Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) is sponsoring a new bill that would force nongovernmental organizations to disclose foreign funding sources if these make up over half their budgets. Shaked said Sunday the proposed bill "follows publications and data indicating that a high number of Israeli NGOs receive significant contributions from foreign countries or entities, which often try to influence government policy and blatantly interfere in Israel's internal affairs." Foreign entities using their financial ties to Israeli groups to influence policy "is done to an unprecedented scope and in a way that undermines Israel's sovereignty and undercuts the authority of an elected government," Shaked wrote in the bill's abstract. The "NGO transparency bill will serve to ward off foreign countries' brazen attempts to interfere in Israel's internal affairs," Shaked said. "It does not mean to infringe on freedom of speech. The public and its elected officials have a right to know who is trying to manipulate them." The bill stipulates that any NGO that is primarily funded by foreign donations would have to state this clearly in its publications, reports, and formal communications with any public or government body. It also stipulates that such NGOs' annual reports, and their communications with state bodies, would have to include the full details of their funding sources. A third stipulation would require Knesset lobbyists representing foreign-funded NGOs to wear special identification badges. NGOs would be fined 29,000 shekels ($7,500) for any violation of the proposed requirements, the bill states. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel criticized the bill, calling it "an attempt to undercut Israeli democracy through intimidation and silencing. The ID tag it wants lobbyists to wear may as well be the mark of Cain." The B'Tselem human rights group said, "Shaked is taking cynicism to a new level by using the word 'transparency' to hide her bill's true goal -- the defamation of organizations that oppose government policy." Also on Sunday, Shaked asked the State Attorney's Office to investigate a Twitter account that compared her to Hitler.
