2/13/2016

MONTHLY REPORT - FEBRUARY 2016

New year - new website - new priorities


The new year 2016 had a flying start. Just in time for the week of Holocaust Remembrance, ECI launched a new website. Please have a look at www.ec4i.org and let us know what you think!

Thank you to Perrine Dufoix and the Indell web agency for having put so much work into creating this new website.

After many years of continuous expansion in the scope of our work, we feel that this will be a year of consolidation in order to prepare for a new season.

- ECI is currently working on renewing our internal structures under the leadership of our new chairman Rudolf Geigy. This includes an organisational overview and teamwork.

- This year ECI wants to strengthen its Brussels base. ECI can only be as strong globally as our presence and influence in Brussels.

- Furthermore, ECI wishes to strengthen the national dimension of the work. In December we witnessed how, by the coordination of our efforts in the capitals of the EU-member states, we could have our message more effectively heard on the EU Labelling Directive.

- The international coordination will go hand in hand with a better grassroots mobilization where more people can get involved. This will also include a more visible social media presence as well as a more effective use of our website.

For ECI to develop further we need to find new sources of finance for sustaining the work. This also means that we need to be more forthcoming and transparent when it comes to communicating our financial needs.

Please consider making a generous donation today in order to help us in this process of becoming even more effective advocates for Israel and the Jewish people.


EU official acknowledges Palestinian hate speech as an obstacle to peace

Brussels - A senior EU official has for the first time acknowledged that Palestinian hate speech is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East and wants to work together with ECI on this extremely important issue.

This was the surprising conclusion of a meeting in Brussels last month together with an EU official and an Israeli expert on hate speech. Because of the sensitive nature of the issue we cannot reveal more details at this stage, other than to say that this was a genuine offer to work together to find a solution.

This is again a good illustration of how we can achieve concrete results by engaging constructively with the officials of the European institutions and focus on our common objective - a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

We may often differ in our perspectives on how we can best achieve this peace (as in the case of the EU Labelling Directive) but by keeping an open mind and offering creative ideas we can best serve the interest of Israel and the Jewish people.