Israel to probe foreign funding of human rights groups

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 1:32 pm, Sunday, October 15, 2017

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister says he intends to establish a parliamentary committee to investigate the funding Israeli NGOs receive from foreign governments.

Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of Christian journalists in Jerusalem that the committee will probe "organizations that operate against" Israeli soldiers.

Such committees mostly serve as a way to shed light on a pressing public issue and tend not to have much bite. Israel already has a law, passed last year, which increases the regulation of many Israeli human rights organizations who receive foreign funding.

But Netanyahu's announcement Sunday highlights the hostility against those groups from Israeli hard-liners. It comes after Israel convicted an Israeli soldier this year for shooting to death a wounded Palestinian attacker. That incident was caught on video by a human rights group.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Israel-to-probe-foreign-funding-of-human-rights-12279742.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[Igel]

1. This kind of thing always frustrates me.

And amuses me. It's a very difficult set of feelings to deal with.

But whenever there's some action abroad that "we" (whoever 'we' is) don't like happens, one of the first things is to "follow the money" and say "cui bono?" Ooh ... Protests in Ukraine? Follow the cookies! A political opposition in Venezuela? Who's funding it?

Now, this isn't bad by itself, but the question always has to be, Is the money going to fund something that is locally driven and would happen if there were sufficient resources or knowledge or organizational skill? The alternative is that basically we're bribing people to protest and driving the movement by somehow brainwashing people to do what they wouldn't normally do.

This breaks down a bit when it's things like sabotage and death, of course. Then it's being accessory to murder and sabotage.

When Putin pointed out that protests in 2012 (2011?) were partly organized by groups receiving USAID money, some went ballistic. But now I suspect they'd say, "Ah, finally!"

When Assad pointed out the same thing, far fewer went ballistic. I suspect that if we had USAID funding anti-Hitler movements in 1938 there'd be far, far fewer alive now who'd object.

My view: If it's homegrown and the funding is meeting a need, then it's neutral. If it's going in and ginning up opposition, then it's bad and no better than what Russia did last fall. But I don't bias my opinion based upon what the outcome is I'd like to see. If a government I like can't make its citizens happy enough so that a foreign government can't find easy purchase among a broad swath of society it really doesn't deserve my support.

[FairWinds]

2. Wait a minute, the Israeli government is supposed to . .

defend the rights of its Palestinian citizens too. They are not
"foreigners".

I am proud to support several organizations that monitor Israeli
(mostly non-) compliance with basic human rights.

The Christian Peacemaker Teams and the Free Gaza Flotillas are
two valiant groups that deserve everyone's support. These non-violent
heroes get regularly shot at, beat up and sometimes killed by the IDF.

And if our international bros and sisses want to fund human rights
groups in the US - we say welcome! Black Lives Matter could use
all the support you can give . .

Veterans For Peace

[TubbersUK]

3. I'll be watching this with interest,

as a member of a charity which supports human rights monitoring in Israel & the occupied territories (among many other humanitarian activities worldwide).

I consider it be important work.