MK Miki Zohar
MK Miki ZoharYoni Kempinski

Former coalition chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud) has decided to cancel his participation in the Haaretz conference after it was reported on Arutz Sheva that the conference is being sponsored by the New Israel Fund.

"I was approached some time ago to attend the National Conference for Democracy to express the positions of the right and to express the voice of the National Camp and the Likud," MK Zohar said.

"I have found it appropriate to agree so that the voice of the right can be shared everywhere," he added. "Yet I was recently updated that an extreme left-wing body the New Israel Foundation that supports despicable organizations like "Breaking the Silence" and "B'Tselem" is funding the conference so I decided to cancel my participation immediately."

"I will continue to represent the positions of the right and the Likud wherever possible, but I will not be able to give legitimacy to these organizations that are working against the State of Israel in the world," said MK Miki Zohar.

Last week, Arutz Sheva reported that MK Zohar and MK Moshe Gafni (Torah Judaism) will participate in the "Israel Democracy Conference", which is held under the auspices of the New Israel Fund and with the participation of the Foundation's CEO Mickey Gitzin.

"At the conference, we will try to understand what democracy Benjamin Netanyahu left behind after 12 years in power," it was said in publications ahead of the conference. "Have the legal institutions weakened or remained strong as they were; whether the media has been harmed or balanced; has there been a change in the political power and representation of outlying areas."

It turns out that MK Moshe Gafni, who is waging a struggle against the various reform organizations or the "Women of the Western Wall" organization, will participate in the conference sponsored by the foundation that funds many of those organizations.

Matan Peleg, chairman of the "If You Will" movement, congratulated MK Zohar: "We thank MK Miki Zohar from the bottom of our hearts for his attention and decision to cancel his participation in the Haaretz newspaper conference, funded by the foreign political organization 'The New Israel Foundation'. The New Israel Foundation, a foreign political organization, is the largest umbrella organization in Israel for Israeli delegitimization organizations. They fund organizations that legally protect terrorists and their families, they fund organizations that make a living from defaming IDF soldiers, promoting international pressure with Israel, giving citizenship to infiltrators and more. Miki Zohar's decision to withdraw his participation sends a clear message to all those who seek out evil and our destruction, that the blood of our soldiers will not be forfeit. Well done."