A movement of over 150 Palestinian organizations, village councils, and activists have launched the Campaign to Defund Racism. The campaign calls on US supporters to pressure New York Attorney General Letitia James, the state’s chief legal officer, to revoke the charitable licenses of New York-based organizations that fund Israeli settlement.
The campaign takes aim at the charities funding Elad, Israel Land Fund, and Ateret Cohanim – the main settler organizations at work in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, communities that are currently at risk of eviction.
The Israeli settler movement drives Israeli policy. It sets the agenda, develops the tactics to erase Palestinian communities. The organizations exploit US charitable laws to finance their system of apartheid. Join the Palestinian campaign to #DefundRacism https://t.co/mFryvVpeq8 pic.twitter.com/QGeC3tl212
— Good Shepherd Collective (@Shepherds4Good) July 21, 2021
“Israeli settler organizations have funneled US charitable money into a political campaign of displacement. Right now, over 100 homes and some 1,500 Palestinians in Silwan are facing displacement in favor of a theme park run on Palestinian lands by the settler organization Elad,” said Sami Huraini, a Palestinian activist with Youth of Sumud, a grassroots organization based in Atuwani, Palestine. “Clearly, this is not the intended outcome of US charitable tax law.”
From 1999 to 2020, just six of the US-based charities funding Israeli settler organizations targeted by the campaign tallied $392,083,641.00 in gross receipts on their tax forms. With an urgency to push back on settler organizations displacing communities in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and the Jordan Valley, Palestinian organizers are mobilizing US solidarity groups, shifting strategies, and developing new tactics to cut millions of dollars going to the settler movement.
Elad & Ateret Cohanim have secured millions of $$, exploiting the US charitable system to finance the wholesale displacement and erasure of indigenous communities in Silwan. The New Attorney General has the power to stop this! Join the Palestinian call to https://t.co/Sc1QULk5wv
— IPMN of PCUSA (@IPMN) July 21, 2021
On July 27, several US groups, including Al-Awda New York, Within Our Lifetime, NY 4 Palestine, Samidoun, and American Muslims for Palestine (NJ Chapter) will hold a protest in Brooklyn to address New York AG Letitia James.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
