Leftwing Israeli NGOs accused the government of a witch-hunt on Monday after the justice minister proposed tough new measures on organisations receiving funding from foreign governments.
The draft bill published by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Sunday will force such NGOs to mark all documents when presenting them to parliamentarians and also declare their foreign funding in any talks at which public officials are present.
They will also have to wear identification badges in parliament, similar to the current rules for lobbyists.
Shaked said she wanted to improve "transparency" over NGO funding.
"Blatant interference in internal Israeli affairs by foreign governments is unprecedented and widespread," the rightwing Shaked said in a statement.
"The public, and their representatives, have a right to know who is behind" these organisations.
The law would apply to groups that receive more than 50 percent of their funding from abroad and carries potential fines of 29,200 shekels ($7,550, 6,850 euros) for violators.
Shaked cited a UN inquiry into the 2014 summer war in Gaza, which concluded that Israel may have been guilty of war crimes. She said it relied on evidence from foreign-backed NGOs B'Tselem, Adalah and Breaking the Silence.
Many leftwing Israeli NGOs receive large percentages of their funding from abroad, particularly from Western governments.
Rightwing NGOs tend instead to be funded by private individuals, also often outside Israel, but they are not subject to the restrictions.
Five leftwing NGOs told AFP they felt targeted by the rightwing government because of their criticism of Israel's policies.
- 'Legitimate and necessary' -
"Funding from international sources to human rights organisations is legitimate and necessary, especially in states where there is a serious problem of human rights violations," said Adalah, which seeks to defend the rights of Arab Israelis.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, which receives funding from foreign governments, said it already reports four times a year on donations, which are listed on its website.
Shaked "doesn't seem to be bothered about transparency to party donations and to individual politicians," the group said.
"She should act as the head of the justice ministry and not as a nationalist demagogue."
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog accused Shaked of hypocrisy as she had herself received foreign funding in her election campaign.
Israel has a vibrant and active civil society, with more than 30,000 registered NGOs.
The rightwing NGO monitor website has listed over 20 Israeli NGOs allegedly heavily funded by foreign governments and hostile to policies of Israeli governments, accusing them of "distorting" democracy.
Several bills have been proposed in recent years which leftwing NGOs claim have targeted them, on topics ranging from donations to the right to access the legal system.
In 2013, a ministerial committee backed a law which would have vastly increased taxes on donations from abroad to NGOs that support measures deemed hostile to the state, including calling for the prosecution of soldiers for alleged war crimes.
Although this and many other proposals never become law, Debbie Gild-Hayo, a lawyer with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said the aim was to create a culture of stigma.
"The whole purpose is so people will see you as an enemy of the state and then you become irrelevant. It even makes officials more afraid to be in touch with you," she said.