Israel reprimands Belgian envoy over leftwing NGOs meeting

JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday reprimanded the Belgian ambassador after the country’s prime minister met with anti-settlement and leftwing NGOs, the Foreign Ministry said.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel met with representatives of leftwing NGOs Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem during his visit to Israel this week, angering his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said he viewed the meeting to be of the “utmost gravity.”
“The Belgian government needs to decide whether it wants to change direction or continue with an anti-Israel line,” a statement from his office said.
Israel’s Deputy Director-General for Europe Rodica Radian Gordon on Thursday reprimanded Belgian ambassador Olivier Belle, ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement.
The ambassador “took note and will convey it to Brussels,” he added. Israeli NGOs defending the Palestinian cause say they have been under severe pressure for months.
In 2016 Israel passed a law requiring NGOs that receive more than half their funding from foreign governments or bodies to provide details of their donations. The legislation was largely seen as targeting left-wing organizations such as B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence and drew international criticism.
Critics say the law targets leftwing groups campaigning for Palestinian rights and opposing settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
6 injured in attack
Six people were wounded Thursday when a Palestinian man stabbed and shot at market-goers in central Israel, police said.
The “terrorist” attack in the city of Petah Tikva, outside Tel Aviv, was carried out by a Palestinian assailant, police said.
Police said the attacker, 19, was from the Nablus and that he was arrested uninjured while still carrying the gun.