A rights organization has filed a complaint in the United States against an Israeli group for using US taxpayer money to sponsor “Jewish terrorism” against Palestinians.
In the lawsuit, T'ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, asked the New York state Attorney General’s Office to investigate Honenu, a New York-based Israeli nonprofit organization that provides financial support to Jewish settlers convicted of or on trial for violence against Palestinians.
The complaint also names Honenu’s fiscal sponsor, the Central Fund of Israel, according to Israeli media.
Since 2003, Honenu has operated a fundraising program in the state of New York. The tax-exempt Israeli organization raised $233,700 in 2010, the last year for which official data is available, according to tax filings.
Israeli media say Honenu’s budget for 2013 was approximately $600,000.
In one instance in 2013, the organization provided funds to the family of an Israeli convicted of killing seven Palestinians in May 1990.
The lawsuit follows a recent expose by Israel’s Channel 10 about Israeli settlers’ crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The television program was aired earlier this month in the aftermath of the July 31 firebombing of a Palestinian home in the West Bank by Israeli settlers in which a Palestinian baby and his father were burned to death.
In a statement issued hours after the incident, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the “brutal assassination” of the Palestinian infant, stressing that the regime in Tel Aviv bears “full responsibility” for the arson attack.
Earlier this month, Israel released all suspects held in connection with the arson attack in the village of Duma.