The new Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to pass a law that would tax foreign government support for civil nonprofit organizations, Haaretz reported Thursday.
The move, written into the coalition agreement between Likud and Otzma Yehudit, is expected to take place 180 days from Thursday, the day Netanyahu’s new government was sworn into office.
A similar bill was introduced in the previous Knesset by then-Yamina MK Amichai Chikli, Religious Zionism MK Orit Strook and Shas MK Moshe Arbel.
Chikli has since moved to the Likud and was appointed as Diaspora Affairs Minister in the new government.
Palestinian Authority Paved Illegal Highway in Gush Etzion with Foreign Funding
The most recent Palestinian Authority attempt to seize Israeli territory in Area C, funded by foreign governments, was discovered recently in Gush Etzion.
Local residents and the Gush Etzion Regional Council discovered a new highway starting at the Palestinian Authority village of Za’atara, a few miles southeast of Bethlehem in an agreed-upon natural reserve area where construction is not allowed under the Oslo Accords.
The highway reaches into the Judean Desert and provides access to new illegal Arab settlements in Gush Etzion.
Arabic-language signage at the start of the new road indicates it was paved with foreign funds and assistance from the Ramallah government.
The NGO Monitor noted in a recent report that existing contracts between the European Union and NGO grantees only reference the EU’s terror list, which includes Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization, its close ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. The contracts do not reference specific persons or organizations connected or identified with these terrorist organizations, despite an Israeli government decision to designate six NGOs as those with terrorist links.
Following a PFLP terror attack in 2019 in which 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shnerb was murdered, six NGOs linked to the PFLP and funded by foreign governments were designated by Israel as terror entities and several senior NGO officials were arrested in connection with the attack.
The NGO Monitor reported that in response, the local EU representative in Ramallah, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff sent a “clarification letter regarding the EU-funded contracts” to the Palestinian Authority NGO network, in which he wrote that “it is understood that a natural person affiliated to, sympathizing with, or supporting any of the groups or entities mentioned in the EU restrictive lists is not excluded from benefiting from EU-funded activities, unless his/her exact name and surname (confirming his/her identity) corresponds to any of the natural persons on the EU restrictive lists.”
After months of public debate, an additional clarification statement was issued by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, declaring that EU vetting rules “make the participation of entities, individuals or groups of individuals affiliated, linked, or supporting terrorist organizations incompatible with any EU funding.”
That didn’t stand long, however. On July 12, 2022, nine EU member states, including Germany and the Netherlands, issued a statement rejecting Israel’s designation of the six terror-linked NGOs, stating, “No substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy towards the six Palestinian NGOs on the basis of the Israeli decision to designate these NGOs as ‘terrorist organizations’.”
NGO Monitor researchers have documented German government allocations of significant funds for projects involving at least 10 out of 13 PFLP-linked NGOs identified to date, including 5 recently designated by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, including those who were arrested and convicted for their direct involvement in the attack that killed Rina Shnerb or for their membership in the PFLP.
In addition to the watchdog group’s list of examples of direct German funding for designated and PFLP-linked NGOs, in 2019-2021, Germany allocated $39 million (out of $85 million, 45 percent in total) to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) oPt Humanitarian Fund. During those years, the fund allocated €5.9 million to several designated and PFLP-linked NGOs.
Israeli Anti-Zionist NGOs Receive More than $50 Million from Foreign Governments
In its report, “Potential Abuse of German Development Resources by Terror Affiliated Palestinian NGOs,” the NGO Monitor notes
According to an NGO Monitor report released in March 2021, 35 anti-Israel nonprofit organizations (NGOs) received NIS 319,466,917 ($95.7 million) between 2017 and 2019 – of which 58 percent ($55.5 million) emanated from foreign governments through indirect and direct funding mechanisms.
Twenty-two foreign governmental and intergovernmental entities, including the United Nations and the European Union, funded the 35 Israeli NGOs – of which 22 reported receiving more than half of their funding from foreign governments.
Germany was the largest donor, followed by the European Union and the Netherlands, home to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, where the Palestinian Authority engages in endless efforts to charge Israel with so-called “war crimes.”
Israel’s Channel 13 Exposes European Union Plan to Help Palestinian Authority Seize Land in Area C
Of equal concern is a secret six-page European Union document exposed by Israel’s Channel 13 News earlier this month that details a plan to clandestinely help the Palestinian Authority seize land in Area C.
The six-page document was written at the European Union’s mission in eastern Jerusalem and describes how the EU plans to further expand the Palestinian Authority presence in Area C, territory that is under full Israeli legal and security control in accordance with the internationally-recognized Oslo Accords.
Israeli Mks Tell EU in Letter, ‘Europe Would Claim We are Foreigners in Our Own Country’
Thirty outraged Israeli lawmakers sent the European Union a letter in response to the revelation, translated into English and German, demanding a clarification and an apology.
The letter, written by MK Amichai Chikli, said the revealed document “leaves no room for doubt as to the one-sidedness and animosity of the European Union towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
