Elmar Esser, Chairman of the German-Israeli Lawyers Association(DIJV) opened the event with a short welcoming speech and pointed out the longstanding cooperation between KAS Israel and the DIJV and the importance of a regular dialogue between Israeli and German societies especially on a legal level in order to enhance and strengthen democracy and the rule of law in both countries.

Rachel Liel, Board Chair of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), former executive director of the New Israeli Fund (NIF) and current member of its board, then introduced the youth conference participants - Israeli and German young legal professionals and students - to the role and challenges of non-governmental organizations in Israel. Special focus was given to the current situation of ACRI. ACRI is Israel’s oldest, largest and leading human rights organization. Its mandate is “to ensure Israel’s accountability and respect for human rights, by addressing violations committed by the Israeli authorities in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, or elsewhere”. The underlying concept of ACRI is that you can only protect civil rights holistically – “you cannot divide the rights – without physical well-being there is no freedom of speech”. However, Ms. Liel expressed a critical view on NGOs in Israel, only ca. 12 % of all currently active NGOs are NGOs in their core and are advocating a vibrant society while actively trying to shape it. Such genuine NGOs are essential to democracy especially in Israel. Since the right-wing party is 40 years in power, no meaningful opposition has remained, and the center-left is very weak. Therefore, the real opposition lays in civil society, led by civil society organization. This particularly applies in times of the new basic law. Moreover, the former left wing orientated Israeli Supreme Court has undergone a radical shift to the right, so that the former critical judicial review will at least decline. For a very long time the overarching theme of NGOs was “we are going to have peace”, whereas now it has shifted to “protect Israel civil society” and in doing so, the core NGOs - civil society organization as ACRI– will have to play a crucial role.

Dr. Alexander Brakel, Head of the KAS Office in Israel, hereafter presented the work of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Israel by defining the character of a German Stiftung and by distinguishing the concept of foundation from the one of a Non-Governmental Organization. He then continued to refer to a recent KAS polling which clearly shows that in Israel approximately 50% of the people are still supporting the two-state-solution, however with a decreasing tendency. Contrary to this finding, the Israeli government does not want to withdraw from the occupation. Yet, there are different factors why people reelect this government. On the one hand, the second intifada shipwrecked a peaceful two-states-solution, while on the other hand the given situation seems to be manageable. Since the number of terrorist attacks has gone down, the occupation seems to be bearable for a lot of Israelis. However, Israel is a free and democratic society, according to Dr. Brakel. Many organizations, such as NGOs, make every effort to make the Israeli society understand the current situation in the occupied territories. The government however is eager to stop those efforts. The new NGO law, passed in July 2016, requires non-profits that receive more than 50% of their funding from abroad to disclose that fact publicly. There has to be corresponding notice on their website, when they are at the Knesset or want to advertise on newspapers. What is important to note is the fact that this current legislation only affects state based founding and therefore mostly human-rights groups who position themselves on left side in the political spectrum. Hence organizations of the right spectrum receiving mostly private founding are not affected by this law.

As the third and last speaker Dr. Kettner, Head of Legal and Consular Affairs, Consul German Embassy, elaborated on the work of Israeli NGOs form the point of view of the German Embassy. He explained that there is a considerable NGO lobby and that NGOs play an important role in Israel. They educate, inform and raise awareness for certain topics. Furthermore, they have the means to talk to the government and help to support rights of a certain group of people. He also mentioned that transparency and regulations are needed, but certain aspects should be taken into account: no shrinkage or silencing of NGOs should be promoted. A law should not be able to make NGOs stop talking to the government or the opposition or controlling the government. 

The panel presentations were followed by a lively discussion and Q&A session between the speakers and the young professionals, where questions such as the lacking support for NGOs in Israel have been raised.