Netanyahu confirms seeking legislation to limit foreign funding for NGOs

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms he has tasked Tourism Minister Yariv Levin with formulating a new law that would limit foreign governmental funding to Israeli nonprofits in an effort explicitly targeting left-wing and rights groups.

The previous “NGO law,” passed last year, does not limit the funding a group may receive but set strict reporting and transparency requirements. It “was about transparency,” he says at the Likud faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday. The new proposal, however, would limit how much funding the organizations can receive from foreign states altogether, he explains.

“In Israel there is currently no limit on funneling money to all sorts of organizations, [including those that] among other things defame IDF soldiers,” he says.

“The situation, in my opinion, is not right,” the prime minister adds.

The prime minister also says he intends to pass the controversial Jewish nation-state bill in the current Knesset session, which ends on July 31.

— Marissa Newman