The Anne Frank Fonds Basel and New Israel Fund (NIF) have signed a partnership agreement whereby the Anne Frank Foundation will make new grants to organizations supported by NIF, according to a press release issued on Tuesday by the NIF.
The New York based NIF has provided more than $300 million to more than 900 Israeli organizations, including the pro-BDS Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), Adalah, and 972 Magazine; the pro-Intifada groups Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) and Yesh Din; and the generally anti-Israel groups Breaking the Silence, Molad, B’Tselem, Emek Shave, Gisha, HaMoked, Ir Amim, Mossawa, Machsom Watch, Rabbis for Human Rights, and SISO- Stop the Israeli Occupation, to name but a few.
The Anne Frank Fund (AFF) is a foundation under Swiss law based in Basel, affiliated with the Anne Frank Foundation in the Netherlands, originally established to maintain the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and in recent years also advocating the fight against anti-Semitism and racism and publishing the Dutch annual Racism and Extreme Right Monitor, in which the activities of present-day racists and extreme rightists are studied.
As of Tuesday this week, this enormous commemoration enterprise dedicated to the young diarist who perished in the Holocaust, Anne Frank, will be sending parts of the proceeds to a group that funds a lengthy list of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel NGOs.
The Anne Frank Fonds Basel said in a statement: “Anne Frank’s writing became a symbol of justice, respect, and accepting differences to all of humanity. These values are the pillars of NIF’s work in promoting a State of Israel that is more democratic, and an Israeli society that is more just. The new partnership will strengthen the work of our two organizations and imbue Israeli society with these values.
“Since Otto Frank created the Foundation in Basel, the organization has made a major part of its donations to Israel in the last 50 years. The partnership with NIF acknowledges the bond between the Frank family and Israeli society.”
Since 2011, the Anne Frank Foundation has been under the leadership of Ronald Leopold, whose stated goal has been to universalize Anne’s experience, removing it from the context of Jewish persecution and making it about all shades of human suffering. He wrote about the new mission of the Anne Frank House: “Although the life of a 15-year-old now and that of Anne Frank in 1944 are very different, they share the dream of equal rights for all, of an open and free society, of being able to be yourself. It is in these ideals that Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, a teenage girl from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and an adolescent in Amsterdam West find each other.”
And so, the tragic diarist who died in Bergen-Belsen among Jewish inmates and under the Gestapo watch can inspire not just Jews, but groups assisting in plots to murder Jews.
This retooling of the Anne Frank symbol can be seen most clearly in the statement by NIF Israel Executive Director Mickey Gitzin, who said about his group’s pact with the Anne Frank Foundation: “This strategic cooperation will strengthen our activities in all areas: the struggle for social justice, promoting a shared society, advancing women’s rights, the struggle against racism and more. This partnership will help us in our work toward a more values-oriented Israeli society, one of greater equality and justice.”
In short, Anne Frank’s legacy now belongs to the anti-Zionist folks – and there ain’t an attic far enough to hide from them.