NGO Bill Passes: IDI Scholar Dr. Amir Fuchs Reacts
In reaction to the passing today of the NGO Bill, the Israel Democracy Institute's Dr. Amir Fuchs said that, "Despite the many changes that have been made to the bill, largely due to the opposition of many coalition MKs that did not want to harm human rights organizations, the bill is still not a good one, it will not improve transparency, and it has no precedent in the Western World."
Fuchs said that the unequal demands on nonprofit organizations funded by individuals, as opposed to the demands on those funded by countries or groups of countries (i.e. the European Union or the United Nations), resulted from the desire of a certain group of MKS that wanted to take revenge on specific nonprofit organizations and receive headlines.
"The fact that the bill was significantly scaled back and no longer even includes a requirement for NGO members to wear a special tag in the Knesset indicating their funding source or declare that source at the outset of every Knesset session, emphasizes the fact that this is an unnecessary bill," said Fuchs. "The version that passed may be less painful than the original, but it is still painful."