Abstract
Abstract Recent decades have seen a major political shift in many nations, manifested in democratic regression, rise of populist non-liberal democracies, resurgence of extreme right, infractions against democratic watchdogs, and increasing nationalism and unilateralism. A central manifestation of this process is the active encroachment by governments on civil society, and particularly on its liberal elements. These manifestations allegedly emanate from resistance to the liberal world order and to threats from pressures imported by national NGOs, and are made possible by changing political opportunity structures. We explore the case of Israel, through an analysis of the New Israel Fund (NIF), as a particular yet demonstrative example of these dynamics. The manifestations of civil society encroachment in Israel include concerted and coordinated actions meant to weaken and delegitimize left-wing civil society actors and their supporters and donors, by Israel’s right-wing governments and their NGO allies, through legislation and rhetorical assaults; attempts to curb international funding of human rights organizations; and differential treatment of civil society organizations according to political stance. Interviews with former and current leaders of the NIF show that the attacks have galvanized liberal civil society actors to counteract, and drove them from passive response to active and strategic engagement, professionalization of media work and program evaluation, adjustment of public relations and legal strategies, and even adjustment of programmatic choice, shifting focus to supporting the infrastructure of civil society and democracy. The discussion stresses pressures by international illiberal forces, alongside the backlash to liberal world society, as causes for encroachment, and highlights the less explored reactions of civil society actors to such encroachment.
Highlights
Recent years have seen a change for the worse in state-civil society relations in many countries, leading Anheier (2017, p. 1) to speak of a “shrinking space” for civil society nationally and internationally
We explore the case of Israel, through an analysis of the New Israel Fund (NIF), as a particular yet demonstrative example of these dynamics
When the Prime Minister called for a formation of a Knesset Inquiry Committee into the operations of NIF they realized that: “it was an orchestrated campaign against progressive civil society with the intention of discrediting, de-funding and de-legitimizing them, which has been accompanied by the cultivation of competing civil society groups supportive of the government and its policies”
Summary
Recent years have seen a change for the worse in state-civil society relations in many countries, leading Anheier (2017, p. 1) to speak of a “shrinking space” for civil society nationally and internationally. Other governments regard them as an illegitimate interference in the policy process, attempting to influence if not dictate government’s priorities This is expressed in increased regulation and greater bureaucratic burden, in restrictions on civil society agents, and even overt and directed adversary actions and threats against them (Anheier, Lang, and Toepler 2019). The active encroachment by governments on civil society is a consistent element of these processes, expressed in manifold ways. We demonstrate these dynamics through the case study of Israel, which we argue offers an exceptionally strong demonstration of the processes mentioned above. It highlights the local-international nexus that is at the base of these processes, and how these processes are both empowering and disempowering for NGOs
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