Middle East Forum Education Fund

Middle East Forum logo, Screengrab from Middle East Forum

See also main page on the Middle East Forum.

Through its Middle East Forum Education Fund, MEF 'distributes about $2 million annually in separately earmarked funds to some 75 individuals and groups, all of them working to promote the Forum's goals of forwarding American interests and preserving Western civilization'.

The fund was set up in 2008 'to support researchers and institutions focused on the Middle East and radical Islam'. It focuses usually on individual researchers and small organisations according to a press release:

The Education Fund is made possible through anonymous grants, which the Middle East Forum then directs to researchers, organizations, and investigative projects. The selection process is entirely internal; no applications for grants are accepted.

Successes

Although 'a number of MEFEF recipients work quietly behind the scenes', MEF's website cites recent funding 'public accomplishments' as:

• Americans for Peace and Tolerance – 'Released a video exposing an anti-Israel workshop used in 28 US high schools. In response, the school featured in the video said 'there are no plans for this program to return'.
• Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law – Met with a senior aide to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to show that the law requiring 'diverse perspectives' in taxpayer-funded university Middle East Studies public outreach programs is not being followed. The following month, Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies announced the end of its K-12 outreach program.'

• NGO Monitor – 'Exposed the Swiss government's multi-million dollar funding of non-governmental organizations that demonise Israel and support boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. As a result, 10 Swiss MPs condemned an anti-Israel event in Zurich sponsored by the Swiss Foreign Ministry'.

• Shurat HaDin – Won a $655.5 million judgment in a US court against the Palestinian Authority, for its role in six terrorist attacks resulting in the deaths of American citizens.

Recipients

Other 'select recipients' are:

Adi Schwartz | AMCHA Initiative | Algemeiner | Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC, Australia) | Banafsheh Zand | Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA, Germany) | B'nai B'rith Moshe Dayan (France)| Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) | Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (CDHR) | Center for Security Policy (CSP) | Citizens For National Security | David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC) | Defending America For Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) | Danish Free Press Society (Denmark) | Discourse Institute (Great Britain) | Dispatch International (Denmark) | Emerson Vermaat (Netherlands) | Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) | European Coalition for Israel (ECI, Belgium) | Ezra Levant (Canada) | Friends of Israel Initiative (FOII, Spain) | Fuel for Truth (FFT) | Helle Merete Brix (Denmark) | Human Rights Voices | I Like Israel (ILI, Germany) | Im Tirtzu (Israel) | Independent Secular Movement (MIS/SIM) | Iranian-American Forum | Israel Institute for Strategic Studies | Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum (ICRF, Israel) | Jewish News Service Inc. | Joe Kaufman | Joshua Charles | JSS News (France) | Michael Mandelbaum | Morning Star News | Nima Gholam Ali Pour | NoBadDeal.com – Shraga Simmons | Patrick Poole | Philippe Karsenty (France) | Phyllis Chesler | Project Oasis | Raymond Stock | Richard Benkin | Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS, Greece) | Shireen Qudosi | Stop Iran Rally | Tariq Ismail | Véronique Chemla (France) | William Mayer | Wolfgang G. Schwanitz |

Later recipients - circa 2016

• Journalistenwatch
• Samuel Westrop