Herzog accuses Shaked of hypocrisy over NGO ‘transparency’ bill

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Monday slammed a bill proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, which would obligate nongovernmental organizations to publicly disclose whether they receive funding from foreign governments.

The bill, which — according to the critics — targets NGOs aligned with the political left, would require groups to mark all publications or printed communication with their sources of funding. In addition NGO members would, while at the Knesset, be required to wear tags indicating their organization’s backers. Failure to comply would result in a NIS 29,000 ($7,500) fine.

Herzog also accused Shaked of hypocrisy and said the lawmaker herself had previously received funding from abroad to finance her campaign for the right-wing Jewish Home party.

“I recently heard our justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, say she does not support foreigners deciding our fate. We also do not support foreigners donating money to our political system and interfering in our fate when they are not here to pay the price,” Herzog told members of his Zionist Union party during a faction meeting Monday.

“We’ve all received foreign donations in the past, including you — our justice minister, Ayelet Shaked — who received money for your campaign in the primaries,” Herzog charged, before calling for an alternative bill that demanded transparency for all foreign political donations.

“If you stand for cleaning all of Israel’s political system of foreign funding, then I’m with you,” he said. “Times have changed, and we need new rules. But not unilateral rules that will pit camp against camp.”

The bill is the cabinet’s latest legislative effort to curb spending on groups that seek to influence Israeli policy, with Shaked maintaining she wants to improve “transparency” in NGO funding.

“The blatant interference of foreign governments in internal matters of the State of Israel with money is an unprecedented, widespread phenomenon that violates all rules and norms in relations between democratic countries,” Shaked said of the initiative on Sunday.

“Financial support from foreign countries to NGOs acting in the internal Israeli sphere destabilizes the sovereignty of the State of Israel, and calls into question the authority of the government elected by the public,” she added.

Shaked noted that the UN’s commission of inquiry into war crimes by Israel during last summer’s conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip “was based on testimony by Israeli left-wing nongovernmental organizations like B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence and Adalah.”

B’Tselem and Adalah are two NGOs that say they are dedicated to safeguarding Palestinians’ human rights; Breaking the Silence is an organization that collects testimony from IDF soldiers.

Many left-wing Israeli NGOs receive large percentages of their funding from abroad, particularly from Western governments, and have been quick to criticize the proposed bill.

Some groups have accused the government of a witch hunt, and said they felt targeted by the right-wing government because of their criticism of Israeli policies.

In recent years, several bills have been proposed that have targeted the left-wing NGOs, the organizations claim, on topics ranging from donations to the right to access the legal system.

In 2013, a ministerial committee backed a law that would have vastly increased taxes on donations from abroad to NGOs that support measures deemed hostile to the state, including calling for the prosecution of soldiers for alleged war crimes.

Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.