International protest stalls Israeli government attempt to penalise not-for-profits

The bill would impose a 65 per cent tax on public advocacy groups that receive foreign government funding, typically left-wing civil society organisations.

International pressure has forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stall a bill aimed at crippling Israeli left-wing organisations that challenge the legality and morality of army and settler practices in the occupied West Bank.

The bill would have imposed financial penalties on public advocacy by non-profit groups that receive donations from foreign governments, removing tax deductibility and hitting them with 65 per cent income tax.

An outcry from foreign governments including the US, France and Germany prompted the government to shelve the bill on Saturday night.

But leaders of these human rights groups believe the suspension of the plan to dry up most of their funding from Western governments marks only a tactical retreat. The cabinet’s aim, they say, remains to hinder them or eliminate them to remove an obstacle to the annexation project in the West Bank.

Ziv Stahl, head of Yesh Din, Israel’s leading watchdog group against settler violence, told The Jewish Independent that the decision is scant cause for relief. “We still have a lot to worry about. I’m not at all sure this has been taken off the agenda. It all depends on the international community,” she said.

She said if a similar bill were to pass, Yesh Din might be forced to close.

Supporters of weakening the NGOs say this is necessary to thwart foreign interference in Israeli democratic prerogatives. In remarks to The Jewish Independent, Amnon Lord, a right-wing columnist for Yisrael Hayom daily, charged that some of the NGOs are fomenting anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment abroad and even providing justification for terrorist acts against Israel.