NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led his colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the State Department to immediately cease funding the Movement for Quality Government (MQG) and all other partisan organizations in Israel, which undermines one of the strongest U.S. allies and interferes in their democracy.
“In spite of longstanding U.S. practice to refrain from funding foreign partisan organizations, the State Department has confirmed that it has sent over $38,000 to MQG, an Israeli nonprofit that has helped to organize—and has participated in—political protests against proposed legislation from Israel’s democratically-elected legislature. Earlier this year, MQG lobbied Israel’s Supreme Court with a petition to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu from office. Such overtly partisan activities contradict the State Department’s claims that MQG is a nonpartisan organization,” the Senators wrote.
“The United States must stand with our allies and partners around the world—not undermine them. Israel is a fellow democracy and America’s most important ally in the Middle East. We therefore urge the State Department to immediately cease funding MQG and all other partisan organizations in Israel,” the Senators continued.
The Senators requested a response from the State Department by April 18, 2023, committing to halting funding to MQG and to never fund another partisan organization in Israel.
Co-signers of the letter include Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
A copy of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear Secretary Blinken:
We write to urge the State Department to immediately cease funding the Movement for Quality Government (MQG) and all other partisan organizations in Israel, which undermines one of our strongest allies and interferes in their democracy.
In spite of longstanding U.S. practice to refrain from funding foreign partisan organizations, the State Department has confirmed that it has sent over $38,000 to MQG, an Israeli nonprofit that has helped to organize—and has participated in—political protests against proposed legislation from Israel’s democratically-elected legislature. Earlier this year, MQG lobbied Israel’s Supreme Court with a petition to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu from office. Such overtly partisan activities contradict the State Department’s claims that MQG is a nonpartisan organization.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that State Department funds have been employed by left-wing partisan organizations in Israel. In July 2016, a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs found that State Department provided over $300,000 over a fourteen-month period to the Israeli organization OneVoice, which was subsequently able to divert these resources for the political purpose of launching a grassroots campaign in Israel to elect “anybody but Bibi [Netanyahu]” in the 2015 Israeli parliamentary election.
This pattern of the State Department funding partisan organizations in an allied democracy is unacceptable. It makes no difference which side of the political divide a given organization is aligned with. If the government of a U.S. partner or ally was funding partisan organizations in the United States, we would rightly find such foreign interference in our democracy unacceptable. The United States must stand with our allies and partners around the world—not undermine them. Israel is a fellow democracy and America’s most important ally in the Middle East. We therefore urge the State Department to immediately cease funding MQG and all other partisan organizations in Israel. We further urge the Department to respond to this letter, by no later than April 18, 2023, with a promise that the Department will cease such funding and will never fund another partisan organization in Israel again.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,