U.S. group invests tax-free millions in East Jerusalem land, today's Ha'aretz reports.
American Friends of Ateret Cohanim is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning that donors may deduct contributions from their US tax returns (hence the government subsidy). Its Form 990 represents that its "primary exempt purpose" is to "provide funding for higher educational institutions in Israel" (pdf).
But the truth is that it "sends millions of shekels worth of donations to Israel every year [$1.6 million for the tax year ending April 30, 2008] for clearly political purposes, such as buying Arab properties in East Jerusalem"
This is the organization that, as the Jerusalem Post reported, took Mike Huckabee to Israel "to highlight opposition to recent US policies, in particular the Obama administration's demands that Israel halt construction in east Jerusalem."
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Jerusalem Post link. Huckabee also took part in what Maariv (Hebrew) called a "Right Wing Celebration in Hotel of Contention," namely, the Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Maariv reports:
The dinner at the Shepherd Hotel is part of a widespread campaign of leading Republicans and Jewish right wing figures against a settlement construction freeze. Among the activities being planned: organizing visits of thousands of Americans to the settlements and illegal outposts, including politicians and movie stars, Jewish and non Jewish, who will express support for the right to settle in Judea and Samaria and in East Jerusalem. Some of them are even planning to buy houses in these places.
Americans for Peace Now explains in Settlements in Focus for July 22, 2009:
The current project is a direct challenge to President Barack Obama and his effort to launch negotiations that can lead to Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace.
* * *
The site in question is the former Shepherd's Hotel, located in the heart of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The site is not connected to any other Israeli settlement construction - if implemented, this would mean the establishment of a new settler foothold in this area. . . . If put into effect, these plans would create a contiguous swathe of right-wing Jewish housing cutting through Sheikh Jarrah and severing areas beyond it from the Old City and historic basin
American Friends of Ateret Cohanim's chief fundraiser in Israel acknowledged to Ha'aretz that its US registration as an educational charity was solely for tax purposes:
"We are an umbrella organization that engages in redeeming land," he said. "Our [fund-raising] activity in New York goes solely toward land redemption."
Ha'aretz also reports that, "[a]lthough Ateret Cohanim also operates a yeshiva, Ateret Yerushalayim, in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, fund-raising for the yeshiva is handled by a different organization: American Friends of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim."
The fund-raiser, Daniel Luria, who estimated that 60 percent of Ateret Cohanim's money is raised in the U.S.," explained to Ha'aretz that the reason for falsifying [my word] the Form 990 is "because of the tax issue," going on to tell Ha'aretz that "due to American law, the American Friends organization 'has to be connected in some fashion with educational matters.'"
The American Friends most recent Form 990 (pdf), for the tax year beginning May 1, 2007, and ending April 30, 2008, represents that it raised $2,123,856:
* $1,638,217 was transferred to
Educational
Yeshiva Ateret Cohanim
Jerusalem, Israel
* $483,557 was spent on fundraising, of which $80,007 went to Shani (Shoshana) Hikind, wife of New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, "well-known supporter of the Israeli right."
Charity Navigator's current rating for American Friends of Ateret Cohanim is only 1 star (of a possible 4), with by far the lowest score of the organizations ostensibly doing similar educational work.
Significantly, I think, the link from Charity Navigator to the organization's website goes to Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim, the true religious-educational organization that does not actually receive funds from American Friends of Ateret Cohanim.
Evidently, it's not just the American Friends group that's involved in funding this kind of settlement activity. Bloomberg reports:
Renco Group Inc. founder Ira Rennert and bingo entrepreneur Irving Moskowitz are among U.S. donors who have given $25.4 million in five years to build Jewish homes in Arab parts of Jerusalem -- the same areas where President Barack Obama is pressing Israel to stop such construction.
* * *
Plans to build homes for Jews in that part of the city are "the type of issue that should be subject to permanent-status negotiations" in the Middle East peace process, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on July 20.
* * *
The American contributions, detailed in Internal Revenue Service records, have gone to organizations such as Ateret Cohanim. The group says it bought at least 45 properties, most in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, to advance its goal of settling a Jewish majority in the now predominantly Arab Old City.
Last March, in A Tax Break Fuels Middle East Friction, David Ignatius reported in The Washington Post on another 501(c)(3) organization used to channel funds for settlement activities, Friends of Ir David, which reportedly raised more than $10,000,000 over the past five years. Igantius thought "[t]here's nothing illegal about the charitable contributions to pro-settlement organizations." Not being a tax lawyer, I can't say either way. But I wasn't able to find Ir David's Form 990 to see whether there's any apparent fraud in the organization's description of its purpose or activities.
Ignatius quotes Americans for Peace Now spokesperson Ori Nir:
"This is an issue that has not gotten the attention it deserves," said Ori Nir, a spokesman for Americans for Peace Now, a lobbying group that opposes settlements. "I don't know how many people, including in the U.S. government, realize the extent of private American funding to settlements. . . . Every dollar that goes to settlements makes Middle East peace that much harder to reach."
Whatever one's views on the I-P conflict, we all should be able to oppose the falsification of tax filings to produce tax deductions that are improper because, instead being used to support a valid educational purpose, they instead are being used for a political purpose.
I suggest contacting:
* The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
* the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
* the Internal Revenue Service
You also may want to inquire about American Friends of Ateret Cohanim itself.
The telephone number for the organization itself is 212-216-9270. When I called, I heard a voicemail message identifying the organization as the "Jerusalem Reclamation Project, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim" (pdf).
Assemblyman Dov Hikind's district office telephone number is 718-853-9616. His Albany office telephone number is 518-455-5721.