Danon: Criminalize 'Peace Now'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134061
by Maayana Miskin


(IsraelNN.com) MK Danny Danon (Likud) revealed Monday that he plans to criminalize the political activities of the Peace Now organization and others of its kind. In an interview with Arutz-7, Danon said he is working on legislation that would forbid all organizations funded by foreign governments from engaging in political activity inside Israel. Peace Now is heavily funded by European governments, particularly those of Norway, Finland and Britain. Danon has previously called for Peace Now to be stripped of its non-profit status due to its failure to publicize its foreign funding.



Danon repeated his call to investigate Peace Now's funding on Monday in wake of a recent incident in which three Peace Now activists posed as students in an attempt to obtain material to use against nationalist Knesset members.



The incident raises an important question, he said: where does Peace Now get the financial resources to spend hundreds of hours on a fake movie that failed to yield results? “We need to figure out where the money for this film was coming from,” he said.



The activists interviewed Danon and MK Fania Kirshenbaum of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israeli Our Home), supposedly as part of a student project on democracy.



“They were asking bizarre questions, like how I would prefer to expel Arabs – by bus, or by train,” Danon recalled. “I realized who I was dealing with and told them to leave. I didn't make a big deal out of it.”



If Peace Now had asked to interview him, he would have agreed, Danon added. “But this just goes to show that they can't get into the Knesset in any other way. They don't have an MK, they don't have enough voter support to get elected, so they were left with this attempt to enter under fictitious pretenses.”



The three were caught after attempting to interview MK Michael Ben-Ari, who grew suspicious and reported them to Knesset security.