Members of Knesset from the coalition and the opposition have teamed up in an attempt to protect IDF soldiers travelling abroad. The MKs hope to protect soldiers from detention by outlawing Israeli NGOs that encourage foreign countries to arrest Israeli soldiers.
A new proposed law with over 20 signatures would make it illegal for groups that attempt to get IDF soldiers arrested abroad to claim NGO status.
"It doesn't stand to reason that a group recognized as a non-governmental organization can go to foreign governments and undermine Israel's interests,” explained MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home), one of those signed on the bill.
The bill would allow organizations based in Israel to demand the arrest of IDF soldiers or commanders by Israeli police, Orbach noted. Groups could, of course, continue to demand the arrest of IDF soldiers in foreign lands – if they are willing to give up their non-profit status in Israel, and with it their exemption from paying taxes, and to register as lobbies.
In recent years, several Israel-based organizations on the far left of the political spectrum have called for the arrest of IDF commanders for alleged war crimes. Europe's universal jurisdiction system has been used by activists at home and abroad to charge top IDF staff, and senior politicians, with war crimes for approving counter-terror operations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Cabinet ministers and senior IDF officers have faced arrest warrants in Britain, Spain and Belgium.
Retired General Almog remained on his airplane at Heathrow for two hours to prevent being arrested in the UK, a delegation of senior IDF officers cancelled a planned trip to which they had been invited by the British army for the same reason, and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni cancelled her trip in December 2009 after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Several of the Israeli groups known to have called for the arrest of IDF soldiers abroad are funded by the controversial New Israel Fund, which has been accused of giving money donated by European governments to blatantly anti-Israel causes.
The proposed law was inspired in part by the Zionist student group Im Tirtzu. MKs were also influenced by a variety of recent publicized incidents of anti-Israel behavior of certain NGOs, including the fact that leftist Israeli NGOs contributed to the Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes.