Transparency for NGOs is not anti-democratic
With the adoption of regulation for reporting of foreign government funds, the door is open to expanding transparency for private foreign funding for Israeli groups across the political spectrum.
By Gerald M. SteinbergThe Knesset legislation that mandates reporting of foreign government funding for non-governmental organizations is not anti-democratic, as claimed by vocal critics, mainly the recipients of the foreign largesse.
Indeed, as wide support in the Knesset showed, including from Labor and Kadima MKs, this law mandating transparency is designed to fix a gaping hole in Israeli democracy. This bill is very different from the draconian and partisan effort to use the Knesset to investigate only left-wing groups.
In recent years, European governments have provided an estimated 100 million euros in taxpayer funds annually to a very narrow group of Israeli, Palestinian and European political advocacy organizations. When these groups sponsor quasi-academic conferences, newspaper advertising campaigns and public rallies heralding sweeping allegations of Israeli wrongdoing, the public has the right to know that the money was provided by a foreign government.
This transparency is an elementary requirement for the informed debate that is essential to the democratic process. While all external funding for Israeli civil society, across the political spectrum, should be public knowledge, large foreign government transfers are very different in principle from private donations.
All governments have interests and use power to pursue those goals. When officials from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and another dozen nations use their “soft power” to fund dozens of Israeli groups, such as Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israeli, whose officials travel the world declaring that Israel is a nation of war criminals, these groups are also promoting the interests of their sponsors.
(In contrast, the U.S. government generally does not fund Israeli political advocacy NGOs, and the few exceptions, such as the ill-advised attempt to use the “Geneva Initiative” organization, ended quickly.)
In election after election, the governments chosen by Israeli voters have differed with European positions. However, by massively funding opposition NGOs, many of which claim to promote human rights (although they do this selectively), Europe tries to interfere with and manipulate the legitimate outcome of Israeli elections.
In fact, some NGO officials are simply rejected politicians, who, after failing to get Knesset positions, have used foreign funds to exert power they could not obtain otherwise. A heavy shroud of secrecy surrounds the budgets of these Israeli political groups.
In most European nations, the details are more tightly held than military plans, and no parliamentary hearings are held to discuss the legitimacy, wisdom or implications of such funding. The decision making processes are also completely non-transparent, leaving open the possibility that these policies are made in violation of due process of law, as was recently uncovered in the case of Canadian NGO funding.
In theory, Israeli NGOs should be covered by the existing reporting requirements for non-profits, but in practice, many political advocacy groups have found ways to avoid such transparency by registering under different frameworks, or avoiding any Israeli oversight mechanism.
The new legislation, which is based on the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, is designed to prevent these exceptions, and to promote the public’s right to know who and what forces are behind powerful political campaigns that take place outside, and often in direct opposition to, the electoral process.
Had the NGO recipients endorsed this transparency legislation, instead of falsely denouncing it as anti-democratic, the proposed investigations aimed only at one side of the political spectrum (and misdirected at alleged Arab government funding) would not have been introduced.
With the adoption of regulation for reporting of foreign government funds, the door is open to expanding transparency for private foreign funding for Israeli groups across the political spectrum.
The writer is professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institution that tracks NGOs, particularly in the Middle East.
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Is Yisrael Beiteinu obligated to throw open its books too? If so, then this is a fair and fine law. If not, then this is a political weapon. No amount of spin doctoring can change that.
Most Israelis would be very interested to find out which islamic dictatorships fund which "human rights" groups.
Transparency is the greatest enemy of the left wing movement. It shows what their true goals are and who is really behind their actions. Good example was the transparency that forced J Street to admit they were simply a George Soros subterfuge causing the vast majority of their membership to quit.
All of them require any organization or individual funded by a foreign entity to register with the government and report all sources of income. There is no attempt at censorship there. Just a demand for transparency to see who they really represent. I find it amazing that the citizens of those same countries condemn Israel for demanding the same transparency. But we have come to accept that openly acceptable laws in other states are denied the Jewish state for the obvious reasons.
Such in depth knowledge of the legal systems of all of Europe (at least the 27 EU countries I suppose) and the US is very impressive. I don't suppose I could trouble you for directions to the Swedish law that says that Swedish organizations are required to do this? That is, unless you are making totally unfounded statements and don't have anything at all to back them up with.
NGO Monitor's attachs on the most respectable human rights groups worldwide only serves to bring shame on Israel.
1.how much foreign aid,in all forms,does israel get? name all sources. 2.what is the annual cost of "settlement"? 3.what portion of the security forces budget is spent on the palestinian "war"? 4.what does israel do to in return for so much aid?
Transparency and openess - fine: "This is organisation X. It was founded by Y, and it is financed by ABC. Here is the latest report". Then we read and analyze, and we check their facts, and we bring forward other facts and so on. Why? Because we have very high democratic standards and ideals in this country. We are extremely proud of Tzahal and their great achievements, but we don´t want to have individual soldiers than run amok and commit crimes. We understand the need for checkpoints, but we don´t want individual soldiers to harass the palestinians that are caught in a depressing situation. When we send Katzav, Deri, Olmert (possibly) and Hirschson to jail, then we are protecting our state. And the same is true when the NGOs directs our attention to things and behaviours that we would prefer to ignore. And at the end of the day - if an NGO just keeps producing biased reports in order to sell us a specific worldview, then this NGO will soon be irrelevant. And at the same token - the serious NGOs will survive, and they are good for Israel.
If Mr Steinberg has a problem with human rights groups criticizing Israel he should try to get Israel to respect human rights rather than try to silence the criticism. Also it should be pointed out that his depiction of these groups as instruments to attack Israel is very dishonest. These groups perform the important task of protecting human rights globally, not the least by criticizing the EU itself and its members. Steinberg's attempt to make it seem like Israel is somehow being targeted is deceptive and unjust.
If Israel is doing wrong, don't all Israeli want to know about it? This head-in -the-sand attitude which we see so much in Israel does not help Israel's image nor does it make Israelis "good people". Israel is a racist society which oppresses the Palestinians in a systematic way. Silencing the critics is a strategy of facist governments. Is this what Israel aspires to be?
the ultra-nationalist, Jewish terrorists living on stolen land? Follow the money, and a good bet is that it starts in the US.
some pro-Israeli group ,demanding her investigation for being "Mossad agents". "I did my citizen's duty" he exoplained on TV. Irony is Guillou admitted last year to being a KGB agent during the Cold War. This outcry against disclosing financing of LeftiesNGO is as suspect as Guillou's doing his "citizen's duty"
Whilst both the left and right should be investigated the idea of economic transparency for all these UNELECTED groups who exist for the sole purpose of attempting to influence government policy is very important. The reason there is more need to investigate the left is because they receive much more money from foreign governments and individuals... when was the last time a foreign government funded a settlement? What would happen if you had an NGO calling for the government to give the Golan to Syria at first sight they are a bunch of well meaning Israeli peacknicks. Then we ask them to show us where their money came from and it turned out Bashar Assad was their sole financier. Would we then call them well meaning peacenicks or Assad trying to get something he wants through the back door? If these NGOS have nothing to hide why are they so determined not to allow the government to force them to be transparent? The only undemocratic thing here is that a bill like this wasn't introduced decades ago.
"these groups sponsor quasi-academic conferences, newspaper advertising campaigns and public rallies heralding sweeping allegations of Israeli wrongdoing". Let me bring you an example of "sweeping allegation, mr Steinberg: "...Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israeli, whose officials travel the world declaring that Israel is a nation of war criminals". One thing you can humbly learn from these NGOs is accuracy of report. Let's be clear mr Steinberg: the generalisation "the nation of war criminals" is what you, a purportedly unbiased researcher, are putting into mouth of all organisations and individuals who voice their opposition to Israeli undemocratic practices. And in the present political spectrum you are just one among the legion. That you chose not to deal with these practices is just a matter of your personal conformism, but to head an institutionalized campaign in stiffling the news about crimes is a crime. Now let's make this stiffling legal insinuates the author. "Monitor", my elbow. "Democratic process", my behind. Are you serious mr Steinberg?
To summarize the content of the article: the Scandinavian countries have declared a WAR against Israel. It's nothing less than war, just by destroying the country from the inside, instead of attempting a direct military intervention. Now the question is: what is their ultimate goal in that war ? Are they excited by antisemitism, or perhaps there are even more sinister motivations ?
You statement that "Scandinavian countries highly respect International Law and Human rights" is scandalous: if not the "peace process" and 2nd intifada, several thousand Israelis, now dead or maimed, would have been alive and well. You also apparently forgot that the right-wing government, which has been in power for 2 years, has provided real PEACE: the country has never had such a quiet period of economic development in her history. PEACE means "NO WAR". "Peace process" means dismembering and destruction of Israel.
Why isn't NGO Monitor also covering NGOs working in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe?
... why NGO monitor doesn't monitor right-wing Israeli NGO's like Im Tirtzu. Hardly an impartial body is it.
NGO Monitor had better tell us how they are funded, before accusing other groups.
Who funds your group Mr. Steinberg? No information available anywhere. Until you reveal all your funders, such writings are completely hypocritical.
From a US private foundation and US private donors. All foreign money, all from unaccountable, undemocratic sources. And whatever motivates these donors, it's not a love of human rights. What is NGO Monitor's ongoing campaign against human rights organizations if not a "powerful political campaign that takes place outside ... the electoral process"? It always amuses me that NGO Monitor accuse others of having a political agenda when they only exist to be a political hit squad.
There's a big debate about what information NGO's and human rights organizations have to provide to the public. All NGOs, regardless of their political position, left, right, center, should only not be afraid of transparency, they themselves should understand its importance. And if they're afraid of it it only goes to show that they are political organizations, not apoloitical organizations looking out for the well being of all parties. A good read on this subject can be found here: http://bit.ly/gfQlvO
but do you really have the audacity to talk about a foreign power interfering with your elections?
Left-wing, centrist, right-wing... Israelis change their governments regularly.
Now if only we could similar legislation to reveal the foreign funding sources for the settlement enterprise, advocacy groups, and the projects in East Jerusalem
For example, Steinberg heads up a true NGO called NGO Monitor. The Left hates them because they research NGO dissemblers, and, at least until now, the only self-proclaimed NGO's that have been discovered to be foreign-government-funded have been Leftwing "NGO's". Now if you go to NGO Monitor's website and click on "About" > "Donors", you will find a list of major donors, plus the following disclaimer: "NGO Monitor was founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation. All additional funding is provided by private donors and foundations, and NGO Monitor receives no governmental support." (http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?cat_id=17) That's the kind of statement that all the most anti-Zionist Israeli NGO's can't make, because they DO take money from governments. These organizations should either have to play fair, or else lose their NGO status and be forced to publicize themselves as FGO's (Foreign Government Organizations).
... into every influential public body in Israel, and in the USA into any and every entity where gelt is available... these sources are what keep building and expanding settlment power... in fact the bane of Israel's future...
for the alcahol induced bile to spew out isnt it? found the cooking sherry i see... just behind your copy of mein kampf