Former Ambassador Says U.S. Should Block Charity Aid to Settlers

When former U.S. Ambassador Marc Ginsberg learned that the Israeli settler group Ateret Cohanim had taken possession of two properties in East Jerusalem and evicted its Palestinian tenants, he saw it as a crucial flaw in U.S. tax policy. American donors to such groups receive tax breaks to fund these Israeli settlers.

According to The Forward (Nov. 7, 2014), “In the view of Ginsberg — a self- described Zionist who served as America’s first-ever Jewish ambassador to an Arab country — Alteret Cohanim’s action was another sign that the U.S. government should take action to stop this flow of funds. First, he said, the Treasury Department should go after funding of actions prohibited under Israeli law, such as funding of illegal outposts in the West Bank. Then the department should deal with donations to groups like Ateret Cohanim. ‘I would welcome the Treasury Department also examining closely funding of activities that contravene U.S. policies,’ he said.”

In an Oct. 15 piece in The Huffington Post, Ginsberg argued that the Obama administration could block many such donations by simply enforcing existing IRS regulations. In his article, Ginsberg, who was an aide to Senator Edward Kennedy and a Middle East adviser to President Carter, urged the administration to “give a green light to its agency officials to begin turning the screws to these American subsidizers of Israel’s illegal settlement operation.”

Ginsberg, who served as President Clinton’s envoy to Morocco from 1994 to 1998, describes himself as “Zionist as they come.” He currently serves as CEO of OneVoice, a group that supports a two-state solution and believes that ending tax breaks that support West Bank settlement should be part of the mainstream peace camp agenda.

He points out that Israel itself ended a decade ago tax breaks devoted exclusively to settlement building. “So, here we have American nonprofits funding what Israeli law prevents Israel’s government from doing itself.” •