By GIL HOFFMAN AND REBECCA ANNA STOIL
21/02/2011
MK Rotem withdraws more draconian measures before vote; PM blocks NGO inquiry; Lieberman associates say PM caved to left, vow revenge.

The Knesset passed a bill into law Monday requiring non-governmental organizations to issue quarterly reports about funding they receive from foreign governments and to reveal that they are backed by other countries on their websites and advertisements.

The bill, which was sponsored by coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin (Likud), passed its final reading by a 40-34 vote after tougher measures against NGOs and plans to form parliamentary inquiry committees to examine the NGOs were dropped.

Knesset Law Committee chairman David Rotem withdrew controversial amendments that would have taken away tax credits away from NGOs supported by foreign governments. His amendments would also require NGOs to submit donations from foreign individuals and to write that they receive foreign funding on every email.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed support for Rotem's amendments at Monday's Likud faction meeting, despite strong opposition to the bill expressed by the leadership of several countries. But Rotem said he decided to drop the amendments at the request of Zionist organizations who told him the amendments would harm them.

Rotem said he would submit a different version of his amendments by the end of the Knesset's winter session next month. He expressed confidence that he would be able to pass them.

Netanyahu took steps Monday to kill efforts to form a Knesset inquiry committee that would have examined donations from foreign countries to Israeli NGOs. The prime minister decided to accept a request by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar to allow Likud MKs to vote their conscience on the bill rather than require faction discipline.

That decision ensured that there would not be a majority to approve forming the parliamentary inquiry committee. Netanyahu initially announced that he supported forming the committee, but he took steps to avoid it passing already last month when he tried unsuccessfully to block faction discipline from being imposed.

"A parliamentary investigative committee would lack the power to enact change and at the same time would further worsen the delegitimization of Israel worldwide," Netanyahu told the Likud faction.

Netanyahu's decision to block the inquiry committee reportedly angered Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is in Brussels for a meeting of the Israel-European Union Association Council with 27 EU foreign ministers on Tuesday.

Lieberman heard about Netanyahu's decision from the press. His associates condemned Netanyahu for "caving into the Left" and vowed revenge.

The EU foreign ministers and Lieberman are expected to face off at the meeting on the funding their countries give anti-Zionist organizations in Israel.

A Panels poll broadcast Monday on the Knesset Channel found that most Israelis considered Lieberman a good politician and a bad foreign minister. The poll found that 57 percent of respondents called him a good politician and ten percent said he was a bad politician. Only 28% said he was good foreign minister.

This bill is a good start but does not go far enough. It should be against the law for NGO's to receive funding from foreign government. The law should allow criminal prosecution of the board of directors that receive funds from foreign governments, since most governments are anti Jews living every where in our land.

I would also say that NGO's that are involved in supporting the Palestinians in any way should also be barred from receiving funding from any source private or governments that is outside of Israel.