EuroMed Rights strongly condemns the initial approval, on Monday 8 February, of a legislation targeting NGO funding. The bill has passed the first of three votes in the Knesset, against a background of intensified hostile rhetoric aimed at discrediting and undermining the work of specific human rights organisations in Israel.
As explained in a letter sent to EU Foreign Ministers on 15 January, the proposed law is intrinsically discriminatory, and serves to intimidate and ostracise those organisations who express dissenting opinions on the government’s human rights record towards Palestinians.
In view of the last EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions on the Middle East peace process, which state that “the Council highlights the importance of unhindered work of civil society both in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory and follows recent developments in this regard with concern”, EuroMed Rights calls on the EU to urge Israeli authorities to withdraw the ‘NGO transparency bill’, and cease the further introduction and enactment of legislation that aims at limiting the space of civil society.