How Israel Shoots Itself in the Foot With Left-Bashing NGO Law

[Little Tich]

Source: The Forward, by J.J. Goldberg, July 12, 2016

Israel’s parliament, in a dazzling display of perverse logic, managed to shoot itself in the foot on Monday with formal approval of a law that hobbles human-rights organizations.

The law’s sponsors have been working for five years to craft a measure that reins in organizations they believe damage Israel’s international reputation, particularly in the West, by drawing attention to the country’s flaws. Ironically, one of the law’s main effects, even before final passage, has been to damage Israel’s international reputation, particularly in the West, by attacking human-rights organizations, a mainstay of Western democratic culture.

Officially, the law aims to impose “transparency” on non-governmental organizations — what Americans call non-profits — that receive funding from foreign governments. NGOs receiving more than half their annual budget from foreign governmental bodies must now state that fact in every public statement, advertisement or communication with Israeli officialdom.

In fact, NGOs were already required under existing law to make all funding sources public. The new law merely adds the requirement that organizations funded by foreign governments call attention to that fact every time they appear in public. In effect, the goal is to encourage popular hostility toward organizations advocating minority rights by creating the impression that they’re foreign agents.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/israel/344772/how-israel-shoots-itself-in-the-foot-with-left-bashing-ngo-law/

[Little Tich]

1. More from the OP (snip):

In reality, though, targeting foreign government funding while ignoring private donations is tantamount to targeting the left and giving the right a pass. Left-wing NGOs in Israel focus heavily on Palestinian rights and opposition to settlement expansion. Those priorities dovetail with the policies of nearly the entire world community.

Right-wing NGOs tend to focus heavily on expanding Jewish settlement in the post-1967 areas and enhancing the Jewish identity of state institutions, often at the expense of non-Jewish minorities. Those priorities run counter to the policies of virtually every country except Israel, and are supported instead by private funding from overseas religious sources.

And indeed, the left-wing slant of the target list became clear the day after the committee meeting when the Jerusalem Post obtained a leaked copy of the Justice Ministry list and published a photocopy of the Hebrew original. Haaretz published an English translation of the list (here) a day later.

Of the 27 affected NGOs, 25 are left-leaning organizations that focus variously on broad human and civil rights, Israeli-Arab rights, Palestinian rights in the territories, African refugee and migrant rights and general peace advocacy. The other two appear to be Sephardic Orthodox educational institutions backed by French foundations whose relationship to a foreign government is unclear.

Here’s another irony: A goodly chunk of the targeted organizations’ activities involve taking the government to task for failing to enforce its own laws, whether on settlement construction in unauthorized areas, equal treatment for Israeli Arab citizens or timely processing of refugee applications. The purpose of the new law is to limit efforts by Israeli organizations that seek enforcement of Israeli law. Insisting on the rule of law smacks of leftism these days. (See: Hebron shooter Elor Azarya.)

[Israeli]

2. Statement on the Passage of the NGO Bill

11 July 2016

The Knesset should never have seriously considered — much less passed — the NGO “transparency” bill which passed today. The bill undermines Israel’s democratic heritage and risks creating a damaging chilling effect on the freedom of expression.

From the outset, this legislation was one of a series of bills — backed up by extra-parliamentary campaigns of incitement and intimidation — that seek to harass and/or stigmatize progressive critics of the current government’s policies. The message coming out of the Knesset today is that if you oppose the occupation, you’d better not speak up because there will be a price to pay. And that chilling message is being heard by many Israelis, not only those affiliated with the handful of organizations regulated by this law.

This law is not about transparency; it’s about intimidation. It targets Israeli NGOs that receive funding from foreign governments, and those are overwhelmingly organizations with progressive worldviews. Enormous amounts of funding coming to ultranationalist and settler organizations from abroad by private donors are not impacted by this legislation. Not surprisingly, the cabinet ignored requests from Knesset members to expand this legislation to apply to those funds as well. Moreover, a recent report by Peace Now revealed that NGOs affiliated with the political right exploit loopholes in existing law to obscure the sources of their funding. The report showed that 94% of the funding to 9 organizations was hidden from the public. If the Israeli government was genuinely interested in greater transparency for NGOs it would have sought to close those loopholes. Sadly, they have yet to take up the issue.

It bears mention that the efforts of democracy-minded Israelis and some of Israel’s best allies around the world to speak up against this legislation had an impact. The bill that passed the Knesset today was better than the text that was initially introduced. Some of the bill’s most outrageous proposals were rejected. Those of us committed to a vision of Israel as a democracy that offers complete equality to all of its citizens — as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence — must redouble our efforts. This government is considering additional moves to stifle critics of their policies. Not only are Israelis’ freedom of expression on the line, so is Israel’s standing as a liberal democracy.

Source : http://www.nif.org/news-media/press-releases/statement-on-passage-of-ngo-bill/