Slippery Slope

The Knesset’s Finance Committee approved a proposed bill which would give a 35% income tax credit to organizations which support settlement building.  The debate on the proposed bill, the cost of which is expected to be 850 million NIS, lasted only a single minute, so that opposition committee members did not have time to enter the committee room. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew - Calcalist)

The Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee approved for second and third reading a bill proposed by MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beitenu), chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beitenu).  The proposed bill would halve the national security stipend of Israeli citizens convicted of terrorism and jailed for more than 10 years.

(Hebrew - News1)

MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) has submitted a request to ammend the law on “forbidden discrimination in services, products, and entrance to public places and entertainment halls”. The ammendment would allow citizens to sue artists who refuse to appear in settlements for tens of thousands of shekels without proving damages.

(Hebrew)

A new bill proposed by MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) calls for bestowing the President with the authority to refuse to sign bills passed by the Knesset into law, if the bills contradict his world view.

(Hebrew)

Member of Knesset Alex Miller (“Yisrael Beitenu”), chairman of the Knesset Education and Culture Committee, proposed a bill to amend the state Criminal Code, so that a person convicted of assisting a terrorist organization, who speaks in an educational institution without receiving previous approval from the Minister of Education, in consultation with the Justice Minister, shall be liable to imprisonment of 18 months.

(Hebrew)

The Knesset passed in second and third reading a new law, which gives police significant additional authority. Police can now not only take DNA samples from suspects and criminals, but also more easily forward the information collected to police departments abroad. It is now sufficient that a person is suspected in a crime, investigated but not even indicted, to add his or her genetic profile into the database. 14 Knesset members voted for the law.

(Hebrew)

According to a bill offered by MK Faina Kirschenbaum (Israel Beitenu) Israel will collect 45% tax on contributions for NGOs from foreign states. NGOs working on education and welfare will be excluded from this high tax. The explanatory notes to the bill state that “Some organizations in Israel are devoted to denounce the State of Israel to the world, and work towards having the IDF soldiers and officers persecuted, while violating their reputation”.

(Hebrew )

Israel Beitenu party is planning to bring back to vote the bill to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry to examine the leftist NGOs. In addition, MK Uri Ariel (Ha’ichud Hale’umi) and David Rotem (Israel Beitenu) put forward a new bill stating that NGOs which do not support Israel as a Jewish state would be outlawed.

(Hebrew )

Justice Minister Ya’akov Ne’eman has proposed to increase punishment on actions defined as “terrorism”. In his proposal, the minimum penalty for terror-related crimes will be 40 years in prison, as opposed to 30 years today. In addition, setting minimum term for a terror convict shall only be possible after 15 years, as opposed to 7 years today. Some convicts shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. According to the proposition, a crime shall be defined as “terror” by 3 criteria: the motive, the goal, and the characteristics of the crime.

(hebrew)

The Israeli Government has decided to vote NO on the Bill, proposed by Knesset Member Hanin Zo’abi (National Democratic Assembly), which intends to raise the minimum age of marriage from 17 to 18. This is in spite the fact that the Ministry of Education of the Government supports this act, which could prevent the forcing of girls to get married at a very young age.