George Soros’ Foundations Sets Up Legal Defense Of Group Alleging Israeli War Crimes

TEL AVIV – George Soros’ foundations have organized a top notch legal team on behalf of an Israeli NGO to assist in its defense over keeping secret the identity of sources alleged Israel committed war crimes in Gaza.

A legal brief authored by international and Israeli law professors was leaked to the Jerusalem Post by NGO Ad Kan!, an Israeli group that claims to investigate NGOs posing as human rights groups with underlying anti-Israel agendas.

Breaking the Silence is facing pressure from an Israeli court to disclose the identity of an Israeli soldier whose testimony alleges war crimes during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas.

The brief, which the Jerusalem Post reported was funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundations, argues that the extreme-left organization should be treated as if it were a media group, thereby exempting it from revealing its sources to the government.

The brief argues that “the practice of international courts and mechanisms, although limited, indicates that the right to protect sources is not limited to traditional journalists and media, and can also be invoked by other social communicators, notably non-governmental organizations that gather and publish information of public interest. A number of precedents established at the domestic level in other democracies lend further support to this view.”

Despite being called a “Zionist billionaire” in Iranian media, Soros has a long history of funding Palestinian and Israeli NGOs that demonize Israel.

Earlier this year, Breaking the Silence’s soldier testimonies came under scrutiny in an expose on Israeli television.

The State Attorney’s Office claims that addressing the alleged “war crimes” is more important than maintaining anonymity and is demanding that BtS reveal the soldier’s identity.

BtS’s lawyer Michael Sfard told the court in May that a ruling against the NGO would be a major blow to Israeli democracy and freedom of speech, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Ad Kan! argued that were BtS awarded media privilege it would still be insufficient, since even journalists are subject to reprimand and must adhere to ethics boards. BtS, on the other hand, is not supervised by any board and giving them media privileges would effectively grant them carte blanche to delegitimize Israel.