Middle East crisis live: Gaza population to be moved as part of ‘intensive’ offensive, Netanyahu says
"Israeli PM says people will be moved for their ‘own protection’ but does not give details about how much territory will be seized
An Israeli parliamentary committee is debating a law that would impose an 80% tax on non-government organisations that receive the majority of their funding from foreign entities, Reuters reports.
Under the proposed law, these NGOs would not be able to petition Israeli courts. Israel’s finance minister, though, would be able to grant an exemption from the tax.
The debate in the Knesset’s constitution, law and justice committee was at times heated and divided along coalition lines. The panel is preparing the bill for a first reading in the main plenum.
“This law will preserve a Jewish state and a democratic regime, and will block improper foreign interference,” said Ariel Kallner, the bill’s sponsor, during the debate.
Opposition politicians criticised the proposed law, saying the state was trying to stifle voices, including the media, that don’t agree with Israel’s policies. Some said that if the government sought to prevent foreign influence, then companies should also be targeted.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, sent a letter signed by nine NGOs to the head of the committee, urging the bill be halted.
“This bill is a direct assault on civil society, the rule of law, and the basic constitutional structure of Israel’s democracy,” the letter said. “It threatens the rights of individuals and communities and seeks to silence legitimate dissent under the guise of sovereignty.”
AFP has spoken to the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who has criticised an Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland said.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicise the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
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