Democratic Representative, Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) is leading the process of ending tax-exempt status for organizations in the United States that help fund illegal Israeli settlements.
On July 15, Tlaib sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking the Biden administration to take governmental action to end the exemption, signed by Representatives: Cory Bush (D-ML), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Andre Carson (D-Indiana), Representative Mark Buchan (D-Wisconsin), Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Representative Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota).
“We write to express our grave concern that American charities fund and provide direct support to Israeli organizations working to expand and perpetuate the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in violation of international law, including by supporting the dispossession and forced displacement of Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods,” the letter reads. .
"We are concerned that these policies violate US obligations under international law, as well as federal tax law," she adds.
The letter explains, “Since the occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces in 1967, the Israeli authorities have pursued an illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied territories, an aggressive policy to seize land privately owned by Palestinians or used collectively by Palestinians. and appropriating it for the use and enjoyment of Jewish Israelis.”
The letter continues, “Israeli authorities use discriminatory legal housing, land and property regulations and impermissible military justifications to dispossess Palestinians of their land, or to destroy Palestinian homes, property, and basic civilian infrastructure. The Israeli authorities and the private Israeli settlers’ organizations, in cooperation with the Israeli authorities, have established about 200 settlements for Jews alone, comprising more than 600,000 Israeli citizens.”
It is noteworthy that the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” found in a 2015 investigation that American charities spent $220 million to fund Israeli settlements between 2009 and 2013.
Tlaib´s letter, the only member of the House of Representatives of Palestinian origin, specifically cites the Central Fund for Israel (CFI), a nonprofit organization registered in New York.
The Intercept published an article last May, looking at the relationship between groups like the CFI and Israeli settlement expansion, attributing to (Palestinian-origin) constitutional lawyer Dalia Shammas, as saying: “This is not about what we think is something to correct, or that It´s just a moral error, it´s just that Americans, through these alleged charities, directly support or aid and abet illegal activities no matter where they happen, which necessitates calling on members of Congress and the State Department and the IRS to investigate these groups, and at least not give them the privilege of tax-exempt status.”
Tlaib´s letter, which continues to gain more support from her colleagues in Congress, notes that the violent settlers who have burned Palestinian fields in the West Bank, attacked shepherds and livestock in the southern Hebron Hills, and taken over Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, are all funded by the organizations. Americans that get tax credits as presumed charities.
