The Knesset Committee On Un-Israeli Activities

It looks as if Israel is getting its own version of the old House Committee on Un-American Activities.  The right wing in Israel has finally been granted its wish to establish a Knesset commission (perhaps more than one) to investigate human rights NGOs.

From the report at Forward.com:

Yisrael Beiteinu lawmaker David Rotem told the Forward that his party is convinced that funding comes from Saudi Arabia, and suspects it has terrorist origins. “If [an NGO] is being backed by terrorists or Al Qaeda, we ought to know,” he said.

I am reasonably confident that Al Qaeda is not funding Israeli NGOs.  This hysteria on Israel’s right cannot help the country’s image.  With all of the talk of Israel’s delegitimization by its detractors, this is not the healthiest move by the Knesset.  And they will probably find nothing shady at all:

…[I]t is unclear exactly what these committees will do once formed. [Knesset bill sponsors] Danon and Rotem both told the Forward that they want to see the committees probing the NGOs’ financial accounts and calling witnesses. But annual accounts are already in the public domain.

On top of this, such commissions have no subpoena power, so they’re just really forums for political demagoguery.

I was pretty encouraged to see the condemnations issued by the American Jewish Committee and some other mainstream Jewish organizations.  As Harry Truman once said about the U.S. version, which existed in some form or another until 1975, it was the “most un-American thing in the country….”