The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday voted in support of a bill that would levy massive taxes on NGOs — 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.”

The bill would severely hinder and likely prevent many local human rights organizations from being able to operate in Israel and the West Bank, as many of them rely on funding from foreign governments.

Human rights groups — such as B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the New Israel Fund — have long been targeted by the Israeli right and even the political center over their focus on alleged Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians.

“The purpose of this bill is to reduce the indirect influence of foreign governments and political entities on the State of Israel. This influence is manifested, among other things, in direct financial support for nonprofit organizations in Israel, which act as agents of change on behalf of these entities,” the bill’s explanatory notes state.

The bill argues that such external funding “goes beyond the limits of the democratic framework and harms the sovereignty and independence” of Israel.

If two countries have a dispute, “they must try to convince each other through diplomatic means, dialogue and negotiation between counterparts, but not through financing change agents and organizations whose........

© The Times of Israel