Ministerial committee approves controversial NGO transparency bill

T. Belman. This bill is expected to pass notwithstanding that there is fierce opposition. The opposition is disingenuous in their attacks.

New bill, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, requires groups that receive most funding from abroad to reveal sources • Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog: “This NGO law is worse than the European product-labeling law because it labels human beings.”

By Edna Adato, Gideon Allon, Mati Tuchfeld, Dan Lavie, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Israeli cabinet ministers gave preliminary approval Sunday to a bill that seeks to impose new transparency regulations on Israeli non-profit groups that receive funds from foreign governments.

The bill, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, requires NGOs that receive more than 50 percent of their funding from foreign entities to detail the funding sources in all their official publications and communications with elected officials. Activists from the NGOs also will be required to wear identifying name tags when working in Israel’s Knesset, as lobbyists do.

Critics say the legislation is discriminatory because it is mainly left-wing groups that receive money from foreign governments and the European Union. Some have called the bill a threat to democracy.

Private funds from overseas are not addressed in the bill, which is widely expected to win parliamentary approval.

All nonprofit groups are already required to file quarterly disclosure reports, regardless of their political leanings.

Addressing criticism of the bill, Shaked said, “This bill does not at all infringe upon freedom of expression. Moreover, I actually believe that the interference of foreign states in another country’s government and policies is the real danger to democracy.

“The ambassador of the European Union expressed concern about the phenomenon of ‘shaming’ that the law apparently encourages. Firstly, NGOs that believe strongly in their stance have no need to be ashamed of that. Secondly, I find it surprising that the ambassador and the EU, who have come out against this law, are not aware of their own issues and of how the EU decision to label products from Israeli settlements is doing exactly [what they accuse this bill of doing].”

Yisrael Beytenu faction head MK Robert Ilatov, one of the initiators of the bill, welcomed its approval, as did Matan Peleg, the CEO of right-wing organization Im Tirtzu.

Still, critics were vocal about the bill’s passing. Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog said, “This NGO law is worse than the European product-labeling law because it labels human beings.”

Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich placed on a Knesset table a copy of another bill, which prohibits politicians from soliciting foreign donations for the primaries, and said, “The NGO bill suffers from a shocking level of hypocrisy, considering that its initiators, supporters and those pushing it forward are at the same time enjoying enormous donations from foreign citizens to fund their election campaigns.”

Criticism was also heard from within the coalition, with Kulanu MK Michael Oren saying, “This bill is likely to damage [the country’s] foreign relations and to hurt Israel’s image.”

The Israel Democracy Institute think tank submitted an assessment of the bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, calling the regulations “anti-democratic and designed to silence criticism. The organizations that are funded by foreign governments are completely transparent, making the law unnecessary. The aim of this new bill is to delegitimize organizations that challenge the government and its activities and to force them to bear the mark of Cain.

“The foreign governments in this case are friendly toward Israel, some of them also donate to [Israel’s] cultural institutions, universities and even to the IDF.”

More than 30,000 NGOs are registered in Israel, about half of them active. Around 70 of those groups focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and receive funds either from the European Union as a whole, or individual governments, including Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Norway.

Shaked said the Israeli public had a “right to know when foreign governments are involved in the domestic matters of another country.”

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai joined the chorus of condemnation while presenting the Sokolov Prize for Israeli journalism on Sunday. Huldai wore a tag reading, “I too am a citizen who receives funding from a foreign country.”

He said, “The government’s decision doesn’t only neuter democracy, it also symbolizes the ongoing deterioration of Israel into a closed off country.”

On Twitter, Israeli NGO Peace Now called the legislation “a hate crime against democracy.”