Officially titled “Law on Disclosure Requirements for Recipients of Support from a Foreign State Entity, 5771-2011.” According to the original version of this bill, any person or group receiving funding from a foreign state entity must register with the Registrar of Parties and immediately report each contribution, mark every document in this spirit, and state at the opening of any remark they make that they are funded by a foreign state. Those who defy the law will be subject to strict penalties.
After extensive lobbying and behind-the-scenes work by ACRI and other organizations, some parts of the bill have been changed and toned down. The main changes to the previous legal situation are that NGOs will be required to report funding from foreign state entities to the Registrar of Associations, not to the Registrar of Parties; that they will send this report every quarter, instead of annually; and that if monetary support from a foreign state entity is designated for a special advertising campaign, this support shall be noted within the framework of that campaign.
Despite claims made by the promoters of this law, as though it is intended to increase transparency – in practice its purpose is to delegitimize and curtail the activities of organizations that receive funds from, among other sources, foreign states. Though the Israeli law already makes reporting such donations imperative, this law expands the existing law and force certain civil organizations to mark their activities as subversive and illegitimate. Furthermore, the bill practically refers to the activities of specific civil groups, focusing on human rights organizations, implicitly incriminating them when compared with other bodies or individuals funded by foreign non-state entities.
It is important to note that even though the “softer” version of the bill was enacted, and despite the fact that the reality has not changed much, this law marks human rights organizations as “agents” of foreign governments that wish to interfere with Israeli policies – so in the public sense, the damage is done.
Furthermore, MK Elkin, who promoted this bill, promised that he will continue to promote legislation to curtail the work of human rights NGOs, including canceling tax benefits on donations. Elkin has further publicly stated that he will promote amendments to the just-enacted Funding from Foreign State Entities Law, in order to cancel tax benefits to NGOs.
Following many questions ACRI received from our international contacts, we translated the final version of the enacted law to English. To read it, please click here.
8 February 2010: Bill presented in Knesset.
18 November 2010: Bill passed first reading in Knesset plenum.
2 February 2011: Watered-down version of the bill approved by Constitution Committee for second-third reading.
21 February 2011: Bill passed second-third (final) reading in plenum.
Status: Bill was enacted as a law.
