Earlier this week, the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) submitted a complaint to the UK National Contact Point for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding the conduct of a multinational service network’s providing audit reports from which the Palestinian Authority (PA) has funded the payment of salaries to terrorists. UKLFI, a non-governmental organization which seeks to promote the proper and just application of laws in relation to Israel, is taking the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) Global Network to account for enabling the PA to provide financial aid to terrorists, in violation of OECD Guidelines concerning Multi-National entities. The report contends that PwC – which handles the financials for the millions of dollars in donations the PA receives annually – has failed to inform donors and the public that some of these funds go directly to the incitement of terrorism, nor have they acted to deter the PA from this abhorrent practice. The submission claims that many donors “have relied on the fact that the PA is audited by PwC to argue that no further scrutiny is needed of the aid directed to the PA. In consequence the PA continues to be able to fund the incitement of terrorism.” It is thus the objective of the UKLFI to “prevent the further violations of the human rights of…victims of terror, Palestinian citizens and taxpayers who contribute to international aid donations made to the Palestinian Authority”. The report asserts that the UKLFI is ensuring that PwC conforms to OECD guidelines as well as to what the UKLFI identifies as values of integrity and humanity pledged to on the PwC website. The PwC Global Network has refused to provide information, and they are appealing to the UK National Contact Point to facilitate a non-adversarial dialogue with PwC to discuss how to bring its operations into line with the Guidelines. This report will thus expedite the process to safeguard against such exploitations of humanitarian aid, as well as of human rights.
Tennessee Today January 20, 2017 UT’s McClung Museum will host a viewing of the film Unmasked Judeophobia at 7 p.m. on January 26 in its auditorium. The film showing is in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. Following the film, there will be a question-and-answer session with filmmaker Gloria Z. Greenfield, who is an honorary artist in residence at UT, and Kenneth Marcus, former director of the US Commission on Civil Rights. The 2011 film won the Platinum Remi Winner award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in 2012. Greenfield’s feature-length documentary film credits include The Case for Israel – Democracy’s Outpost (2008), Unmasked Judeophobia (2011), Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation (2014), and the forthcoming Crumbling Towers: Subverting the Western Mind (2017). Greenfield’s documentary short film credits include Chazak, Chazak, v’Nitchazek: Bold Ideas From Three Leaders (2010) and The Louis D. Brandeis Center: For Human Rights Under Law (2013). Marcus is president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press: 2015) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press: 2010). Marcus founded the Brandeis Center in 2011. A dessert reception will follow the program. The entire event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, the UT Cinema Studies Program, and the UT School of Journalism and Electronic Media.