Monday, February 24, 18:19 The extreme left wing organization Peace Now has launched a media offensive on Honenu following Honenu’s recent series of successes in court cases.
As part of the offensive Yariv Oppenheimer, the Director of Peace Now, posted on his Facebook page a post entitled “The extreme right – Not at my expense!”. The post continued: “Until today you did not know that you also are funding the extreme right wing non-profit organization Honenu which defends murderers and ‘price tag’ criminals.
“A special investigation by Peace Now reveals that this non-profit organization [Honenu] (alongside other right wing non-profits), enjoys a benefit [the 46a clause] intended to assist non-profit organizations working for the good of the community, and succeeds in causing all of us to pay for its operation.
“This is the time to demand that the finance minister immediately cancel the 46a [clause] for the extreme right wing non-profit organizations and to stop the funding granted to them at our expense.”
Attached to the post was an announcement from Peace Now calling for no longer contributing to Honenu because the organization assists “terrorists”. It should be noted that in the announcement appears a photograph of Yosef Ben Baruch with a caption accusing him of belonging to the Bat Ayin Underground, despite the fact that over 10 years ago he was exonerated by the court of any culpability in the Bat Ayin incidents.
Additionally Oppenheimer has been attempting over the course of the past few weeks to present the major communications media with material for a broadcast requesting that the State of Israel revoke Honenu’s 46a status, rendering contributions to Honenu not eligible for tax exempt status. The source of the material, an old article by Ha’aretz journalist Uri Blau, is baseless, rehashed and recycled. No journalist other than Amnon Abromovitz agreed to use it. Abromovitz, a Channel 2 commentator, aired a broadcast in the Friday night (February 21) Ulpan Shishi program making the same claims Oppenheimer posted on his Facebook page.
Honenu responds: “At the core of democracy is the rights of the individual, the right to a fair trial, the right to be innocent until proven guilty. Peace Now’s campaign is prejudicial against a certain segment of the population and we urge those who are interested in justice for all to contribute to Honenu.”
Update: Peace Now has removed from their Facebook page the post calling for the cancellation of Honenu’s 46a eligibility. See here for more information.