Peloni: This legislation provides a vital step towards establishing national sovereignty. Hopefully, this bill will pass easily with the Nationalist majority govt, to which I suspect Ben Gvir will give his full support. Of course, one must question why this bill was pulled from consideration some two years ago when the Nationalist majority was already in place? Interestingly, this has been timed to coincide with the hold on US foreign funding, which would include the very form of foreign influence peddling which this bill is designed to derail…
Ariel Kallner | X | Feb 16, 2025
Click on Photo for Original Tweet
About two years ago, under heavy international pressure, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation withdrew my bill against foreign political subversion. I said then that the fight was not over – and today I keep it: the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved my bill, which stipulates that any donation from a foreign country will be subject to an 80% tax, and that non-profit organizations supported by foreign political entities will no longer be able to petition the Israeli legal system.
Why is this important? Why prevent foreign countries from funding non-profit organizations in Israel and why block their path to the courts?
Explanation: Subversion is not “civil society”
There is no democracy without a vibrant civil society. As someone who founded ‘National Vision – The Center for Zionist Leadership’, I am the first to support this. But foreign state funding of non-profit organizations in Israel is not “cultivating civil society” – but rather cynically using it to impose foreign interests on the State of Israel. When a small group, not passing the threshold, brings money from foreign countries and uses it to influence state institutions and political discourse – this is not democracy, this is political subversion.
- When Germany funds the “Focus for Individual Protection” with more than 5 million NIS – which uses this money to legally defend terrorists and their families, this is not a vibrant civil society, but political subversion.
- When Switzerland, the UN and the European Union fund the “Focus for Refugees and Migrants” – which works against Israel’s immigration policy, this is not a vibrant civil society, but the use of an Israeli organization as an agent of change.
- When Turkey invests millions in institutions in Jerusalem to strengthen the Muslim grip on the Temple Mount, this certainly does not belong in the realm of civil society.
- When the European Union donated approximately 1,000,000 NIS to “Breaking the Silence” – which uses money for the “Settler Violence” campaign, which is intended to blacken the faces of half a million Israeli citizens, in order to promote the vision of a Palestinian state, this is the exploitation of Israeli democracy in favor of advancing the agendas of those countries.
Approximately 900 million NIS have been poured by foreign countries into extreme left-wing organizations in the past decade. 900 million NIS that affect every area: from the IDF’s open-fire orders, to the demolition of terrorists’ homes, to the immigration policy of the State of Israel.
Anyone for whom the Israeli flag symbolizes sovereignty, national honor, and concern for the people of Israel – cannot remain silent in the face of this.
My bill is a necessary step in the fight against foreign subversion. It will strengthen the Jewish state, preserve Israeli democracy, and protect our civil society from cynical exploitation from outside.
I thank the Im Tirtzu movement for its assistance in drafting the law and in particular for Matan Peleg for his book ‘State for Sale’, which reveals the depth of foreign intervention in Israeli society.
The time has come to put an end to this! The time for independence has come!
Update:
@DoriSaysItAll
When I added your figures for right-wing organizations, I came up with the figure of only 10,060.14, considerably less than your figure. Whatever the accurate figue, it seems clear that right-wing non-profit organizations in Israel. have much less money than the left-wing.
Possibly you are hostile to these organizations because many of them are haredi-oriented. Many Israelis hate the haredim and resent their influence in Israeli politics. However, when you compare the possible threat to Israeli security by haredi organizations to the severe threat posed by the leftist NGOs and non profits to Israel’s security, because of their close relationship to the Arab terrorist organizations at war with Israel. Compared to the leftists, the haredim are at worst an annoyance to secular-minded Israelis. They don’t constitute a serious threat to them, But the leftist NGOs and nonprofits are a deadly threat to all Israeli Jews, as well as to those Israeli Arabs who are loyal citizens of the state.
“NGOs” are organizations that are funded by governments and authorized by them to distribute money to organizations that the states or international organizations donate to them. Are there any foreign government or organizations that donate money to these “NGOs. Or does their funding come from the Israeli government? Whether justified or not, the is a very different story from being funded by foreign organizations.
@ John Galt–what is he point of listing the budgets of right-wing lobbying organizations in Israel, That has nothing to do with the subject of this article.
I notice that you don’t bother to add up the total budgets of the right-wing organizations that you list.The reader thus has no way of comparing the degree to which foreign donations to right-wing organization affect Israeli policy, versus hoe foreign donations to left-wing organizations affect Israeli policy, anti-terrorist military operations, etc. Your listing of these organizations serves no interest of the state of Israel, At least as for as I coandetermine.
I support this law. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Any “nonprofit” or NGO”
funded by a government that seeks to fund terrorists or interfere with internal politics should be banned from distributing money to any Israeli or ‘Palestinian” entity that is hostile to the state, that is affiliated with or supportive of terrorist groups, etc. But you bill only bans these organizations from having access to the courts, That does not go nearly for enough. It is also useless in practical terms, since the Israeli courts consider themselves above the law, the sovereign party in Israel, amd as such they accept petitions from organization that they favor, even when the law forbids them to do do.
You need to strenghten your law.
“Approximately 900 million NIS have been poured by foreign countries into extreme left-wing organizations in the past decade. 900 million NIS that affect every area: from the IDF’s open-fire orders, to the demolition of terrorists’ homes, to the immigration policy of the State of Israel.”
So $25,350,000 per year @ 3.55 current exchange rate of 3.55 NIS to $1.00 US
Right Wing NGO’s in Israel and their annual budgets:
1) Kohalet – $8,300,000
2) The Movement for Governability and Democracy
Behind the Scenes of Radical Legislative Influence
Founded: 2013 | Annual Budget: Approximately 450,000 shekels ($120,000)
3) Torat HaMedina
Advocating for a Halacha State with Government Representation
Founded: 2018 | Budget for 2021: Approximately 110,000 shekels ($29,000)
4) Komemiyut
From ‘Beast Parade’ to Influencing Religious Zionism
Founded: 2006 | Budget for 2022: Approximately 1.5 million shekels ($400,000)
5)Regavim
Shaping Government Policy with Alumni in Key Positions
Founded: 2016 | Budget for 2021: Approximately 5.3 million shekels ($1.4 million)
6)Hazon and Gvanim
Key Players Behind Noam Party’s Agenda and Anti-LGBTQ+ Campaigns
Founded: 2007 | Budget for 2021: Approximately 3.8 million shekels ($1 million)
7) Chotam
Advocating Anti-LGBTQ+ Views and Conversion Therapy
Founded: 2014 | Budget for 2021: Approximately 790,000 shekels ($210,000)
Total: $11,459,000
Now that is their budgets, which is a fraction of their foreign donations, so to me the NGO’s by and large are Leftist in Israel just like the United States.