[1] The law was first proposed in 2008 by Alex Miller from the nationalistic party Yisrael Beiteinu,[2] and preliminarily approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on May 24, 2009.
[2] The proposal was rejected and sent to the Committee for Constitution, Law, and Justice for revision, where the proposed fine of ten times of the cost of the event was reduced to three times of the amount at the suggestion of David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu).
58 out of 120 MKs did not show up for the vote, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[1] It declares that the Minister of Finance is authorized to withhold transfer of state funds, if the primary goal of the funds spent was to do one of the following: The decision of the law was criticised by the human rights organisation Human Rights Watch[6] and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank William La Rue[7] also by Israeli NGOs like the Israel Democracy Institute,[8] as an infringement of freedom of expression.
In 2019, Tel Aviv University cancelled a lecture by the politician Ofer Cassif, citing the law as the reason.