US court rejects lawsuit against charity funding of settlements
April 25, 2015 4:26 P.M. (Updated: April 25, 2015 4:26 P.M.)
"Price tag" attack on a Palestinian monastery in 2013. (AFP/File)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The US Court of Appeals in New York has rejected an appeal from a group of 13 Palestinians seeking damages for alleged "terrorist attacks" by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported Friday.
The complaint was filed against US-based charities that financially support settlements, alleging that such support leads to terrorist activity and is in violation of US anti-terrorism laws, reported Israeli news source Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The USA Patriot Act enacted in October 2001 prohibits citizens from "knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization."
Plaintiffs in the case argued that charities were financially supporting terrorist activity by funding settlers who have carried out acts of violence against Palestinians and their land, and desecrated houses of prayer.
in full: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765080
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snip* The complaint was filed against five U.S.-based charities that financially support settlement activity: Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, the Hebron Fund, Central Fund of Israel, One Israel Fund and American Friends of Ateret Cohanim. The plaintiffs alleged that financial support of these charities violated antiterrorism laws.
“American federal judges recognize the difference between the financing of murder and violence… and legitimate bona fide financial support of the daily needs of peaceful Israeli settlements over the Green Line,” attorney Nathan Lewin, who represented the charities in the trial and appellate courts, said in a news release sent Friday.
The Palestinian plaintiffs argued that the settlements “in and of themselves…are a violation of the law of nations,” Lewin said.
District Judge Jesse Furman originally discarded the complaint last year, and a panel of appellate judges rejected this appeal.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.653434
Why Are US Taxpayers Subsidizing Right-Wing Israeli Settlers?
That's what this human rights group is asking the IRS.
—By Josh Harkinson
| Wed Mar. 11, 2015
A Palestinian boy in Hebron, in the Israel-occupied West Bank. Shutterstock
A few weeks before Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his controversial address to Congress, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Prime Minister was considering a campaign trip to Hebron, a right-wing settler community in the Israel-occupied West Bank. The proposed March 10 trip to Hebron, which would have been the first by an Israeli PM in more than a decade, raised eyebrows among Israel's political class and inflamed tensions with Palestinian groups. Last week, Netanyahu called it off, citing security threats.
Here in the United States, meanwhile, few politicians have questioned why American taxpayers continue to subsidize the Hebron settlers, accused by international observers of human rights violations that include thefts, battery, and murder. In 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, an estimated 45 percent of the settler community's funding came from the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund, whose status as a tax-exempt nonprofit allows Americans to write off donations to the group.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/hebron-fund-israeli-settlers-tax-exempt-irs-avaaz
