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Why Critics of Israel's New NGO "Transparency Law" Are Wrong

(Tablet) Eugene Kontorovich - Israel this week passed a law requiring domestic organizations that are primarily funded by foreign governments to disclose this connection. While the law is totally neutral with regard to the activities of the funded organization, European governments that fund political groups have denounced it. The U.S. has had similar rules for decades, and imposed new ones a few years ago without a peep of international objection. Governments have foreign policies and they use the groups they fund in Israel to produce documents that they then invoke when taking action. As a matter of basic democratic integrity, groups that depend largely on government funds should not be able to advertise their "NGO" status without at least some small-print clarification. Israel is unique in the sheer scale of the foreign government sponsorship of domestic political groups. There is a unique secrecy concerning the processes by which funding is granted to Israeli non-profits by the EU and many individual governments. Under Article 15 of the EU's special guidelines for funding Israeli groups, organizations dealing with the territories are only eligible for funding if they declare that their activities promote EU foreign policy. These groups get the bulk of their funding from the EU, but only if they promote Brussels' interests - the very definition of a foreign agent. The U.S. House of Representatives requires from those who testify before it a disclosure of monies received specifically from foreign governments - just like the Israeli law, which is clearly aligned with the American Foreign Agents Registration Act.
2016-07-15 00:00:00
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