Peace Now report accuses right-wing NGOs of lack of transparency

Source: Times of Israel

As bill targets left-wing NGOs funded by foreign governments, group says 9 organizations did not report over NIS 600 million in donations, tax funds in past decade

It started with a much-disparaged bill by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, under which nongovernmental organizations who receive more than half their funding from foreign governments — namely, left-wing human rights organizations — would be required to note such information in all of their official reports and wear a special tag singling them out at the Knesset.

But the heated transparency battle over foreign funding of NGOs and human rights groups is far from over.

Hitting back on Monday, Peace Now published a report accusing nine right-wing NGOs of failing to publicly disclose the source of some 95 percent of their funding, amounting to some NIS 567 million ($147 million) overall between 2006-2013, inclusively.

The report also maintained that some NIS 100 million ($25 million) in tax funds were transferred from local councils to some of these right-wing groups over the period. The “tremendous, surprising lack of transparency,” as described by the report, did not appear to be unlawful.

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/peace-now-report-accuses-right-wing-ngos-of-lack-of-transparency/