Israel Matzav

Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon on NGO transparency

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon does a great job of defending the Knesset decision to investigate NGO funding. As usual, our critics are being hypocrites because they do the same thing themselves.

The Knesset panel of inquiry is simply about transparency. If there are groups who receive funds from foreign nations then the Israeli public deserves the right to know. Some voices have mistakenly declared that this type of inquiry is reminiscent of undemocratic regimes. Perhaps they should take a look at America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act which is, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website, a “disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.”

It is understandable to want to identify those citizens or organizations that are being paid to act at the behest of a foreign government or organization.

Furthermore, a cornerstone of the European Transparency Initiative (ETI), adopted by the European Commission in 2005, remains to provide public information on the recipients of EU funds. In reaction to this initiative, the EU Civil Society Contact Group that brings together eight large rights and value based NGO sectors, called for “better publicity and accountability regarding EU funding, enhanced ethical rules for EU institutions and more transparent lobbying”.

The concepts of accountability and transparency in funding have been endorsed by the U.S. and the European Union, including by its civil society representatives. So why do some Israeli NGO’s cry foul? Simply put, if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.

Read it all.

Labels: Danny Ayalon, human rights NGO's, NGO funding

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 PM