The initiative, spearheaded by the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, seeks to expose alleged foreign funding of groups accused of helping build war-crimes cases abroad against Israeli military personnel.

"We want to fight against Israeli organisations which are working for the worldwide delegitimisation of Israel thanks to funds provided by foreign governments, said MP Danny Danon, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

But fellow Likud colleague Benny Begin, a minister without portfolio, argued that the initiative is a step too far.

"One needs to distinguish between majority rule and the dictatorship of the majority," he responded. "MPs cannot at the same time be investigators, attorneys and judges."

Dan Meridor, Israel's intelligence minister, is another senior Likud member opposed to Lieberman's plan.

"It is very dangerous for parliamentarians to investigate groups with whose ideals they disagree," he said in an interview in the left-leaning Haaretz daily. "When freedom of expression is threatened, Israeli democracy is in danger."

Lieberman was quick to respond, denouncing them at a party meeting as "feinschmeckers" -- a Yiddish term for someone of overdelicate sensibilities.

And he heaped further criticism on the NGOs and rights groups, calling them "pure accomplices to terror" whose aim was "to weaken (the Israeli military) and to weaken its resolve to defend citizens of the state of Israel."

Lieberman singled out Breaking the Silence, a group of army veterans who bear witness to abuses they have seen or taken part in during their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He also mentioned Machsom Watch, whose volunteers monitor soldiers' behaviour at military checkpoints, and medical watchdog Physicians for Human Rights.

But it was his attack on the Likud ministers that brought a bristling response from Netanyahu, who described his party as "democratic and pluralistic, not bossed around by the dictatorship of a single opinion" in a reference to Lieberman's authoritarian leadership style within his own party.

Meanwhile, six leftwing organisations calling themselves "The Democratic Camp" are planning a weekend rally in Tel Aviv against "the witch-hunt" which they say is damaging Israel's democracy.

The move was also condemned by group of leading intellectuals who wrote to MPs warning that the Knesset, or parliament, had "raised its hand against democracy in Israel."

Political scientist Gerald Steinberg, of Bar-Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, estimates that about 100 NGOs in Israel and the Palestinian Territories receive annual covert payments of 100 million euros ($131.5 mn), mostly from European countries.

"Under cover of defending human rights, many are waging a political fight to delegitimise Israel on the international stage," said Steinberg, who heads the rightwing watchdog, NGO Monitor.

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