The reply from the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), which exercises oversight of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (Heinrich Böll Foundation).
On 5 October 2017 the Beirut office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung held an event announced as follows: 
“50 years of occupation, 50 years of resilience”. All of it illustrated with a cartoon showing a tank that is carrying a modern house and rolling over a Muslim town.
The event was announced on Facebook as follows:
On 8 October 2017 I therefore wrote to the foundation and to the national executive of the Green party with the following text:
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“You issued an invitation to an event in Beirut: ‘50 years of occupation, 50 years of resistance’ (see the attached photograph). Can anyone at your organisation explain to me how such an inflammatory poster contributes to peace and to easing the situation? You are feasting on the perpetuation of the conflict by taking a one-sided stance, and in doing so you are encouraging terror against Israelis and the plight of the Palestinians, who have been left in limbo for 50 years.
I object to my tax money being used for propaganda filth of this kind!
I accuse the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung of inciting the Arab side.
I call upon the national executive of the Green party and its parliamentary group in the Bundestag to bring their influence to bear and to establish the neutrality that is to be expected of a charitable political foundation.”
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Yesterday – on 13 October – I received an anonymous reply which, to put it politely, is a barefaced lie and which, in view of the established facts (the title, the image, the English announcement on Facebook, the choice of panellists), can only be understood as an insult to the recipient’s intelligence:
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Dear Dr Adler,
thank you for your email. The event organised by the Beirut office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung on 5 October 2017 was not primarily concerned with Israel or with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – despite the perhaps somewhat ambiguous cartoon. Its focus was a debate relating to the Lebanese context on the question of how society, and above all the state, deals with past experiences of occupation.
As was set out in detail on the evening itself in the introduction by the head of our office, Dr Bente Scheller, the discussion was concerned above all with the recent experiences during and after the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, as well as with a reflection on the historical occupations by the Ottoman Empire and the colonial powers, and of course also with the situation following the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The foreground was occupied above all by questions such as how a society comes to terms with situations of external domination, and the success or failure of building state structures and institutions after the end of an occupation, rather than by the situations of occupation themselves.
In essence, the reflection that evening revolved around the question of how an open process of coming to terms with the past within society, and the successful building of institutions in the aftermath of an occupation, can foster stable, democratic and peaceful conditions, and what political strategies are needed for this.
Yours sincerely,
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Büro Beirut
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My reply followed the same day:
I find this answer an empty phrase, for the title above the cartoon – which is quite certainly not ambiguous – reads “50 years of occupation”. And that is neither Ottoman nor Syrian (nor, for that matter, Israeli). The term “50 years of occupation” corresponds to the Palestinian narrative and denotes the territorial situation following the Six-Day War, in which Israel successfully defended its existence.
Yes, the bait has to appeal to the fish, not to the angler; but for a German foundation in Lebanon to ingratiate itself with its host population in this way goes beyond what I consider acceptable.
Let us see what the responsible supervisory bodies have to say about it.
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It is an aggravating factor that in all probability (we do not yet have proof of this) the Arabic translation of “resilience” used the word “muqawama” – meaning “armed resistance” – which is invariably used by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah.
On behalf of the WerteInitiative I have lodged a complaint with the Bundesverwaltungsamt (the Federal Office of Administration, the supervisory authority for the foundation). The foundation is misusing taxpayers’ money and its charitable status for a demonstrably one-sided position. It is not acting in conformity with its own statutes, compliance with which was a condition for being granted charitable status. The letter of reply reproduced above (which suggests that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not central to the event) is shown to be untrue by the Facebook post and by the choice of panellists.
We appeal to the President of the Bundesverwaltungsamt, Mr Christoph Verenkotte, to send as clear a signal as possible against misuse of this kind – especially since it contributes to inflaming a conflict that has already claimed more than enough lives on all sides.
