The Board of Deputies has voiced concern over proposed legislation in Israel that would put an 80 per cent tax on grants from foreign governments to NGOs operating in the country.
Around 60 leading Jewish philanthropists from across the diaspora – including more than 20 from the UK – signed an open letter earlier this week condemning the bill as “cynical, dangerous and undemocratic”.
The bill introduced by Ariel Kallner, a member of the Knesset from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has been widely seen as targeting civil rights groups on the left of the Israeli spectrum.
At the Board plenary meeting on Sunday, its president Phil Rosenberg said it was “concerned about some of the impacts” of the bill and that it had relayed that message to the Israeli government.
He said Board representatives had attended a meeting in London convened by the New Israel Fund, a US-based progressive NGO, where attendees expressed concerns about the Israeli bill.
A group of 17 UK rabbis – mostly Progressive but including Masorti and Orthodox voices – have also attacked the planned move, writing to Rosenberg, Jewish Leadership Council chair Keith Black, and Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer.
“This bill goes against values which we hold dear: the Jewish traditions of dissent, discussion and debate; and the tenets of liberal democracy including the importance of a strong and vibrant civil society and of checks and balances on the government,” the rabbis said.
“It undermines the basis of the relationship between our respective countries and Israel, which is one based on shared principles of democracy and human rights.”
Black was also one of the signatories, in a personal capacity, to the philanthropists’ letter opposing the bill.
Organisations that receive funding from the Israeli government would be exempt from the tax. Under the proposals the finance minister, currently the far-right Bezalel Smotrich, would be able to grant exemptions. The right of NGOs to petition the Israeli courts would also be restricted.
