Israeli Left-, Right-Wing at War Over NGO Transparency Bill | Voice of America - English
Israeli political factions are engaged in a heated battle over a pending bill which, if enacted, would require NGOs that receive at least half of their funds from foreign governments to publicly identify themselves and their majority donors in all communications with public or elected officials.NGO’s are non-government organizations that operate on a nonprofit basis.
WASHINGTON - This comes only weeks after the right-wing organization  released a video (see below) entitled “,” portraying four prominent NGO figures as “implants” working against Israeli interests, chiefly, the fight against terror. And right wing activists are  to disclose further damaging information about Nawi and the human rights group, B’Tselem, among others. “I think it’s really important to view the NGO bill in the context of a greater battle being fought in Israel, what some people refer to as a ‘culture war’,” said , communications director at Americans for Peace Now. “There is a battle that has been increasing rapidly in severity and rancor between progressive Israel – the old elite, as some people refer to it – and the Israel of the last two decades, which has been ruled almost exclusively by right wing governments.” egislators to single out human rights and pro-peace organizations in Israel who receive funding from foreign governments. “What people don’t know is that while the right-wing NGOs in Israel also receive a great deal of foreign funding, it’s not foreign government funding.It comes from foundations and individuals, and therefore, they wouldn’t be subjected to that kind of scrutiny.” Scrutiny, said Nir, intended to “demean, degrade and humiliate” left-wingers. “FARA is specifically for people who act as agents of a foreign government in terms of their activities,” said Marc Schulman, Israeli historian and political blogger. “Here, you’re talking about an organization – let’s say, for the sake of argument, a women’s shelter -- any NGO, any civil society group.” He points out that Israeli NGOs already disclose financial information in quarterly filings with the government. “And they already have to state on their websites and everything else where they get their funding,” Schulman said.“After all, in America, you don’t go around Congress with a sign that says, ‘I represent the government of Saudi Arabia.’”