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[Excerpts:]

""For over a decade European governments have been manipulating Israeli politics and promoting demonization by funding a narrow group of favored non-governmental organizations," said NGO Monitor’s president Gerald Steinberg. Representatives from B’Tselem, HaMoked and Yesh Din were not present during the proceedings, and only Dr. Gershon Baskin of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, an unlisted Israeli NGO, addressed the conference. Steinberg said of the 20 NGOs listed in the report, all chose to decline invitations." "NGO Monitor suggested that the first step to ending the practice of foreign sponsorship in Israeli NGOs is to require full transparency. According to their recommendation, if the legislation is enacted, before any NGO could accept funding from a foreign government, the details would have to be made public. Furthermore, NGO Monitor is calling for Israeli law to require full notification when foreign government money is used by NGOs for newspaper ads, political protests and conferences. Transparency would also allow European parliamentary oversight and expose the absence of professional evaluation of various NGO funding programs."