Tel Aviv (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Thousands of activists from leftist movements and human rights organizations a held a protest march Jan. 15 in Tel Aviv against the decision of the Knesset to form a commission of inquiry into the funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The main slogan of the event was: "Demonstration – since its still possible - for democracy."
The director general of Peace Now, a leading organization for the defence of human rights in Israel, including those of Palestinians, Yariv Oppenheimer, said that "the threat Lieberman should worry us all. It is more than the Iranian threat '. We have to come out and protest". The site of the organization called for support with a strong appeal: "When our country is awash with a wave of racism; when the Knesset is passing racist laws and establishing McCarthy era investigative committees; when Ministers are calling for population transfers, for the silencing of academics and artists; when the Prime Minister is taking Israel down a path of no peace and to the brink of war".
The Knesset voted last week (47 in favour, 16 against) on the proposal to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the left-wing organizations accused of participating in campaigns to discredit the soldiers of the IDF. The initiative came from the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman and relates to the financial sources of these groups. The President of Israel, Shimon Peres, told the newspaper Haaretz that the decision to set up a parliamentary committee on the left-wing organizations and NGOs "harms Israeli democracy and is not necessary. Politicians are not judges, and judges are not politicians".