Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent initiative to promote a bill that would compel nonprofit organizations involved in political election campaigns to make donor lists public gained traction Sunday, as left-wing party Meretz said it would promote similar legislation as well.
Coalition insiders said that the prime minister was concerned that foreign donors, who reportedly plan to spend millions on campaigns aimed at convincing the public to vote him out of office, would partner with various nonprofit organizations to conceal their meddling.
Legislation requiring nonprofit organizations to be fully transparent aims to prevent that, the sources said.
Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said Sunday that her party would similarly sponsor a bill requiring all nonprofit organizations to make their donor lists public.
She said that the party seeks to fight the anonymous funding granted to right-wing associations such as Im Tirtzu, which participate in election campaigns without disclosing the nature of their financial resources.
"We expect Im Tirtzu to be the first to release its donor list," Zandberg said.
The New Israel Fund, which has been consistently vilified by the prime minister and his colleagues for intervening in political matters, said it would gladly cooperate with such a demand.
"The time has come for all nonprofit organizations in Israel to expose their donor lists. A reality in which the nature of the vast majority of donations to right-wing organizations remains a secret is scandalous and must be rectified by law," the NIF said in a statement.
