Netanyahu: Foreign Funds Fueled 'Spontaneous' Anti-Government Protests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that the anti-government protests in the country had been “fueled” by “almost inconceivable” amounts of foreign funding.

“And speaking of the protests, you surely saw the reports yesterday about the massive sums of money—truly almost inconceivable amounts—that flowed here from foreign governments to fuel the opposition protests, the so-called ‘popular and spontaneous’ movement,” said Netanyahu. He made the remarks to the Knesset plenum during a debate on no-confidence motions submitted by opposition parliamentary groups.

He was apparently referring to reports that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Blue and White Future, an Israeli NGO that provides financial and organizational support to several groups actively protesting against Netanyahu’s government. The Trump administration is moving to dismantle USAID over accusations of wasteful spending, and plans to fold the agency into the U.S. State Department.