To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Make Sheldon Adelson Comply With Israeli Anti-NGO Laws
Just Foreign Policy
President Obama and Congress should ensure that if the Israeli Knesset punishes Israeli human rights groups that receive funding from foreign governments, rich U.S. benefactors of the Israeli Right, including of the settlers' movement, will be subject to similar restrictions in the U.S.
Why is this important?
An ongoing right-wing campaign in Israel against Israeli human rights groups like B'Tsalem has recently escalated. The Israeli Right is attacking these human rights groups as foreign "plants" [1] because they receive funding from European governments, and right-wing Israeli legislators have proposed to punish Israeli human rights groups that receive foreign government funding.
But the restrictions proposed in the Knesset would apply only to human rights groups that receive funding from foreign governments, not to right-wing political groups that receive funding from foreign private sources - like GOP casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. [2] The private U.S. fundraising of the right-wing settler movement, which receives tax-exempt U.S. donations, [3] would not be touched.
Urge President Obama and Congress to support U.S. legislation and regulations that would ensure that similar restrictions to whatever is enacted in the Knesset against "foreign funding" of Israeli human rights groups are applied in the U.S. to private U.S. funding of the Israeli Right and the settler movement by signing our petition.
References:
1. http://peacenow.org/entry.php?id=15954#.Vnra2d-rSAw
2. http://www.timesofisrael.com/government-bill-would-oblige-ngos-to-declare-foreign-funding/
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-is-the-us-subsidizing-israeli-settlements/2015/12/21/407c3558-a781-11e5-9b92-dea7cd4b1a4d_story.html