February 27, 2025
Dear friend,
There are many pressing issues that we are currently facing. And yet, in these difficult times the government has chosen to dedicate much of its focus on one thing: attempting to weaken and shrink Israel’s democratic space and to silence any attempts at government oversight or criticism.
A bill has just advanced in the Knesset whose aim is to considerably curtail the activities of human rights organizations—including ACRI—and organizations whose aim is to promote and protect democracy. The bill targets NGOs in Israel who receive funding from foreign governments and government foundations, and takes deliberate and precise aim at human rights organizations in Israel. The introduction and advancement of a bill that attacks NGOs as illegitimate and suspicious follows a playbook set by Russia and Hungary—other countries with populist leaders seeking to undermine democratic norms and shrink democratic spaces.
Civil society organizations such as ACRI play a vital role within a democracy. Because they are not connected to the government or business world, they serve as an important resource to ensure oversight of the government’s activities, as well as to ensure that all citizens and residents—particularly the most vulnerable—are protected. This, of course, also makes them convenient targets for governments who are hostile to the ideas advanced by these organizations, or the populations they serve. For over a decade now, ACRI and its staff has had to deal with ongoing incitement, threats, and attempts to invalidate our rights as Israeli citizens to advocate for human rights and the policies we believe in. This bill is another part of the disinformation and delegitimization campaign.
Since much of the work done by human rights organizations (both around the world and in Israel) is critical of the government, human rights NGOs do not accept funding from the government, in order to maintain fairness and accuracy in their work. Consequently, these organizations rely on external funding, including funding from foreign governments, in order to do their very needed, very necessary, work.
Key provisions include:
Donations from foreign state entities (such as the European Union) would be subject to an unheard-of 80% tax. This would effectively cut off foreign funding from organizations who rely on this funding for their operations and programming.
Organizations whose primary funding source is foreign state entities would be barred from petitioning Israeli courts unless they receive funding from the Israeli government. This would take away the crucial ability of many Israeli human rights organization (all of which rely on foreign funding and, as mentioned previously, do not receive money from the Israeli government) to advance human rights via the court system.
The Minister of Finance, with the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, would have discretionary power to grant exceptions. Organizations whose ideologies and agendas are in line with the Minister of Finance would, conveniently, not be affected by this law.
A translation of ACRI’s full position paper is attached, which outlines the numerous ways in which this bill is problematic, as well as its many absurdities.
A society without a civil society is a hollow democracy. Although this bill has advanced in the Knesset, it has not yet been passed into law. In addition to sending our position paper, we are continuing to monitor and fight back. Donate Now so that this law remains where it belongs: in a pile of failed legislation.