Knesset passes law restricting political activity of NGOs - Gideon Allon

by Gideon Allon

Designed to prevent nongovernmental groups from exerting undue influence in election campaigns, the amendment follows efforts of V15 group to unseat PM Netanyahu in the 2015 elections

V15 activists during the 2015 election campaign | Photo credit: Yehoshua Yosef

A bill that requires advocacy groups to abide by campaign finance regulations in the same way as political entities passed its final legislative hurdle and became law on Monday. 

The so-called V15 law, an amendment to the Parties Financing Law that aims to prevent nongovernmental organizations from exerting undue influence during an election, passed its third reading a year after being submitted.

The amendment was drafted in the wake of the 2015 election, when a group called V15 mounted a campaign to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though it was not officially affiliated with a specific party. 

The new law defines for the first time what constitutes an "active election entity" that is subject to campaign finance regulations. Groups that meet the criteria will have to abide by those regulations as if they are linked to a specific campaign or party, and will have to file official reports on their funding and activity. 

Groups that spend 100,000 to 400,000 shekels ($28,000 to $110,000) on campaigning will have to register with the State Comptroller's Office as an active election entity and will not be able to accept more than 11,000 shekels ($3,000) from individual donors during an election campaign. A group that spends more than 400,000 shekels will have to officially register as a corporation and appoint an accountant to oversee its fundraising activities. 

The law also places a cap of 600,000 shekels ($170,000) on fundraising from non-Israeli entities. 

MK Yoav Kisch (Likud), one of the architects of the bill, said it would serve as a "concrete wall to prevent elections from being bought." 

He said the amendment fixes a loophole that allowed advocacy groups to be involved in political activity without transparency. 

"They will have to report to the State Comptroller's Office just like any other party, because their activity resembles that of a party," he said.

Opposition members, particularly from the Zionist Union, attacked the government for passing the bill on Monday.

Gideon Allon

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=41221

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