How Israel Shoots Itself in the Foot With Left-Bashing NGO Law

[Little Tich]

Source: The Forward, by J.J. Goldberg, July 12, 2016

Israel’s parliament, in a dazzling display of perverse logic, managed to shoot itself in the foot on Monday with formal approval of a law that hobbles human-rights organizations.

The law’s sponsors have been working for five years to craft a measure that reins in organizations they believe damage Israel’s international reputation, particularly in the West, by drawing attention to the country’s flaws. Ironically, one of the law’s main effects, even before final passage, has been to damage Israel’s international reputation, particularly in the West, by attacking human-rights organizations, a mainstay of Western democratic culture.

Officially, the law aims to impose “transparency” on non-governmental organizations — what Americans call non-profits — that receive funding from foreign governments. NGOs receiving more than half their annual budget from foreign governmental bodies must now state that fact in every public statement, advertisement or communication with Israeli officialdom.

In fact, NGOs were already required under existing law to make all funding sources public. The new law merely adds the requirement that organizations funded by foreign governments call attention to that fact every time they appear in public. In effect, the goal is to encourage popular hostility toward organizations advocating minority rights by creating the impression that they’re foreign agents.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/israel/344772/how-israel-shoots-itself-in-the-foot-with-left-bashing-ngo-law/