Danon: Break Up Peace Now
by Maayana Miskin
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133025(IsraelNN.com) MK Danny Danon of the Likud has called on the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations to drop Peace Now from its list and to officially dismantle the group. Danon accused
Peace Now of breaking the law by failing to publicize its funding from foreign governments.
According to Israeli law, a non-profit organization that receives funding from foreign bodies must publicize that fact on its website.
During prior investigations conducted by the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations, Peace Now was forced to admit to receiving significant amounts of money from foreign governments. However, as of Thursday afternoon, the group had not published information regarding its foreign funding on its website.
Among the foreign contributors to Peace Now were the Norwegian government, which gave 800,000 shekels, the European Union, which gave 451,600 shekels, and the government of Finland. In addition, the British government gave the group more than 540,000 shekels for the express purpose of tracking and publicizing Jewish growth in Judea and Samaria under its “Settlement Watch” project."The 'Peace Now' movement allows itself, as an extension of its activities undermining the state, to violate laws and regulations,” Danon said. “Peace Now is acting as an agent on behalf of foreign governments, which blatantly interfere in internal Israeli affairs.”
"Either this is essentially treason, or, given the sums of money involved, it's about the profit,” Danon concluded.
On Wednesday, senior Likud member Moshe Yaalon was revealed to have made statements strongly criticizing Peace Now earlier in the week. Yaalon was cited calling the organization a “virus,” and accused Peace Now and cultural “elites” of exerting undue influence over Israeli public discourse.
Yaalon's remarks infuriated Peace Now heads, who called his statements “dangerous” and implied that he was inciting to violence. Following a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Yaalon said he was quoted out of context and that he did not call the organization a virus, rather the perspective the organization represents.