Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midland PSC
 

Dear Friends,

While our eyes and ears are on other countries in this area, especially now on Libya, it is easy to forget for the moment that Israel’s occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing are continuing.  But they are.  And so all 8 items below are about Israel and Palestine.

The first item reports that Israel’s isolation might impact on Israel’s financial ties with Europe.  Well, that would be positive should it happen—at least until Israel ends the occupation, ethnic cleansing, and colonization.

Item number 2 demands that Israel stop placing obstacles in the way of critically ill patients and their escorts from getting to hospitals in Israel.

Item number 3 relates what happened to a family in East Jerusalem that thought it was safe in its own home, then suddenly found itself in a cloud of tear gas.

Item 4 relates that in Ashkelon due to the absence of shelters, school children are instructed to hide under their desks in case of a missile attack.  Nor is the absence of shelters or other fortification peculiar only to Ashkelon.  It isn’t that the government hasn’t the money (remember the growth in gdp reported the other day), but on what it decides to spend the sums that it has.  Obviously, saving children’s lives is not a priority for Israel’s leaders.

Item 5 relates that the PA urges a boycott of Israel’s Jerusalem tourist conference, and rightly so.  Jerusalem is a huge bone of contention at present thanks to Israel’s leaders’ decision to make the whole of it Israel’s capital.

Item 6 is a report on Ian McEwan’s speech in which he attacked the occupation and other things, and also implied symmetry between Israel’s occupation and blockade of Gaza and the shooting of missiles by some Gazans.  I must acknowledge that the report repulsed me.  He might be a wonderful author, but surely is either a self-serving person or not very intelligent.  He does not understand that had he really wanted to have impact he should have boycotted Israel, come here on his own rather than at Israel’s expenditure (if he really wanted to see the wall, Sheikh Jarrah, and the like). or have stayed at home and said exactly the same things as he did here, but explaining that these were reasons that he had decided not to accept the prize.  Ah well, there are some people whose eyes refuse to see.

Item 7 is critical of Israel’s minister of education (as indeed one should be!), who sets rules for memorizing poetry not with love but just to tax one’s memory.  The writer believes (and as a former English teacher I fully agree) that this conduces ‘how to kill a poem,’ just as the planned school trips to Hebron are “a cover for a civics class entitled ‘how the regime recruits the past to justify the continuation of its rule.’ “

And finally item 8 came late in the evening and after Israel’s PM had decided to allow the Likud party members to vote aye or nay as they thought fit on a bill that would have Knesset committees investigate Human Rights and other ‘left’ organizations.  Instead, now each non-profit organization (both right and left) will have to give a quarterly report on donations from abroad.  This does not aid transparency, as the MKs who voted for it believe.  There is already transparency.  There is a data base where anyone who wants can supposedly find the information

http://www.guidestar.org.il/default.aspx?c=1&l=he-il

( to read about it seehttp://www.guidestarinternational.org/documents/Ministry%20of%20Justice%20(Israel)%20Press%20release.pdf ).  So all that this law does is make more work for Knesset members who have the job of taking the reports and filing them.  Maybe that will keep them out of worse mischief.

Good night all,

Dorothy

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1. Ynet,

20,02. 2011

‘Israel’s isolation may affect financial ties with Europe’

State officials warn of political isolation following European nations’ support of Palestinian bid to condemn settlement construction in Security Council. ‘Every tender for settlement construction distances us from Europe. Some countries boycott Israeli goods and things can deteriorate,’ one official says

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4030891,00.html

Attila Somfalvi

State officials said Saturday that the US veto which prevented a UN condemnation of settlement construction is not a reason for celebrations. “Israel is becoming increasingly isolated from West European countries which consider settlements a red rag,” one element said. The senior officials said they do not rule out financial consequences as a result of Israel’s isolation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU foreign affairs chief Catherin Ashton publicly opposed the continuation of settlement construction and the existence of settlements. Germany, Britain and France were among the 14 supporters of the Palestinian proposal in the Security Council vote Friday.

“Every time Israel issues another tender for construction in the settlements it distances the friendly European nations. We have a very serious problem and the fact that there is no peace process makes it harder to get Western European nations to support Israel. Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are angry with Netanyahu and do not accept the fact that the prime minister did not extend the freeze for an additional three months,” the state official said.

Sources in Jerusalem also warned of the possibility of damage to Israel and Europe’s financial relations. “It is estimated that the weekend vote will have financial consequences in relation to Europe. There are countries which already boycott Israeli goods and things may deteriorate further.

“The Europeans notice the fact that Ashton’s policy is equivocally anti-settlements. Settlements and construction contribute to Israel’s de-legitimization in all of Europe. In the past, European countries could have been influenced, but today it’s virtually impossible.”

Securing European support

After their draft was blocked in the Security Council, the PA threatened to take their draft to the General Assembly which may also discuss recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Senior officials in the Foreign Ministry said that despite tense relations with Europe, Israel will try to form a group of 20 or 30 European countries to vote against the Palestinian draft in the General Assembly.

“It’s clearly obvious the Palestinians have an automatic majority but we’re currently trying to secure the support of Eastern European nations and possibly some Western states,” one Foreign Ministry official said.

“Should the Palestinians present a harsher statement it will make it easier for us to get England or France on board. But should the statement be in the same format as it was in the Security Council it is possible that Israel will suffer another condemnation, which has no practical consequences.”

Meanwhile, state officials noted that the fact that the prime minister has not held a visit outside Israel over the past few months. Merkel and nine German ministers may have recently visited Israel but Netanyahu himself has not met with his European counterparts for many months. In fact, the prime minister has not met with any major European leader outside Israel since the peace process’s stalemate.

Peace process stalemate

Jerusalem officials estimated that following the Palestinian announcement regarding upcoming elections and recent international events, it wasn’t likely that the peace process would be renewed in the coming months. A senior state official said: “We estimate that the peace process will remain unchanged in the upcoming months. The Palestinians won’t want to negotiate during their election period so as to not be seen as negotiating about concessions with Israel.”

The officials noted the fact that the US continues its dialogue with Israel and said they believed the peace process can be resumed.

During his last visit to Washington, US officials told Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the current situation in the Middle East will enable peace talks to renew and that they are working to reignite them. Sources close to Netanyahu remain skeptical and said that “at this moment the dialogue with the US is underway and they’re looking for new ways to renew negotiations.”

In the past few days, rumors have spread in the political arena that Israel and the US are trying to form a political plan, both together and separately, which will be presented by US President Barack Obama.

The plan aims to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. However, instability in the region prevents the process from progressing at this point, as it is yet unclear which regimes will be leading the Middle East in the future.

Government senior officials, including top ministers, recently said: “Initiative should be taken to advance the political process. The current stagnation isn’t good for Israel in any way and we must do everything to return to the negotiating table.”

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2.  Palestine News and Info,

February 21, 2011

Human Rights Centers: Israel Must Stop Manipulating Gaza Patients, Escorts Date :

——————————————————————————–

RAMALLAH,February21,2011 (WAFA)- Three  human rights Centers,  Adalah, Al-Mezan and Physicians for Human Rights- Israel, Sunday called on Israel to stop manipulating Gaza patients and their escorts, in a joint press release.

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15260

The centers called on the Israeli security authorities to stop the manipulation of the most basic humanitarian needs of medical patients from Gaza as means of coercing them and their families and to allow for unimpeded access for Gaza patients to medical care in Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

While medical treatment may be available in Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank or in Israeli hospitals, patients from Gaza have to go through a very complex security mechanism that interrupts patients’ access to life saving medical care.

The centers labeled the Israeli security’s policy of arresting patients or escorts after being given permits or clearance to pass Erez as “a policy that constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

They also condemned the arrest of a Patient’s Brother at Erez Crossing, calling for his immediate release and for him to be permitted to stay with his sick sister in hospital.

Tuesday, February 15, at 10:30, the Israeli occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Mohamed Zo’rob, 28, from Rafah, a town southern Gaza, as he was accompanying his sick sister, Hanan, 42 who suffers from cancer and the Guillain-Barré syndrome, according to the centers.

Due to Hanan’s critical condition, they were transported to the crossing in a Palestinian ambulance equipped with an ICU. As they reached the crossing, the IOF allowed the ambulance to pass through and arrested Mohamed for interrogation despite the fact that they were given Israeli permits to pass Erez crossing.

According to Al Mezan’s Center for Human Rights investigation, Mohamed had accompanied his sick sister to hospitals in Israel via the Erez crossing five times and he had never been arrested before.

Al Mezan contacted the Israeli authorities which informed it that the prisoner was being held in Shikma prison in Ashkelon. Until this moment, Hanan remains without any escort.

Moreover ,the centers accused the Israeli security authorities , of exploiting the medical needs of patients and their relatives by giving them permission to pass through the Erez crossing in order to coerce patients or their relatives, often interrogating, arresting or pressuring them to provide information or collaborate with them.

Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since June 2007, which has made the situation very difficult for Gaza patients who suffer from medical conditions; as there is not any available treatment for them in Gaza.

Erez is the only crossing between Gaza and Israel, which Israel maintains absolute control over. Through this crossing Israel allows Palestinians whom has granted special permits to cross, and each year, thousands of Palestinian patients endure long delays and/or have their requests rejected for permits to cross Erez.

Y.Y./F.R.

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3.  Ynet,

February 21, 2011

Tear gas launcher hits Silwan home

During Friday night riot in east Jerusalem tear gas launcher hit Qawasmeh family home, injured two-month old baby. Police investigating incident

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031493,00.html

Yair Altman

The occasional riots in Silwan have become a common phenomenon in east Jerusalem, but for 33-year-old resident Issam Qawasmeh, Friday’s rally turned into a nightmare. When the riots began he and his wife and three small children decided to stay in the house so as not to get hurt, but at the end of the day Qawasmeh and his two-month baby found themselves in the hospital.

On Friday evening young men began to stone houses in Silwan. Border Guard soldiers were called to the scene and tried to disperse the crowd using tear gas grenade launchers.

One of the launchers hit the Qawasmeh family’s window and shot into their livingroom, quickly filling up the home with tear gas.

‘Saw him turn blue’

“It was about 9:30 pm. I’d just stepped out to buy some milk at the grocery store when it all began,” said Qawasmeh. “I thought that if I keep away and keep my family at home nothing bad will happen to us. But it turns out no place is safe, not even my own home.”

“My wife was doing the laundry and the kids were watching television when the launcher hit. When I came back I saw gas coming out of the windows and the doors, the kids were screaming. Everyone was hurt – my wife, my four and two year-old daughters and my two-month old son,” he recounts.

The tear gas caused his son shortness of breath. “I saw him turning blue. We ordered an ambulance and drove to the hospital,” Qawasmeh recalled. “We were discharged at night, but he’s still not okay. He cries a lot and doesn’t feel well.”

Isam Qawasmeh and his two-month old baby (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Qawasmeh feels the police was not operating properly. “This isn’t the first time they act this way. My mother’s house was almost hit with a gas grenade once. If there is a problem and teens are throwing stones, the police should try and catch them and not punish the entire neighborhood or people that weren’t involved.”

An attorney for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said that “this past year the association has received a number of complaints from east Jerusalem residents claiming they were hurt by tear gas, even though they didn’t leave their homes. The police must establish clear policies on tear gas use in urban areas.”

The attorney added that “Jerusalem police turned down our appeal on the matter, so we don’t even know whether they have such policies. The use of such measures to disperse protests in an unreasonable or immeasurable manner might end up costing lives.”

A Jerusalem police official said in response: “On Friday night dozens of young men stoned the ascribed house in Silwan neighborhood. Border Guard officers arrived on the scene and dispersed protesters using tear gas grenade launchers. The resident contacted police and said his son was hurt by the gas. The infant was mildly injured and police forces escorted him to the ambulance. His claim that his house was hit by a tear gas grenade launcher is being examined.”

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4.  Ynet,

February 21, 2011

Southern council heads: ‘School kids hide under desks’

MKs meet infuriated council heads of communities under rocket threat. Ashkelon mayor: I had to raise money from American Christian groups to fund fortification. Dichter: Ridiculous situation

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031546,00.html

Shmulik Hadad

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held a special session in the Negev on Sunday, with the participation of local council heads and IDF Home Front Command officials.

During the meeting the council heads complained that the government was not doing enough with regards to the fortification of educational institutions in areas that are under the constant threat of rocket fire emanating from Gaza.

The Home Front Command’s representative reiterated that the army acts in accordance with the government’s decisions, a statement which riled the local council heads even more. Ofakim Mayor Tzvika Greenwald mentioned a recent Grad rocket attack on his city, saying that “children are being put in harm’s way.”

‘Gap is intolerable.’ Council heads, MKs meet (Photo: Eliad Levy)

Sderot Mayor David Buskila said that while the State fortified local schools, it did not make them easily accessible. “I guess they think the children will reach the schools by helicopter,” he said.

Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin said 10 schools and 22 kindergartens in the city were not fortified until he personally raised the necessary funds in the US. “With the help of pro-Israel Christian organizations I provided these schools with hollowed-out concrete blocks which serve as shelters. Minister Matan Vilnai promised us the State would fortify these institutions.”

Knesset Member Avi Dichter (Kadima), who resides in Ashkelon, said signs in local schools read, “Hide under your desk in case the siren sounds.” The MK said, “This is ridiculous – that 12th graders should have to hide under desks. It’s pathetic.”

MK Orit Zuaretz (Kadima) said, “A mayor should not have to go abroad to raise money for fortification,” while MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), who chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, stressed that the residents’ needs “have not been met. This gap is intolerable, and we will hold another meeting with the relevant authorities.”

The council heads also demanded to know when the “Iron Dome” missile defense system would become operational.

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5.  Ynet,

February 21, 2011

PA urges world to boycott J’lem tourism conference

Palestinian tourism minister sends letter to 30 countries invited to conference saying dispatch of official envoys constitutes recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. No cancellations noted yet

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031489,00.html

Ronen Medzini

Palestinian Tourism Minister Hulud Deibas sent a letter to all countries invited to take part in the International Tourism Conference in Jerusalem scheduled to take place later this month and urged them to boycott the event, Ynet learned.

The letter was sent last Friday. “The dispatch of official representatives constitutes recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” the letter stated.

Some 30 foreign tourism ministers were invited to take part in the conference which was organized by the Tourism Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality. The conference is slated to discuss various aspects of Israeli tourism, the future of global tourism and economic trends.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, head of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other senior officials are slated to speak during the event. Israeli state officials now fear another embarrassment looms.

“The participation of official international elements in this conference is problematic, especially during this critical time of an international effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establish Jerusalem’s permanent status,” Deibas told Ynet. She believes that a boycott will create the necessary momentum “to end the occupation and achieve peace.”

“The Jerusalem issue is a political one, east Jerusalem is occupied territory and sending foreign government envoys constitutes recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” a senior Palestinian official told Ynet. He stressed that the Palestinian Authority would not have asked for a boycott had the conference taken place in Tel Aviv or any other city inside the Green Line.

Thus far no participant has canceled his arrival but it is feared that some countries will take advantage of the sensitive political situation to distance themselves from the event.

‘Boycott will hurt PA’

Tourism Minister Misezhnikov regretted his Palestinian counterpart’s move. “Tourism is a bridge for peace, dialogue and understanding among nations and financially helps the PA as much as it does Israel,” he said. “The conference can be a confidence building measure and I hope and at the end of the day rational considerations will guide the Palestinians.”

The Palestinian source responded to the claim that the PA was hurting itself by calling for a boycott. “In any case only 5% of tourists coming into Israel visit Palestinian cities, making the damage marginal.” He also stressed that the PA had not even been invited to the conference.

The Jerusalem Municipality said in response: “The International tourism conference is being held as part of Jerusalem’s branding as the leading city for international gatherings in Israel. The Jerusalem Municipality will continue working to increase the number of incoming tourists, which raises the quality of life for all sectors.”

Elior Levy contributed to this report

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6. The Guardian

20 February 2011

Ian McEwan attacks ‘great injustice’ in Israel

British novelist launches powerful attack as he accepts book award in Jerusalem

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/20/ian-mcewan-great-injustice-israel

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

[ Ian McEwan speaks to Israel’s president Shimon Peres after receiving the 2011 Jerusalem prize for literature. Photograph: GALI TIBBON/AFP]

The British author Ian McEwan launched an eloquent attack on Israeli government policies in his speech accepting the Jerusalem prize for literature, saying “a great and self-evident injustice hangs in the air”.

Before an audience that included Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, culture minister, Limor Livnat, and Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat, McEwan spoke of the nihilism on both sides of the conflict.

Addressing his remarks at the opening ceremony of Jerusalem’s international book fair to “Israeli and Palestinian citizens of this beautiful city”, the novelist said: “Hamas has embraced the nihilism of the suicide bomber, of rockets fired blindly into towns, and the nihilism of the extinctionist policy towards Israel.”

But it was also nihilism that fired a rocket at the home of the Gazan doctor, Izzeldin Abuelaish, killing three of his daughters and a niece during the Gazan war. “And it is nihilism to make a long-term prison camp of the Gaza Strip. Nihilism has unleashed a tsunami of concrete across the occupied territories.”

The author referred to “continued evictions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of the right of return granted to Jews but not to Arabs, the so-called facts on the ground of hardening concrete over the future, over future generations of Palestinian and Israeli children who will inherit the conflict and find it even more difficult to resolve than it is today.”

He called for an end to settlements and encroachments on Palestinian land.

Despite his stinging criticisms, to which his audience listened in silence, McEwan said he was “deeply, deeply touched to be awarded this honour that recognises writing which promotes the idea of the freedom of the individual in society”.

He said that since his decision to come to Israel to accept the prize, “my time has not exactly been peaceful” – referring to demands “with varying degrees of civility” for him to boycott the ceremony.

Jerusalem, he said, was “the most intense place I have ever set foot in”.

In the UK, he said, novelists were free to choose how much to write about politics. “Here, for both Israeli and Palestinian novelists, ‘the situation’ is always there … It’s a creative struggle to address it and a creative struggle to ignore it.”

The idea of the freedom of the individual “sits a little awkwardly” with the situation in Jerusalem, McEwan said. He drew comparisons with the UK, saying: “We may have our homeless but we do have our homeland. We are neither threatened by hostile neighbours nor have we been displaced.”

He referred to the Shoah, or Holocaust, as “that industrialised cruelty which will remain always the ultimate measure of human depravity, of how far we can fall, and acknowledged “the precious tradition of the democracy of ideas in Israel”.

He devoted much of his speech to the nature of the novel which, he said, “has become our best and most sensitive means of exploring the freedom of the individual, and such explorations often depict what happens when that freedom is denied”.

He singled out three celebrated Israeli authors – Amos Oz, AB Yehoshua and David Grossman – as “writers who love their country, and made sacrifices for it and have been troubled by the directions it has taken”.

They had opposed the settlements, he said, and had become the country’s “conscience, memory and above all hope”.

In recent years these three writers had felt “the times turning against their hopes”, he said.

The question, said McEwan, was Lenin’s: what is to be done? Israel, he said, needed to harness the creativity of its writers, artists and scientists, and not “retreat to a bunker mentality”.

“The opposite of nihilism is creativity. The mood for change, the hunger for individual freedom that is spreading through the Middle East is an opportunity more than it is a threat.”

The prize was presented by Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, who has enthusiastically backed Jewish settlements in Arab areas of the city. Jerusalem, he said, was “open to everyone to express themselves in a free way”. McEwan’s writing promoted the “same tolerance as we promote here in Jerusalem,” he said.

The author said he was donating his $10,000 (£6,155) prize to Combatants for Peace, an organisation of former Israeli soldiers and former Palestinian fighters.

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7.   Haaretz,

February 20, 2011

How to kill a poem

The latest initiative by the Education Ministry is a good example of the ministry’s habit of establishing a worthy goal and destroying it instead of trying to reach it.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/how-to-kill-a-poem-1.344504

By Alon Idan

The Education Ministry announced recently that as of next year, students will be required to learn poetry by heart. The decision is based on the idea that this will strengthen students’ interest in literature and improve that subject’s status; it will even make students love and want to delve into literature, to quote a veteran teacher from central Israel.

This initiative is a good example of the ministry’s habit of establishing a worthy goal and destroying it instead of trying to reach it. Memorizing a poem not only doesn’t bring students closer to the work, it creates a distance greater than the one before the forced memorization. Actually, the very fact that any compulsion needs to be used when teaching a poem reflects a misunderstanding of the issue.

What process does a student experience when memorizing a poem? First, he prioritizes the goal of memorizing, concluding that the poem is basically a collection of words that need to be stored in his memory. To make this possible, the student invests great energy in turning the words into abstract shapes – monuments that need to be stacked together in the most effective possible way.

The poem, a living structure with dynamic content, is then diluted and flattened to be filed away and stored. Memorizing consists of prioritizing form over content. The ministry’s decision implies that the desire to bring two entities together needs to be forced, because one entity is not interested in the relationship. Instead of getting the refusing party to understand the beauty and uniqueness of the other party and to want the connection, it is required to “love” the other party by being forced to absorb it. At the end of that process, the word “love” is swapped for the word “force.”

Emptying something of its content by swapping terms is also the basis for Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s decision to introduce a program for students to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Sa’ar attaches “great significance in getting to know the historic roots of the People of Israel in the Land of Israel.” He disconnects “the historic roots of the People of Israel in the Land of Israel” from Hebron’s contemporary context, which involves segregation, abuse of a large majority by a small minority and violent actions – products of a disagreement on history.

This disconnection is no accident: Sa’ar strengthens “the historic roots of the People of Israel in the Land of Israel” to hollow out the historic roots of anyone who doesn’t belong to the People of Israel. It’s a political decision disguised as an educational one; it’s a flattened history lesson crudely acting as a cover for a civics class entitled “how the regime recruits the past to justify the continuation of its rule.”

Both decisions indicate a compulsive need to search the past and take from its scaffolding something to support the shaky present. The goal is to find isolated spots in the cultural-historical vista, link them retroactively and invent a common denominator. For instance, by memorizing a poem by Bialik, students will recognize the idea of Bialik as “the national poet.” By visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the students behold the image of Abraham as the father of the nation. Bialik and Abraham, the “national” and the “father.” It seems these are the words of the poem that Sa’ar really wants us to learn by heart.

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8.  Ynet,

February 21, 2011

New law: Groups must report on funding

Both left, right-wing organizations will have to issue quarterly reports naming foreign sources providing them with funds, according to bill passed by Knesset after vote on committees to probe left-wing groups postponed

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4031997,00.html

Roni Sofer

The Knesset passed a bill Monday stipulating that both left and right-wing organizations will have to report each quarter on any funding they receive from foreign agents.

The bill was approved just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would allow Likud members to vote freely on bills establishing official committees to investigate foreign funding of left-wing organizations.

Many Likud members oppose the proffered investigations, causing alarm in the party that Netanyahu’s move would prevent the bills from passing. Yisrael Beiteinu, which proposed one of the bills, decided to postpone the vote on it following the prime minister’s announcement.

Forty MKs supported Monday’s bill, while 34 were opposed. MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) voted against the bill, calling it “cowardly”.

“This legislation is illogical. We need to stop being a cowardly people, a persecuted people. We are strong. Week after week, time after time, bills like this come up,” he said. MK Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas) said the Knesset was following “Lieberman’s whims”.

MK Michael Eitan responded to the criticism by calling the new legislation “transparent”. He claimed many organizations have already agreed to such a move.

“The question is whether they are ashamed of what they are doing. I believe transparency is a proper obligation. In the US transparency requirements are far more severe,” Eitan said.

MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu) also defended the bill, saying it treats both left and right-wing organizations equally and that all would benefit from it.

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