Cabinet okays private donations for 70th Independence Day bash

The cabinet on Sunday approved a proposal allowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to solicit funds from private donors and organizations to help cover the costs of Israel’s 70th anniversary celebrations next year.

For the first time in the country’s history, the prime minister has been authorized to pursue donations — both from inside Israel and abroad — to pay for the Independence Day festivities in 2018, instead of using state funds.

The proposal was advanced by Netanyahu and his Likud Party colleague Culture Minister Miri Regev.

Under current Israeli law, it is illegal for public servants to request and receive donations. In light of the restrictions, the proposal would authorize a fundraising committee of senior Culture Ministry officials to oversee the donations for the events.

Due to the potential conflicts of interest, “donations will not be accepted if there is a suspicion that [the donation] will harm the integrity or image of the State of Israel,” according to the text of the proposal.

The fundraising committee will also “need to ensure that donations are not given in exchange for any compensation whatsoever or the expectation of any of form of compensation whatsoever from the government or its employees.”

Donations will not be accepted from any source who would stand to benefit from future government decisions, it stipulated.

Money raised from donations would be added to the state’s budget and transferred to the Culture Ministry to be used for the celebrations in May 2018.

The committee in charge of overseeing fundraising and organizing the events will be established using NIS 5 million ($1.3 million) from the Culture Ministry’s budget, which will later be reimbursed from the donation money from the donations.

The idea of turning to private donors rather than paying for the 70th anniversary celebrations out of the state’s budget was proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to impending budgets cuts in the coming years, according to the copy of the proposal.

The proposal came as police were waiting for Netanyahu to schedule a date to make himself available for questioning on corruption allegations. Elaborating on the suspicions against him, Channel 10 said Saturday they involved his acceptance of a “string of valuable gifts” from at least two businessmen during his period in office as prime minister. Previous reports have said one of the businessmen is based abroad but has interests in Israel, and the second is Israeli. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.