From Adalah-NY's statement about tonight's fundraiser in NY for the Hebron Fund, which supports colonialists in the West Bank:
Kathleen Duffy, a spokesperson for Marriott in New York City,…did not respond directly to questions about seeming violations of the Marriott’s Human Rights Policy Statement which notes the Marriott’s respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and says that the Marriott “endeavors to remain ”free from complicity in human rights abuses.” All Israeli settlements violate international law, according to a broad international consensus. Duffy noted that in the past the Marriott cancelled the event of a group linked with white supremacist David Duke. On the Hebron Fund webpage, clicking on the symbol which says “Give to Hebron” leads to a donations page on the website for the Jewish Community of Hebron which says, among other things, “keep Hebron Jewish for the Jewish people.” In a report on Hebron, the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and ACRI have labeled the demands of Hebron’s settlers as “racist.”
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Should make SOG happy, this inconsistency by Marriott. He can't get enough of Palestinian school girls getting stoned. Every morning he says a prayer for more of 1994, when Baruch Goldstein, a Hebron settler who grew up in Brooklyn, executed 29 Palestinians as they prayed at a mosque in Hebron.
Just keep on creating more "facts on the ground." That's the Hebron Fund's deal.
Hebron calls for donations saying, “Dozens of new families can now come live in Hebron… waiting for you to be their partners in the redemption of Hebron-"
An August 25, 2008 Reuters article points out the contradiction that, “The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians — yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.” Reuters notes that US non-profits like the Hebron Fund fundraise for settlements even as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “has pressed Israel to cut its own financial incentives for settlers.”
According to the Hebron Funds US tax forms, the purpose of the organization is to “advance public knowledge and disseminate information”, and to raise money for various “educational, religious and medical institutions located in Hebron.” There is no mention of settlement construction.
Maybe real Americans should go after Hebron Fund as they do the
Arab non-profit corporations.
It looks like the Hebron Fund supporters have raised the bar on David Duke by adding loyalty to a foreign nation to race supremacy. My guess is that Duke can't make the leap.
This reminds me of the $10 million offered by American radicals to buy the property of the elderly Palestinian couple who were recently evicted from their home in Jerusalem. Only after they refused the money were they evicted. It says a lot about how sure the colonists were of the validity of their claim to the property that they were willing to pay TEN MILLION DOLLARS for it.
This Hebron Fund article makes me wonder if offering money huge amounts of money is standard operating procedure. If you don't take the money, you will lose in the courts, get evicted, and end up with nothing. I'm sure word gets around, and targeted Palestinians know that they might as well take the money, because they will lose anyway. And if the targeted Palestinian does take the money, essentially under blackmail, the colonists can then point to the bill of sale and say this was sold to us fair and square, nothing to see here, move along. Surely this violates American racketeering laws if the money comes from our country?
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