The Central Fund of Israel is an American non-profit association which funds projects in Israel, including pro-

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

groups.

Uri Blau Uri Blau (; born 1977) is an Israeli investigative journalist who writes for ''Haaretz'' and other publications. His work focuses on military affairs, corruption and "follow the money" investigations. Blau was convicted of possession of classified ...

,
'Haaretz Investigation: U.S. Donors Gave Settlements More Than $220 Million in Tax-exempt Funds Over Five Years,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

7 December 2015. It is run out of the Marcus Brothers Textiles store on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Its director is Jay Marcus. Itamar Marcus is a former vice president of the fund.

Fund recipients

According to its director, the CFI donated in 2009 approximately $13 million to programs that included social-humanitarian, medical, education, religious, security and community projects. The fund also supports Women in Green and Honenu, a legal aid group which supports right-wing activists. There are financial links between the fund and Im Tirtzu, for whom it is the main channel for donations. In May 2021,

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...

reported, "Since 2011, the CFI has given the Israel Land Fund over $720,000 for its settlement activities, according to documents filed to Israeli regulators and reviewed by The Intercept. In 2017, the Central Fund of Israel’s donation constituted 99.2 percent of the Israel Land Fund’s total budget." The organization was among a number of US groups reported by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' as using tax exempt status to help fund the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

project in the

occupied territories Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling powe ...

. ''

'' described the fund as a "prominent clearing house" used by dozens of

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

organisations as "a vehicle for channeling donations back to themselves" in order for donors to receive US tax breaks. The Central Fund of Israel funds right-wing Zionist organisations operating in the occupied territories. Funds were reportedly directed to the

Od Yosef Chai Od Yosef Chai, also known as Od Yosef Hai (Hebrew: עוד יוסף חי, Joseph still lives) is a yeshiva situated in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Od Yosef Chai includes several related institutions; a yeshiva high school, a yeshiva gedol ...

yeshiva. The yeshiva, located in the West Bank had come under scrutiny after Yitzhak Shapira, a rabbi at the yeshiva, said it is permissible to kill Palestinian babies because of "the future danger that will arise if they are allowed to grow into evil people like their parents." The Israel Land Fund, a benefactor of the Central Fund of Israel, "assisted in the eviction of a Palestinian family in

Sheikh Jarrah Sheikh Jarrah (, ) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a physician of Saladin, located ...

in 2017".

Opposition

The

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) states that it is "the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States." According to its webpage, it is open to people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicitie ...

has filed a number of complaints with the US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service over organizations, such as the Central Fund of Israel, that fund settlement development in the West Bank.

References

External links

*{{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer, 132992985 Israeli-American culture in New York City Israeli-American history Jewish organizations based in New York City Non-profit organizations based in New York City Zionist organizations in the United States Organizations involved in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict