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Israeli Anti-Democratic Legislation - by Stephen Lendman
Police state Israeli laws
On October 31, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) expressed concern about "two contradictory main trends" in Israel's Knesset winter session:
- following its previous one, enacting more anti-democratic laws; and
- counter-measures to promote laws promoting social and economic rights, perhaps incentivized by summer social justice protests.
Mostly, however, anti-democratic measures outnumber alternatives. ACRI expressed alarm. On November 8, a brief report headlined, "Knesset Continues Attempts to Silence Civil Society," saying:
Last week, Israel's Knesset winter session began. So far, proposed social justice bills lost out to anti-democratic ones. A coalition defeated them. Expect an amendment severely curtailing free expression to pass.
This weekend, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation will vote on two bills. One aims to impede the work of civil society groups by restricting their international funding.
The proposed Associations Law wants strict monetary limits placed on their ability to function. It stipulates that Israeli NGOs seeking to influence state policy at most can receive $6,000 from foreign donors.
Israel's civil society and human rights organizations are at risk. Dark Knesset forces want them eliminated, perhaps by successive legislative measures.
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