Young Israel Supports Israel's NGO Transparency Law
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January 14, 2016; 5 Shevat 5776
YOUNG ISRAEL SUPPORTS
ISRAEL'S NGO TRANSPARENCY LAW The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) today announced that it supports an Israeli law that institutes new disclosure requirements for NGOs that receive at least 50% of their funding from foreign governments.
“It is counterintuitive for anyone to suggest that a law devoted to ensuring transparency is somehow inconsistent with democratic ideals,” said NCYI President Farley Weiss. “The law proposed by Israel does not in any way prevent an NGO from operating; rather, it simply requires more openness in the way that they function if they are clearly under the influence of a foreign government. Any such pressures by foreign countries should be done in the open and this NGO law will help ensure that it would be open and not hidden.” Weiss cited an email sent by Ambassador Thomas Pickering to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011, in which he suggested utilizing NGOs to pressure the State of Israel in the context of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Pickering, who was nominated by President Reagan as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, by President George H.W. Bush as Ambassador to the United Nations, and subsequently by President Clinton as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, clearly viewed the U.S.-supported NGO’s as ones that would do as the U.S. requested, even a request to push for demonstrations to pressure the government of Israel to make concessions. “Ambassador Pickering’s brazen proposal to the U.S. Secretary of State to have the United States manipulate a political situation to the detriment of Israel, its close friend and ally, is shocking and simply reinforces why this NGO bill is absolutely necessary,” continued Weiss. “It is incomprehensible that Ambassador Pickering would even contemplate employing an NGO that it funds to engage in improper activities in Israel. The prospect that a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel views some NGOs as ones that would take such action if requested to do so makes this transparency law absolutely necessary.”
Farley Weiss, President, NCYI  |
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