February 15 – February 25 2011
Recent Anti-Democratic Legislation
February 15 | Prohibition on Instituting a Boycott
On February 15, the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee discussed the Prohibition on Instituting a Boycott Bill in preparation for its first reading. This bill is meant primarily to prevent those opposing the Israeli occupation from advancing boycotts against Israeli settlements and products manufactured there. According to the bill, Israeli citizens and residents who initiate, promote, provide information, or publish material that might serve as grounds for imposing a boycott against Israel and the territories under its control would be committing a crime. They may be ordered to compensate parties economically affected by that boycott, including fixed reparations of 30,000 NIS (approximately $7,000), without an obligation of the plaintiffs to prove damages.
During the discussion in the committee, the legal advisers of several ministries spoke out against the bill, for using language that is too vague and all-encompassing and for damaging Israel’s international relations. The bill passed the vote, but opposing MKs requested a revised vote – which will take place in the Constitution Committee on February 23.
If the bill will pass this vote, it will be passed to the Knesset plenum for its first reading. Following extensive lobbying efforts by ACRI, several Knesset factions have already announced their opposition to the bill, including Kadima, which is the largest Knesset faction and several of its members actually signed the bill. ACRI will continue to work in cooperation with other Israeli civil society organizations and MKs from across the political spectrum to try and prevent this dangerous bill from staining the Israeli legal system. To see ACRI’s full position on this bill, click here.
February 20 | Prohibiting Funding of Culture and Sports Shows by Draft-Dodgers
Yesterday, the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs rejected on a bill that proposed to prevent artists who did not serve in the Israeli army from participating in state-sponsored events. In effect, this bill would lead to a blacklist of artists and athletes who did not serve in the army. The Culture and Sports Minister, Limor Livnat, expressed concern that the bill would “paralyze the activity of hundreds of institutions and result in the dismissal of thousands of people.” Following its rejection by the Ministerial Committee, the bill will most likely not be approved in the plenum.
Upcoming Anti-Democratic Legislation
February 21 | Funding from Foreign State Entities
This bill is due for its second-third (i.e. final) reading in the plenum today. After extensive work by ACRI and other NGOs, the current version of this bill is somewhat more acceptable. However, as is customary during the final vote phase of any Israeli legislative bill, it is possible to raise various reservations and vote also on those reservations.
One reservation stands out as dramatically changing the law. If accepted, this reservation would re-introduce into the law specific language that was negotiated out of it earlier. This reservation articulates the automatic revocation of the public institute tax status of any NGO that receives any funding from foreign state entities. This reservation was introduced by the Chairperson of the Constitution Committee, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beitenu), and right-wing extremist MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union). Such a measure clearly has nothing to do with transparency; rather, it is an automatic punitive measure, which would impact both donors from abroad as well as Israeli donors.
As stated above, the vote is scheduled for later today, and we will keep you updated once we have the voting results and the final version of the bill.
February 28 | Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry
The Knesset House Committee has approved the establishment of two separate but related parliamentary committees of inquiry: a parliamentary committee of inquiry to look into the funding of Israeli organizations “accused of working to prosecute IDF soldiers and officers abroad;” and a second committee to look into “the involvement of foreign governments and bodies in funding actions against the state and in attempts to purchase lands.”
On Monday, February 28, the letters of appointment for the committees will be returned to the Knesset plenum for a final vote (the date is still not final and might be changed). Following lobbying efforts by ACRI and others, a growing number of Knesset factions decided to ban the committees and their future activities. The political parties that have already announced their opposition to the committees are Kadima, Labor, Hadash, Meretz, Balad, the Arab Democratic Party and the United Arab List, as well as a few MKs from the Likud. According to a recent count, the situation is nearly tied, with 61 MKs in favor and 59 MKs against the establishment of these dangerous committees.
Recently Tabled Anti-Democratic Legislation
The current Knesset presents an unprecedented flood of anti-democratic legislation. Below are several anti-democratic bills that have been recently tabled but not yet promoted.
1. Freedom of assembly will be restricted only to organizations and groups that declare their support for Israel as a Jewish and democratic state (as opposed to only democratic, according to the current laws). Presented by MK Miri Regev (Likud).
2. Revocation of the public institute tax status of any NGO that receives any funding from foreign state entities, as well as initiating a 45% tax on such donations. Presented by MK Fania Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beitenu).
3. Prohibiting defamation of a specific sector of society or of Israeli authorities. The explanatory note to this bill gives as an example the Israeli civil society organizations that provided information to the UN Fact-Finding Mission that published the Goldstone Report. Presented by MK Yaakov Katz (National Union).
4. Closing down companies that boycott products from any part of the State of Israel. This bill is another variation on the Prohibition on Instituting a Boycott Bill, intended to prevent companies from boycotting settlement products. Presented by MK Yaakov Katz (National Union) and others.
