[News] US Citizens Funding Defense of Suspected Killers of Palestinian Teen

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  ProPublica: US Funding Defense of Suspected Killers of Palestinian Teen

author Friday July 11, 2014 05:52author by Uri Blau - 
*http://www.imemc.org/article/68426*

    A controversial Israeli organization that is representing the six
    men recently arrested in the recent revenge killing of a Palestinian
    teenager is receiving thousands of dollars in tax-deductible support
    from Americans. The group, called Honenu (which roughly translates
    to "pardon"), supports Israelis charged with or convicted of
    violence against Palestinians.

Honenu's work goes well goes beyond legal aid.

The group says it also provides "spiritual" and "financial" assistance 
to prisoners and their families. Among those Honenu has helped: Yigal 
Amir, assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 
<http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ih/9781156067437>; an Israeli convicted 
of murdering seven Palestinians at a bus stop; and an Israeli soldier 
convicted of manslaughter and obstruction of justice after shooting a 
British photographer in Gaza.

The tax-exempt donations do not appear to run afoul of U.S. law. But 
they do put U.S. taxpayers in the position of subsidizing aid to 
Israelis convicted of politically motivated violence.

Asked about the group's work, Honenu spokesman Eran Schwartz said the 
organization "provides much help to Israeli police, soldiers and 
citizens who are entitled, as are all people, to legal defense." 
Schwartz declined to answer our other questions, including about the 
group's financial support that goes beyond legal defense. (See their 
full statement below.)

Honenu's latest filing to the Israeli government shows it overall budget 
for 2012 was nearly $600,000, about $120,000 of which went to legal aid, 
$34,000 to "financial assistance," and the rest to salaries and 
overhead. (Here is Honenu's filing, in Hebrew.)

The group, which was founded in 2001, uses an American nonprofit as 
conduit for donations. Honenu's website, which advertises that "your 
contribution is tax-deductible," says checks should be made out to 
"Central Fund of Israel," or CFI. As the New York Times detailed in 
2010, the Central Fund of Israel serves as a "clearinghouse" for 
donations to hundreds of groups in Israel, some of them supporting 
settlements.

CFI has grown almost continuously since it was founded in 1979 by 
members of the Marcus family, who own a New York textile company.

Operating from Manhattan's garment district, CFI received about $16 
million in 2012, according to the Fund's latest filing with the Internal 
Revenue Service. Jay Marcus, who now runs CFI, said donations in 2013 
reached about $19 million.

In the Fund's filings with the IRS, it lists donations to Israeli groups 
as going to "social services, humanitarian aid, and aid to the poor."

Marcus confirmed in a phone call that his organization transfers 
donations to Honenu. "They are a legal aid society," he said.

Honenu's filing with the Israeli government shows the group received 
about $120,000 from CFI in 2012. The documents identify another $12,000 
coming from "Honenu USA." A nonprofit organization with that name 
operated from Queens, New York and last filed a report to the Internal 
Revenue Service in 2010, stating it had received contributions of 
$33,000. It is not clear if Honenu USA is still active.

Marcus Owens, a lawyer who ran the IRS's nonprofit unit in the 1990s 
said such donations can fall into a tricky area: "While providing legal 
assistance to those accused of crimes is a long-standing charitable 
purpose (e.g. the American Civil Liberties Union), providing assistance 
to relatives of those convicted of crimes has been viewed by the US 
government as potentially encouraging further criminal action."

The State Department's recent annual report on terrorism included, for 
the first time, attacks by Israelis against Palestinians, citing a rise 
in "violent acts by extremist Jewish individuals and groups in 
retaliation for activity they deemed to be anti-settlement."

If you have experience with or information about American nonprofits 
supporting extremists in Israel, email Uri Blau or tweet him @uri_blau. 
Blau is an Israeli investigative journalist specialized in military and 
political affairs, corruption and transparency. He was a 2014 Nieman 
Fellow <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ih/9781155376905>for Journalism 
at Harvard University.

Full response from Honenu

As our article details, Honenu is an Israeli group that received 
tax-deductible donations from the United States and supports Israelis 
charged with or convicted of violence against Palestinians. We asked 
Honenu for comment prior to our article. This is their full response:

Honenu's response to article by Uri Blau. The reporter, Uri Blau was 
convicted of severe crimes of espionage against Israel which attests to 
his motives and his anti-Israel and anti-Semitic interests. To date, we 
have not heard him expressing regret for his criminal actions. Honenu 
provides much help to Israeli police, soldiers and citizens who are 
entitled, as are all people, to legal defense. We will not cooperate 
with a convicted criminal whose goal is to damage Israelis and Jews.

The author of our article, freelancer Uri Blau, was convicted in 2012 in 
Israel of holding classified military documents he received as a 
reporter. The International Press Institute condemned the case against 
Blau as "undermining press freedom in general and investigative 
journalism in particular" in Israel. Here is more on Blau's case and 
press freedoms in Israel.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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