Live
Audio Only
Israeli-based non-governmental organizations are not “enemies of the state” but serve as watchdogs for democracies, 50 European parliament members said Tuesday in a harshly-worded letter to the Israeli parliament a day after it approved a bill targeting leftist pro-Palestinian groups in Israel.
The letter was sponsored by Julie Ward, the United Kingdom Labour Party parliamentary in the EU, who urged the Israeli Knesset to reject the legislation.
The controversial bill, dubbed locally as the NGO Law, imposes transparency requirements on left-wing groups operating in Israel but receiving more than half of their funding from abroad, in most cases from the EU.
ANALYSIS: Is International Palestine Solidarity Just a Symbolic Gesture?
The bill passed the first of three readings in the Knesset late Monday night with the support of the right-wing Likud party members with a 50-43 vote. The bill is sponsored by the country’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who is infamous for her anti-Palestinian rhetoric and policies.
“We strongly urge you to be brave and strong in upholding Israel’s pluralist democratic values,” a passage of the letter says. “Human rights and peace-building NGOs serve as watchdogs for democracy, not enemies of the state.”
The majority of those who signed the letter come from European leftist parties like Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and Sinn Fein Ireland.
ANALYSIS: How Israel Ignored the Oslo Accords Even Before the Ink Dried
Also the center-left Socialist and Democrats group, the second-biggest in the Parliament after the center-right European People’s Party, expressed its support with 11 signatures.
The letter said that the potential laws would be “inherently discriminatory” as it mostly targets groups promoting and defending human rights. “It is framed in a manner that delegitimizes and demonises NGOs who promote and defend human rights, as well as the European states and institutions that fund them,” the letter said.
Furthermore, the European officials argued that the groups are already posting their findings online and have been transparent about their finances.
“We see this as part of a worrying trend, promoted and condoned by the current Israeli government, to restrict, delegitimize, and stifle the work of NGOs, organizations, artists, writers, and thinkers who may be critical of current Israeli government policy,” the letter added.
RELATED: Israel Prefers Islamic State Group to Iran, Ignores Syrian Suffering
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is not an Israeli matter only but one of a global and international interest, the letter stressed, adding that funding from the EU has been provided to the Palestinian government as well as the Israeli one.
The letter comes at a time of heightened tension between Israel and the EU, after the latter approved a law requiring all products produced in illegal Israeli settlements be labelled as such which the Israeli government saw as dircramontory against Israel while some officials called “anti-Semitic” policies.
WATCH: Palestine's Rebellion, Israel's Fascism
Newsletter
