J Street calls for probe of US charities funding settlements
Monday, July 19, 2010
By: ICEJ News

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The controversial new "pro-Israel" lobby J Street launched a campaign on Monday imploring the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the US charities financing Israeli settlement activities that were listed in a recent New York Times report. Over 40 charities have provided some $200 million tax-deductible contributions for schools, synagogues and recreation centers in east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (West Bank), according to the report. “With the explicit goal of undermining a two-state solution, many of these groups raise tax-deductible contributions from the United States to deepen the occupation in the Occupied Territories,” according to a J Street appeal petitioning the Treasury to probe the funding. “Some even fund settlement outposts that the Israeli government considers illegal.” US spokesmen have not yet commented. Deductions for most donations in the US are not questioned so long as the charitable organization involved is a recognized 501(c)(3) charitable organization, but critics argue they should not be allowed in a case where the US government itself forbids any spending of tax dollars beyond the pre-1967 Green Line. Yet US donors also take deductions for donations to pro-Palestinian groups which often contravene US policies, and even venture into criminal activities.