in illegal activity. Only
15% of the funds were transferred to other non-profit organizations that deal with welfare, education, sports,
etc., in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Interior.
More than 40 years ago, Dr. James Zogby wrote a short book on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and published it a couple of years later. The book, Palestinians: The
Invisible Victims, was unique in that it laid out the Palestinian narrative of the conflict and its history
at a time when this narrative was all but absent from the conversation on Israel-Palestine in the US.
