IT is called the NGO Transparency Law but Israel might just as well call it the law that silences opposition to the government’s policies. Israel’s recent enactment of a new law imposing stricter controls on human rights organizations in the country that rely on foreign funding means that from now on NGOs that receive most of their funding from foreign states will have to declare it. They will have to mention in all their communication with public officials, as well as on television, newspapers and advertisements that they depend on international financing. But what the law really is doing is being undemocratic. It will harm organizations whose worldview is different from that of the majority Israeli government. Its real purpose is to delegitimize organizations whose activities the political establishment does not like.
The law was approved by a vote of 57 to 48 in the Israeli parliament. It applies to organizations that receive more than half their funding from international governments or political groups. The bill is controversial because 25 of the 27 organizations to which the Justice Ministry said it would apply are left-wing. Much of their foreign funding comes from European governments.
One by one, various parties have been slamming the new law. It was criticized by the European Union which said it risked undermining values that the EU and Israel shared. The US had previously expressed concerns over the “chilling effect” the legislation could have. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the law contributes to a climate in which the activities of human rights organizations are increasingly delegitimized. Peace Now, the prominent settlement watchdog NGO, described the law best: “Tailored specifically to target only peace and human rights organizations, its true intention is to divert the Israeli public discourse away from the occupation”.
No bigger supporter of the law is Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads what is the most right-wing government in Israel’s history and whose far-right justice minister sponsored the bill. He has defended the law full heartedly, claiming it will prevent an “absurd situation in which foreign states meddle in Israel’s internal affairs by funding NGOs without the Israeli public being aware of it”. But Netanyahu should be the last one talking. He goes to Washington and denounces the US-Iran nuclear deal in the US Congress behind President Obama’s back, which can’t be anything other than meddling in US affairs.
Right-wing NGOs, such as those supporting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, tend to rely on private donations, to which the law does not apply. But why are organizations that function based on donations from wealthy private individuals or philanthropists free from disclosing their identities? The bill targets organizations working for human rights and democracy, while allowing ultranationalist organizations to keep their sources of funding hidden. Supporters of the law say it will bring needed transparency, however, where is transparency really needed? In extreme right-wing organizations who receive millions of dollars from private overseas donors but where the government has chosen to impose secrecy and obscure the money trail. In the same vein, groups representing Israel, including AIPAC are not required to register even though they clearly represent a foreign government.
It’s one thing to prevent funding to NGOs active in anti-Semitic campaigns or those which deny Israel’s right to exist or support attacks on Israelis. It’s quite another to apply this law to mainly left-wing NGOs in a bid to unfairly discredit them as tools of foreign governments.
If the Israeli government was truly concerned about transparency, it would require all NGOs to actively alert the public to their sources of funding, not just those that criticize the government’s policies. This law is a blatant violation of freedom of expression. The Israeli government is persecuting human rights groups and trying to silence legitimate criticism of its conduct. It is a one-sided legislation.
