PETER KOHN

CONTROVERSIAL Israeli academic Professor Naomi Chazan has cancelled an imminent visit to Australia following a political brawl in Israel regarding alleged funding of groups that contributed to the Goldstone report.

The outspoken social rights activist and former Knesset member was targeted by Zionist advocacy group Im Tirtzu, which claimed that the New Israel Fund (NIF) – a fundraising body of which she is president – bankrolled Israeli critics of Operation Cast Lead, whose views contributed to the divisive United Nations report.

Chazan, who has championed equal rights and pluralism in Israel, had been invited to Australia by the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ). She was supposed to launch the United Israel Appeal (UIA) Progressive Trust appeal.

But UPJ executive director Steve Denenberg told The AJN his organisation was informed Chazan had changed her plans. In a statement, Denenberg said NIF “is currently at the centre of some heated discussion in Israel and she feels the need to be there at this time”.

“It is our hope that this outstanding academic and human rights activist will be able to visit us in the near future.”

Im Tirtzu’s allegations had earlier led to the withdrawal of the Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV) as co-host of a public function for Chazan in Melbourne.

ZCV president Dr Danny Lamm said: “When I became aware of the fact that she was president of NIF, I consulted with colleagues and we decided we really didn’t want to be associated with her visit.”

In allegations leaked to Israel’s Ma’ariv daily newspaper, Im Tirtzu claimed that 92 per cent of negative citations used in the Goldstone report came from 16 Israeli non-government organisations, which, according to the group, received around $US7.8 million from NIF in 2008-09 alone.

But Im Tirtzu’s claims were denounced as “slanderous” by the dovish Meretz Party, while NIF itself condemned an anti-Chazan advertisement in The Jerusalem Post, featuring a caricature of its president as “reminiscent of [Nazi newspaper] Der Sturmer”.

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