by Yehuda Shlezinger
Bill aims to prevent Left from teaming with foreign donors who reportedly plan to spend millions on campaigns to convince the public to vote Netanyahu out of office
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly pushing a bill that would mandate
nonprofit organizations involved in political activities, especially
during election time, to make their list of donors public.
Netanyahu has spoken on the matter with the
heads of the coalition factions after learning that the Left has
managed to secure a long list of foreign donors who plan to spend
millions on campaigns aimed at convincing the public to vote him out of
office.
The prime minister is said to be concerned
that these donors would partner with various nonprofit organizations
to disguise their actions, and believes enacting legislation that would
mandate transparency on the nonprofits' part would prevent that.
"You could, for example, register a
nonprofit under the name 'Zionism 2019' and use it to disseminate
anti-Right and anti-Netanyahu propaganda during the election
campaign," a coalition official explained.
"What this law would do is expose who is
behind it, so hypothetically speaking, any ad by such an association
would have to also say, 'Sponsored by George Soros.'"
This bill stands to join two other pending legislative proposals, the so-called "V15 bill" and "Soros bill."
During the previous elections, the Victory
2015 campaign explicitly urged voters to replace the government, but
its allegedly clear ties to the leftist parties, as well as the obscure
origins of its multi-million dollar funding, have prompted suspicions
that its activities were, in fact, illegal.
The bill seeking to curb V15 and its ilk is
sponsored by Likud MK Yoav Kisch. It seeks to define, for the first
time, which "civilian bodies active during election time" should be
subject to existing campaign financing laws, including the required
transparency as to the identity of any donors.
The Soros bill, named for the
Hungarian-American billionaire, is sponsored by Likud MK Miki Zohar and
seeks to make it difficult for left-wing organizations to receive
foreign funding from what it calls "anti-Israel entities" that are
"blatantly anti-Semitic, inciting or hostile toward Israel."
Zohar named the bill for Soros over the
latter's known donations to organizations such as the New Israel Fund,
the controversial human rights group B'Tselem, and Breaking the
Silence – an advocacy group which is dedicated to exposing alleged
wrongdoings by the IDF.
Yehuda Shlezinger
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/09/pm-pushes-bill-to-expose-donors-of-nonprofits-%e2%80%8ethat-campaign-in-elections/
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment