US Rabbi Jill Jackson called on US Jews to stop funding what it described as “Jewish terrorism”, which is practiced by right-wing Jewish extremists against the Palestinians, with the support of a complex network of funding sources in both Israel and America, saying that this is a “moral imperative.”
Jackson said – in an article in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper – that most American Jews do not support, neither financially nor in any way, institutions that provide financial grants to extremist groups in Israel, but some Jewish organizations that are “major” in America play a role in Directing the funds to the “Israeli Central Fund”, the American institution that funds most of the Israeli extremists.
Jackson – who is also executive director of the “Hebrew Call for Human Rights” organization known as “T’ruah”, an organization that includes about 2,000 Jewish rabbis and preachers, and is concerned with defending human rights in the United States, Canada, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories – stated The Israeli Central Fund “last year alone provided $ 40 million in grants to extremists inside Israel.”
Beneficiaries of this support included Israeli organizations such as Hemla, a non-profit organization that helps Israeli girls “at risk of coercion to convert” from Judaism to other religions, and Honenu, which advocates for Israelis arrested on terrorism charges. And it provides money directly to those convicted of them, and the “Od Yosef Chai” Talmudic school, which is famous for violence against Palestinians, and one of whose rabbis was recently convicted of incitement.
The Israel Land Fund, which uses “semi-legal” or illegal means to acquire Palestinian property, has also benefited from the same support, and Mishmeret Yesha, which trains and equips Jewish guards in the West Bank, and Im Tirtzu, which incites against Israeli human rights activists.
Jackson stated that over the past years, the organization she runs has also submitted many complaints to the tax authority about tax-exempt institutions in the United States transferring funds to the Israeli far-right “Lehava” group that calls for the expulsion of Palestinians to Arab countries and annexation of the West Bank. Occupied and banned Christian Christmas celebrations.
She emphasized that issuing statements condemning extremist violence or pretending that they represent only a marginal point of view is not sufficient. Rather, everyone who believes in the need to safeguard the rights of Palestinians and Israelis alike in the United States must ensure that the institutions with which they are associated do not contribute to supporting extremist right-wing groups. That incites genocide and violence. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rYDQi8oBXhA?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=ar&autohide=2&wmode=transparent
Declaration of Principles
Some of the basic steps in this context may include – as Jackson adds – issuing declarations of principles prohibiting funding for groups that promote violence or extremism, as the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco did, and ensuring that individual donors who actively invest in supporting violent extremism inside Israel are not honored and donated. Leading positions among the Jewish community in America.
Jackson believes that cutting funding to these extremist groups will unfortunately not be sufficient to end the violence that has arisen under five decades of occupation, as millions of US dollars are pouring in from private actors, both Jewish and Christian, to build settlements and support right-wing politics in Israel. Advertising
Jackson concludes that all American Jews committed to human rights must unite to confront all these forces, and refusing to finance the inciters of genocide and honoring the funders of extremist movements inside Israel will be an important first step towards proving that the American Jewish community rejects violence against Palestinians and their property.