Ted Belman
The government is proposing legislation that applies to “political NGO’s”. The bill’s explanatory notes state explicitly that it is intended to deal with “organizations acting in the guise of human rights organizations that seek to influence the political discourse, character and policies of the State of Israel.”
The Bill would ban “political” non-governmental organizations from receiving donations of over NIS 20,000 from foreign governments or international organizations.
Haaretz argues,
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Since they do not have any legal justification for shutting down these human rights organizations, Netanyahu and his colleagues are trying to achieve this goal via the parliamentary majority they command. As opposed to donations from unsupervised private sources, which also flow to right-wing organizations, human rights organizations receive aid from legitimate bodies like the United Nations and the European Union, which scrupulously abide by the rules of transparency.
It is not a question of whether these bodies are “legitimate” or not but rather whether their activities are. Implicit in this last sentence is the thought that “right wing organizations” are not even legitimate.
Even if there is nothing morally or legally wrong with the US administration working to unseat foreign governments including those in Israel, the question becomes is the victim country democratically bound to permit them to do so. In the past the US has contributed to the fall of a number of Israeli governments in the hope of it being replaced by a more friendly government.
Similarly, the European governments are working to thwart the will of the majority in Israel because it opposes their agenda of settlement construction. They buttress their own agenda by financially supporting Israeli NGO’s that are friendly to their cause. The government says their activities go far beyond protection of human rights and into the realm of affecting the political discourse. They most certainly do. It should be noted that these activities have more to do with providing the international community with evidence to support the BDS movement, than they have do to with changing the local discourse. Haaretz is saying that they have every right to interfere in our policy making and we do not have the democratic right to thwart their activities by denying access their money.
This Bill doesn’t prevent the NGO’s from doing what they are doing. It simply aims to prevent them from being funded by outside government and international bodies who are doing so not because they want to advance human rights but because they want to thwart Israeli policies or actions with which they disagree whether they be settlement construction or self defense.
These NGO’s are acting subversively to the democratically elected government. Are they being democratic when they reject the will of the majority and openly align with foreign governments to thwart that will.
Furthermore we know that well financed PR campaigns can affect the will of the majority. How much moreso if foreign governments added considerably to the funds available for PR including massive advertising budgets.
The US outlaws the use of foreign funds by local candidates. Is this too undemocratic? It also puts limits on what individuals or corporations can contribute to candidates. In both cases the US is protecting democracy from foreign or undue influence and not undermining it.
Israel likewise.
I own a business and I am compelled to interact with a similar individual every day . He is called a banker and he might regard me as a pain in the ass. If the truth be known most likudniks would concur with Obama. Most consider bibi a huge pain in the butt.
All the leftists here in Israel crying “undemocratic”.
For those not familiar, here is the US’s own Logan Act.
Reading Haaretz is like reading The Guardian in which nitwits posing as mature commentators spout total nonsense daily.
It is likely most of the commentators cannot make themselves a cup of coffee?
Israel suffers mostly from its past rulers who were cloud cuckoo specialists known as mapai and mapam
the great grandsons and great granddaughters follow the Alice in Wonderland symptoms all the way through the looking glass.
right wing to them is usually an expression of common sense !!!!
Perhaps both the State of Israel and private Jewish organizations can support Sarcozy’ opposition the next time he runs for office. Rather than doing it quietly, we too should be transparent about our desire to see him leave the political stage.
If half of Americans were citizens of China, we would probably allow contributions to candidates from American-Chinese NGOs. Half the world’s Jews live in the US, and substatial numbers live in France, UK and Germany. Israel has a long tradition of receiving charity from those and other countries. This makes Israel’s situation different from that of the US. Israel is trying to free itself from foreign interference. These NGO funding proposals might cut a leaf or two off of this weed; but the problem has its root in a leadership that is afraid to stand up to, or even name, Israel’s main foreign meddler: The President of the United States.
By Obama’s own admission, he “has to deal with the PM of Israel every day”. That puts Netanyahu in the same league as Michelle — pretty close meddling.
I don’t see the EU and UN as legitimate.