Summary
Israel’s Budget Foundations Law (Amendment No. 40), 5771-2011, the amendment popularly called the Nakba Law: it adds section 3B to the Budget Foundations Law, 5745-1985, under which the Minister of Finance, with the authorization of the minister responsible for the budget item, after hearing the entity, after an opinion from the Ministry of Finance’s legal advisor and after the recommendations of a professional team, may reduce the sums earmarked to be transferred from the state budget to a budgeted or supported entity or a public institution supported under section 3A, by up to three times the amount of an “unsupported expenditure” — an expenditure, including a concession of revenue, that in essence constitutes rejecting the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incitement to racism, violence or terrorism, support for an armed struggle or act of terror by an enemy state or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel, commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning, or an act of vandalism or physical desecration that dishonors the state’s flag or symbol — applicable to unsupported expenditures made starting from the day of the amendment’s publication (Budget Foundations Law (Amendment No. 40), 5771-2011, PDF p.1-2).
What the file is
The English text of the Amendment in one 2-page file, 532 words in the text copy, headed “Unofficial translation by Adalah”: section 1, adding section 3B(A)-(B), on PDF p.1, and section 3B(C)-(D), sections 2-3 and the signatories on PDF p.2, with footnote 1 on PDF p.1 and footnote 2 at the foot of PDF p.2. The title carries an asterisk with no corresponding footnote text printed in the file. No enactment day or month, passage footnote or publication data is printed in the file, so no date beyond the year 5771-2011 in the title is given in the file. The text copy was checked against the original at PDF p.1-2; the original reads the same, including the incomplete footnote 2 recorded in Section by section and Open questions. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file.
Section by section
- Section 1, Adding section 3B (PDF p.1-2). In the Budget Foundations Law, 5745-1985 (footnote 1: Book of Laws 5745, p. 15; 5771, p. 195), after Section 3A will come section 3B, headed “Reducing a budget or support due to activity that is contrary to the principles of the state”: (A) “Entity” — a budgeted entity and a supported entity as defined in Section 21, and a public institution supported under Section 3A; “Expenditure” — including a concession of revenue. (B) If the Minister of Finance sees that an entity has made an expenditure that, in essence, constitutes one of those specified below (“an unsupported expenditure”), he is entitled, with the authorization of the minister responsible for the budget item under which this entity is budgeted or supported, after hearing the entity, to reduce the sums earmarked to be transferred from the state budget to this entity under any law: (1) rejecting the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; (2) incitement to racism, violence or terrorism; (3) support for an armed struggle or act of terror by an enemy state or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel; (4) commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning; (5) an act of vandalism or physical desecration that dishonors the state’s flag or symbol.
- New section 3B(C) (PDF p.1-2). The reduction under subsection (B) will not exceed three times the amount of the unsupported expenditure — printed on PDF p.2 as “not exceed three times [the amount of] the unsupported expenditure”, with “[the amount of]” in square brackets as printed.
- New section 3B(D) (PDF p.2). (1) The Minister of Finance will decide as stipulated in subsection (B), after receiving an opinion from the legal advisor to the Ministry of Finance regarding the fulfillment of what is stipulated in that subsection, and after receiving the recommendations of a professional team regarding the scope of the unsupported expenditure, the repercussions of the reduction on the entity or on other bodies connected to it, and the appropriate sum to be reduced in consideration of all the relevant circumstances. (2) “professional team” — a team appointed by the Minister of Finance whose members include an employee of the Ministry of Justice, as nominated by the Minister of Justice, an employee of the Ministry of Finance, and an employee of the ministry whose minister is responsible for the budget item under which the entity is budgeted or supported, as nominated by this minister.
- Section 2, Amendment to the Administrative Affairs Courts Law [No. 56] (PDF p.2). In the Administrative Affairs Courts Law, 5760-2000 (footnote 2: Book of Laws, 5760, p. 190; 5771 p. … — the page after 5771 printed as an ellipsis, as printed), in the first addition, at the end will come: “40. Reductions in the amounts of support – decision of the Minister of Finance under Section 3B of the Budget Foundations Law, 5745-1985.”
- Section 3, Application (PDF p.2). The directives of Section 3B, as stated in Section 1 of this law, will apply to an unsupported expenditure that is made starting from the day of its publication.
- Signatories (PDF p.2). Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister; Yuval Steinitz, Minister of Finance; Shimon Peres, President of the State; Reuven Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset.
Key passages
- “Reducing a budget or support due to activity that is contrary to the principles of the state” (heading of new section 3B, PDF p.1)
- “Rejecting the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” (section 3B(B)(1), PDF p.1)
- “Commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning” (section 3B(B)(4), PDF p.1)
- “not exceed three times [the amount of] the unsupported expenditure” (section 3B(C), on the reduction, PDF p.2)
Evidence the work relies on
A statute, not an evidentiary work. Its internal authorities are the Budget Foundations Law, 5745-1985 itself (Sections 3A, 21 and the new 3B) and the Administrative Affairs Courts Law, 5760-2000, each with a Book of Laws reference in footnotes 1-2. None of those provisions’ texts is reproduced in the file beyond the amendment given.
Analysis
Read on its own terms, this Amendment is a funding sanction, not a prohibition: none of the five activities in section 3B(B) is made an offence, and the consequence runs only against an entity budgeted or supported from the state budget, by reducing sums earmarked to be transferred to it under any law, capped at three times the unsupported expenditure. Its reach is framed by two breadth markers in the text: an “expenditure” includes a concession of revenue, and an expenditure counts if it “in essence” constitutes one of the five grounds — a formulation that makes the Minister’s characterisation of an activity, after the hearing, legal-advisor opinion and professional-team recommendations the procedure requires, the operative step. Ground (4) is the ground from which the popular name derives: commemorating Independence Day or the day of the state’s establishment as a day of mourning. The file does not use the word Nakba, does not name any entity or event, gives no instance of a reduction, and states no purpose beyond the section heading’s “activity that is contrary to the principles of the state”.
People, organizations, places and events
Nakba Law, Knesset, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Israel
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text of the amendment already in the wiki as Nakba Law through Stateless Citizenship (2013), which gives it as the March 22, 2011 amendment to the Budget Foundations Law (1985), popularly called the ‘Nakba Law’, enabling the Minister of Finance to cut state funding to institutions that commemorate Israel’s Independence Day as a day of mourning, the original draft prohibiting any and all commemoration of the Nakba while the approved draft targets state-funded institutions with a fine of up to ten times the funds used for the commemoration (PDF p.73). This file confirms the mechanism, the mourning ground as ground (4) of five, and the state-funded-entity scope, and it differs on the measure and the amount: the sanction in this text is a reduction of budgeted sums, not a fine, and its cap is three times the unsupported expenditure, not ten times. The two accounts are held side by side on Nakba Law, not reconciled; the ten-times figure may belong to the draft Molavi describes, but this file does not say so. The companion 2011 amendment in this batch, Law to Amend the Cooperative Societies Ordinance (No. 8), 5771-2011, was enacted on the same 22 March 2011 date Molavi gives for this amendment, as its own footnote records; this file itself prints no enactment date.
Open questions
- This file prints no enactment or publication date beyond 5771-2011 in the title; Molavi’s date of March 22, 2011 for the amendment (PDF p.73) is outside this file.
- Molavi gives the approved draft’s sanction as a fine of up to ten times the funds used for the commemoration (PDF p.73); this text gives a budget reduction capped at three times the unsupported expenditure (section 3B(C), PDF p.2). Both are recorded, not reconciled.
- Footnote 2 prints “5771 p. …” with an ellipsis in place of a page, as printed in the original, and the title’s asterisk has no footnote text in the file; both are recorded as printed.
- Section 3B(C) prints “[the amount of]” in square brackets, as printed; whether the brackets are the translator’s insertion is not stated in the file.
Coverage
PDF p.1-2 of 2, read in full.