Justice Ministry to Introduce Bill Demanding Foreign Funded NGOs Wear Special Tag in Knesset
NGOs receiving funding from foreign governments, the vast majority of which are on the left, could be required to mark their documents and representatives.
The Justice Ministry will publish Sunday a preliminary draft of a new bill which demands organizations receiving funding from foreign governments mark their documents accordinglywhen presenting them to lawmakers.
According to the proposed bill, now in only in preliminary stages, the representatives of these organizations – almost exclusively groups identified with the Israeli left – will be forced to wear a tag indicating the involvement of foreign nations in their organizations activities when they are in the Knesset.
The bill is only a governmental memorandum now, a preliminary stage in which the draft is published for the public before it is put to its first vote. As the bill is sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, the memorandum will be published by the Justice Ministry.
According to Justice Minister Shaked, “blatant intervention in internal Israeli affairs by foreign government through funding is unprecedented and widespread, and infringes on the accepted norms and rules of relations between democratic countries,” she said, adding that foreign funding of organizations active within Israel “undermine [the state’s] sovereignty and identity.”
She cited as an example the role Israeli human rights groups played in the UN inquiry into Israel’s last conflict in Gaza, largely regarded as hostile to Israel. “[The UN report] accuses Israel of war crimes and intentionally harming citizens during Operation Protective Edge, which was based on the testimony by Israeli NGOs like B’Tzelem, Breaking the Silence and Adallah.”
The bill is comprised four central clauses: An NGOs that receives the majority of its financial support from foreign governments will be required to note so on its all of its publications, any written communications with lawmakers and any hearing or discussion involving a written protocol; Secondly, the NGO will also be required make its foreign funding known in any verbal discussion being held in place where public or elected officials work. Thirdly, such NGOs will be also be required to note the name of the foreign entities funding its activities on whitepapers or reports sent out to lawmakers and decision makers. And finally, like lobbyists, representatives of such organization will wear tags naming them and their organizations.
The bill was initially proposed as private legislation by Shaked and another lawmaker, but has since been embraced by the government and is now being spearheaded by the Justice Ministry. Unlike private legislation, governmental legislation does not face a preliminary reading in the Knesset.
Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, responded to this new initiative by stating that: “This bill seeks to mark human rights organizations that express different views and criticize the government’s policies. Justice Minister Shaked well knows that all registered non-profit organizations, including Adalah, report, pursuant to the Law of Associations, on their finances and funding. This information is publicly available. Funding from international sources to human rights organizations is legitimate and necessary, especially in states where there is a serious problem of human rights violations. Therefore we believe that the Minister Shaked’s proposal is really intended to harass and incite against human rights organizations, a practice, which is characteristic of dark regimes historically as well as in the present.”
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