Does ‘the thief of Jerusalem’ deserve US aid? (Update)

Hell’s been breaking out in East Jerusalem, exacerbated by Israeli settlers occupying 23 more homes in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan on September 30th.

We’re late on this, but Rabbi Jill Jacobs (of the human rights group T’ruah) wrote a killer article published in the Washington Post last week. “You, American taxpayer, are helping to fund Israeli settlements,” is a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred informative article that’s fresh and very timely. Jacobs takes a teeth-grindingly-long-argued topic and makes it fresh. I’m not sure I’ve ever even read an article in the mainstream media challenging the legality behind the US tax status of American donations that non profits funnel to Elad, buying up East Jerusalem and placing illegal Jewish settlements on occupied land.

Elad, the settler group that organized this incursion, raises $6 million a year in the United States through the Friends of Ir David Foundation. As a nonprofit, donations to FIDF are tax deductible; funders can write off their gifts, which means that all of us who pay U.S. taxes helped subsidize the new settlement. That’s in direct opposition to official U.S. policy, which seeks a two-state solution and prohibits American aid to settlements over the Green Line.

If U.S. policy prohibits American aid to illegal settlements, why can’t it challenge nonprofits using tax subsidies to fund the takeover of occupied Palestine?

After calling Elad’s appropriation of Palestinian property in Jerusalem a “hostile takeover,” Jacobs unleashes a full throttle assault characterizing Elad as representing “the worst kind of thief” in the Torah, and then saying Americans are complicit!

While it will take some time to sort out the legal issues, we can say this: A person who has legally purchased a new home does not generally move in under cover of night, flanked by riot police.

There is a special category in Jewish law for this kind of action. In the Talmud, the students of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai ask why the Torah deals more severely with a burglar than with a mugger. Their teacher’s response: A mugger, who robs face-to-face, fears neither human beings nor God. But a burglar, who sneaks in when no one is looking, is afraid of human beings but shows no fear of God. In its use of subterfuge, shadow companies, and dead-of-night incursions, Elad represents the worst kind of thief.

And Americans, Elad donors and pilgrims to Israel, are, in some indirect but important way, complicit. Jewish law strongly forbids aiding or abetting a thief. In one of the most important guides to Jewish law, Moses Maimonides rules that “It is forbidden to purchase stolen goods from the thief. . . for anyone who does such things or similar ones strengthens the hands of sinners. . . it is [also] forbidden to derive any benefit from a stolen object.” Those of us who donate to Elad, or pay admission to the Ir David archaeological site, aid and abet those who steal homes and land in order to prevent peace. As we ooh and aah over the excavations, we derive pleasure from these thefts.

Note that former Clinton ambassador Marc Ginsberg has landed on the same tax giveaway to Ir David, in a piece at Huffpo slamming the “runaway train” of settlement construction.

Every penny donated to non profits is money stripped from our federal budget, therefore it should buttress, benefit and represent our national interests. And contrary to the idea we’re continually bombarded with by the media, Americans are not enthralled by the amount of ‘aid’ we shovel to Israel as it is.

A recent Google Consumer Survey (interactive) of nearly 1700 respondents fielded by Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) revealed that over 60% of Americans think the 3 billion we give Israel annually is either “Too much” or “Much too much”.

Update:
We urge everyone to interact with the Google Consumer Survey and check out the results for the varying demographics of age groups as well as results for distinct regions of the country. For example, 66% of young American adults (25 – 34) said U.S. aid to Israel was excessive. And in rural American over 67% of respondents agreed.

IRmep released a survey of the report American Public Opinion on U.S. Aid to Israel (pdf) by Grant Smith for further analysis.