Human Rights Watch has drawn attention to increasing Israeli government repression of non-governmental organisations, including the New Israel Fund, a group which supports various Israeli civil rights and social welfare groups.

The group has been investigated by a government commission, on the basis of its ‘harming the national interest of the state of Israel.’ New Israel Fund (NIF) was thought to have been supplying information which was used in Justice Richard Goldstone’s UN report and fact-finding mission abuses during the Gaza conflict in winter 2008/9.
Daniel Sokatch, Chief executive officer of NIF appealed for support against growing official hostility towards its operations. He argued that an active and critical civil society is vital if Israel is fit to describe itself as a Middle Eastern democracy. Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch commented: ‘what we’re seeing in Israel is a greater official intolerance of dissent’.
NGOs are finding it increasingly difficult to operate in the West bank and some have been denied access to Gaza. Top Israeli officials have publicly described NGOs as threats to national security, and hundreds of Arab Israeli demonstrators protesting against the Gaza operation have been subjected to arrest and harassment. 
Whitson commented further that: ‘One of Israel’s outstanding strengths has been its vibrant civil society and its flourishing public debate, so these developments are particularly worrying.’