3 Notes
The Only Democracy in the Middle East
Incredibly, Netanyahu’s government allegedly wants to protect Israel’s democracy by curbing it.
(Haaretz) - A new bill aimed at limiting foreign funding of Israeli non-governmental organizations was proposed by Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu on Wednesday, replacing two previous bills that have been proposed and subsequently frozen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The new bill is an updated version of the bill previously proposed by MK Fania Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beiteinu), which called to impose a 45% tax on foreign funding to NGOs that receive Israeli government funding.
According to the proposal, all organizations that do not get funding from the Israeli government will have to pay a 45% tax on foreign funding. The organizations will be able to turn to the Finance Minister and request a tax exemption based on certain criteria, yet to be decided upon.
The bill calls to completely prohibit foreign funding to NGOs that deny Israel’s right to exist, incite racism, support armed resistance against Israel, support putting Israeli officials on trial in international courts, calls on insubordination of the army, or those supporting boycotts on the State of Israel.
How much would you bet that the organizations in question are simply engaging in good old fashioned criticism? Of course, in the Netanyahu era, criticism of Israel’s policies is equivalent to denying Israel’s right to exist or inciting racism or armed resistance against the country.
For the so-called ‘only democracy in the Middle East’, this is yet another alarming move made by a government that needs to be sent packing at the next vote.
