Economic Cooperation Foundation
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The Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF) based in Tel Aviv, was founded by former Israeli Justice Minister Dr. Yossi Beilin, Dr. Ron Pundak and Dr. Yair Hirschfeld at the end of 1990 as a non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO), which would build, maintain and support Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab cooperation in the political, economic and civil society spheres. The ECF acts as a facilitator, initiator, catalyst and implementer in a number of health and social welfare related projects, bringing the partners together and helping with proposal writing, fund raising, permit arrangement and other technical matters.
Contacts between Drs Pundak, Hirschfeld and Palestinian academics led directly to the diplomatic negotiations that resulted in the Oslo Accords page 8-9 (http://euroisrael.huji.ac.il/meria.arabisrael.proj.pdf)
The ECF is funded by the European Union. The ECF, at times, has received additional funding from the World Bank, and donors such as the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Moriah Fund.
The ECF is affiliated with MASHAV (http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0kqx0), an organization of the government of Israel and sometimes administers projects jointly with it.
According to estimates, Dr. Beilin receives an annual salary of between $80,000 and $90,000 from the ECF1.
Funding links
- Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund (http://www.goldmanfund.org/index.phpx) $100,000 in both 2001 and 2002. No funding in 2003.
- Nathan Cummings Fund (http://nathancummings.net/jewish_grants/000307.html) a one time grant in 1996 of $11,000 for Nature Knows No Boundaries, a cooperative venture on the environment between Palestinian and Israeli students, Economic Cooperation Foundation, Peace Continuity Fund, New York, NY
- Moriah Fund (http://www.moriahfund.org/grants/2002/israel.htm) $15,000 in 2002
- MERIA (http://euroisrael.huji.ac.il/meria.arabisrael.proj.pdf) Analytical study which notes that 53 cooperative project were funded by the Truman Institute of Hebrew University, the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, and the Charles R Bonfman Foundation (as known as Keren Karev) through the ECF. Amount of funding is not known.
- World Bank (http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/Networks/ESSD/icdb.nsf/D4856F112E805DF4852566C9007C27A6/70E357FA637A671885256D400075CE78/$FILE/PCF+web+presentation.pdf) $96,000 in 1999 for an Economic of Permanent Status: Policy Study. Note: May not display in some PDF viewers
Footnotes
- Yoav Yitzchak report in the 8 February 2002 issue of Ma'ariv (reported here (http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=11092)).