Israel Matzav

Watered down NGO bill to be presented to Knesset

The Knesset Law Committee has prepared a new bill to regulate the receipt of foreign government funding by NGO's in Israel. The bill is meant to replace a previous bill that passed a first reading in the Knesset, but which was deemed to be too draconian.

According to the current proposal, “the aim of the bill is to increase the transparency and correct flaws in the existing legislation regarding the funding of political activity in Israel by foreign political entities.”

Despite the changes, however, several human rights groups and other NGOs charged that the aim of the legislation was to deal a blow to civil society organizations, using the claim of transparency as a pretext.

According to the text of the bill that will be discussed on Monday, any NGO or company created to assist the public and receiving financial support from a foreign state entity would be required to report any direct or indirect contribution to the registrar of nonprofit organizations within one week of the end of the quarter in which it received the funding.

The organization would have to disclose the identity of the donor, the sum of money, the purpose of the donation and any promises the NGO made to the donor in return for the funding.

Every three months, the registrar will publish on the Internet the information provided by the NGOs for that quarter.

The bill also calls on the NGOs “to do everything possible” to determine whether the funding it received came from a foreign state entity.

That certainly doesn't sound unreasonable. In fact, it's long overdue.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:42 PM