Billboards bashing social justice NGO dot Tel Aviv

The far-right movement Im Tirzu began a smear campaign against the New Israel Fund last week. The timing offers further evidence of the pivotal role Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays in fanning flames of hate in Israel.

On April 2, in response to pressure from the conservative right, Netanyahu went back on a deal with the UN he had announced just hours earlier for Israel to take in some of the illegal immigrants already in the country. A day later, to divert attention from criticism of his zigzagging, he took the same tactic he generally uses to extricate himself from trouble: blaming either the Arabs or liberals. This time, he accused the New Israel Fund, a US-based nonprofit dedicated to social justice and equality, of foiling an agreement with African states to accept asylum-seekers that Israel deports. The organization, he explained, was responsible for Rwanda's decision to withdraw from a previous agreement on the matter and therefore it "jeopardizes the security and future of the State of Israel as the country of the Jewish people."