EU condemns Israel controversial law on NGOs
The EU has slammed Israel for approving a controversial law enabling the regime to force Israeli NGOs to declare their foreign funding, saying the new law aims to block the activities of these organizations.
“The reporting requirements imposed by the new law go beyond the legitimate need for transparency and seem aimed at constraining the activities of these civil society organizations,” the European Commission said in a statement.
The so-called “transparency” law will particularly affect the left-wing opposition and human rights NGOs, and will not have any impact on right-wing pro-regime groups, which finance illegal settlement-building. The latter NGOs receive their financial resources largely from Jewish foundations and wealthy individuals overseas.
In a late-night session on Monday, the Israeli parliament approved the law with 57 votes to 48. According to the new law, which has drawn harsh criticisms from the opposition, those NGO’s that obtain more than half of their funding from foreign governments or bodies, including the EU, are required to clearly detail their donations.
The Human Rights Watch also condemned the law in a statement on Wednesday, saying it has been “written in a way to exempt many organizations that support” Tel Aviv’s “policies and settlement activities.”
Observers have also blasted the law as a vehicle enabling crackdown on the organizations seeking to use such funds to bring about equality for the Arab public.
Isaac Herzog, the head of the Israeli opposition, said ahead of the vote that the law represents “the buds of fascism blooming in Israel.”
According to Leader of the Arab Joint List, Ayman Odeh, the law seeks to “intimidate and wipe away the few organizations that act and fight in the public sphere for equality to the Arab public.”
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right justice minister sponsored the bill, however, claimed the law’s goal was “to prevent an absurd situation in which foreign states meddle” in Israel’s internal affairs by funding NGOs.
The premier, himself, is suspected of having received more than USD one million worth of “donation” from a French fraud brain. Back in March, it was reported that Netanyahu had had shady relations with a French individual who has been convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years in jail.
He is also the subject of a police investigation into whether he had received illegal contributions from foreign businessmen during his current tenure.
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