Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumU.N. Says Israel Limits Human Rights Groups, Joins Zimbabwe, Belarus and Venezuela on List
By Haaretz
Published April 29, 2012.
A senior UN official in Geneva last week listed Israel among the countries that she says are restricting the activities of human rights groups.
The statement, issued on Wednesday by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, lists Israel along with countries such as Belarus, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia and Venezuela.
Israel was named due to the bill approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation six months ago to restrict funding by foreign governments to nonprofit organizations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the bill throughout most of its formulation. However, he ordered it frozen after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said such a law would be struck down by the High Court of Justice.
Although the law never reached the Knesset, Pillay said in her statement: In Israel, the recently adopted Foreign Funding Law could have a major impact on human rights organizations, subjecting them to rigorous reporting requirements, forcing them to declare foreign financial support in all public communications, and threatening heavy penalties for non-compliance.
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http://forward.com/articles/155496/un-says-israel-limits-human-rights-groups/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29&utm_campaign=Daily_Newsletter_Mon_Thurs%202012-05-01
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)<snip>
" Israel's Foreign Ministry criticized as "absurd" the country's inclusion on a list of countries that restrict the activities of human rights and advocacy groups.
Monday's response came after the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights placed Israel on a list that includes Egypt, Belarus, Venezuela, Algeria and Ethiopia. Israel is the only democratic country to appear on the list; the rest are either dictatorships or developing countries."
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/04/30/3094296/israel-on-un-list-of-human-rights-violators
oberliner
(58,724 posts)A dictatorship or a developing country?