The Funding Prohibition Bill is aimed at peace and human rights orgs. Foreign right-wing extremist millionaires are not touched: Moskowitz can continue financing settler invasion of Palestinian neighborhoods; Adelson - continue maintaining a free daily newspaper, PM Netanyahu's mouthpiece.

"The bill to prohibit left-wing Israeli organizations from getting funding from foreign institutions, including governments, which Sunday got the backing of the government of Israel, is another link in the chain of anti-democratic legislation which became the hallmark of this government and its representatives in the Knesset. Moreover, government backing for this bill is an act of Chutzpah" says Gush Shalom.

"The initiators of the bill argue that it is designed to prevent outside interference in the internal affairs of the State of Israel - and that while at the same time the government of Israel, through such organizations as the Israel Lobby in Washington (AIPAC) interferes openly and flagrantly in the domestic affairs of the United States, trying to determine who will be elected and who will not be elected to Congress and to the Presidency, and how elected officials should conduct the United States' policy. Until and unless the government announces the dissolution of AIPAC and ceases all interference in United States elections, assertions and complaints of "foreign interference in the affairs of Israel" are the height of hypocrisy.

Furthermore, the government of Israel asks and demands of European countries to support its position in the United Nations vote on a Palestinian state, and offering voluble thanks to those who responded to these requests – at the same time supporting a bill designed to set those same countries as "an enemy" and to forbid them to give support to human rights organizations in Israel.

The new bill seeks to prohibit the receipt of funds from governments and institutions abroad, which is an important source of income for Israeli peace and human rights organizations - but in no way does it touch the donations of foreign right-wing extremist millionaires, such as Irving Moskowitz who spends many millions on financing settler invasion of Palestinian neighborhoods, or Sheldon Adelson, who maintains a free daily newspaper supporting the positions of PM Netanyahu.

Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson 054-2340749