Lawmakers in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Monday began debating a controversial bill that would levy massive taxes on nongovernment organizations funded by foreign governments, and erode their right to file lawsuits in Israeli courts.

The bill, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, would allow the government to tax foreign government donations to domestic nonprofits at a rate of 80 percent, while also stipulating that courts need not consider petitions by groups “primarily financed by a foreign political entity.”

If passed into law, the legislation would apply to NGOs that do not also receive Israeli state funding. The finance minister, with the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, would be allowed to exempt organizations from the new rules “in special circumstances.”

Arguing in favor of the legislation, which passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum in February, Kallner argued that sanctions imposed on violent settlers by the Biden administration “came as a result of despicable blood libels by delegitimization organizations such as Breaking the Silence and others” — adding that between 2012 and 2024, “a little more than NIS 1.3 billion ($360 million) flowed from foreign countries to 83 left-wing organizations, some of which are downright anti-Zionist.”

“This is a psychotic reality that distorts the discourse,” he declared, railing against “foreign-funded legal warfare against the state” by human rights groups petitioning the High Court of Justice.

“The law is........

© The Times of Israel