by Yair Altman and Israel Hayom Staff
In scathing letter, Israeli legal watchdog Shurat Hadin warns Rockefeller Brothers Fund that its support of groups that advocate boycotting Israel could cause the fund to be "considered complicit and as a participant in these groups' illegal activities."
Attorney and Shurat Hadin
Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
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Photo credit: Yossi Zeliger  |
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has given
anti-Israel BDS organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center.
In a scathing letter to the RBF earlier this
month, the Israeli legal watchdog group warned the RBF that its support
of groups that advocate boycotting Israel could cause the fund to be
"considered complicit and as a participant in these groups' illegal
activities."
The fund, which belongs to the Rockefeller
family, donates especially large sums of money to various institutions
in Israel and abroad, which according to the allegations include Israeli
and Palestinian human rights groups that publicly support the BDS
movement.
Shurat Hadin claimed that in 2015 the RBF
granted $140,000 to Jewish Voice for Peace; $20,000 to Zochrot; $50,000
to the American Friends Service Committee's Israel program; and $100,000
to the Al-Shabaka organization.
In its letter to the RBF, Shurat Hadin wrote:
"The BDS movement's efforts constitute unlawful discrimination on the
basis of national origin, race, and religion under the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
('Anti-Racism Convention') and numerous U.S. federal and state statutes,
including New York law. Funding organizations that promote BDS raises
serious legal issues for RBF. Accordingly, we strongly advise you to
consider whether RBF should continue to provide financial backing to
these hate groups who promote BDS against Israel and Israeli companies,
individuals, and products."
Shurat Hadin Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
said: "It is even more difficult for me to understand how the children
of such an esteemed father can allow the fund honoring their father's
legacy to be involved in racist and discriminatory activity. ... Shurat
Hadin will not hesitate to take legal steps against these organizations
and those who fund them if they try to or perpetrate any boycott of
Israel."
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund said in response: "While
the foundation does not support the call for BDS, we stand behind all
the organizations supported by the fund and which work for a just and
peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians."
Yair Altman and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=33135&hp=1
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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