Libi Fund
The Libi fund ('The Soldiers are there for us, We are here for them') is an Israeli charitable organisation that donates funds and provides various forms of support to the Israel Defense Forces. It also operates as one of two 'pass through organisations' through which all donations are supposed to pass from external donors to the IDF.
The fund was established in 1980 by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Chief of Staff of the IDF Rafael Eitan was also a key figure in the creation of the organisation. According to the website of the Libi Fund Begin founded the organisation with the intent of improving educational opportunities for IDF personnel and for Israeli youth more generally. However the fund does not confine itself to educational programmes and engages in a range of other activities. The fund is run as a voluntary organisation with its chairman appointed by the Prime Minister of Israel.[1]
In 2009, the IDF developed new procedures that required every donation to the army to receive the approval of the IDF's personnel division and then to be transferred via the Libi Fund or the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers (AWIS).[2]
In 2011 a public committee headed by former chair of the Israel Securities Authority, Arie Mientkavich issued a report that was highly critical of AWIS. The report accused the organisation of having a bloated infrastructure and of spending too much money on remunerating employees rather than on assisting IDF soldiers. The report recommended the dismantling of both AWIS and the Libi Fund and the creation of a civilian agency to replace those organisations. However it was subsequently reported that, contrary to the recommendations of the panel, the Israeli Defense Ministry would not dissolve AWIS but would instead establish a new organisation alongside AWIS within which the Libi Fund would be subsumed.[3]
As of March 2015 both AWIS and the Libi Fund continue to operate as the vehicles through which donations to the IDF pass.
People
- Maj. General (Ret.) Danny Matt - Chairman
Contact
- Phone: 972 3 1234578
- Fax: 972 3 1234578
Notes
- ↑ Libi Fund Website About Libi Fund. Accessed 19 March 2015.
- ↑ Shuki Sadeh, 'The Israeli army's big, green donation machine', Haaretz, 25 April 2014
- ↑ Shuki Sadeh, 'The Israeli army's big, green donation machine', Haaretz, 25 April 2014
