Policy Research Note
Donations, Illegal Settlements and Terror Attacks against the US
Sixty Billion Dollars for Illegal Settlements
Israeli government officials recently disclosed that at least US $60 billion has been spent financing illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. According to Israeli prosecutor Talia Sasson, the Israeli government has systematically violated its own laws by financing settlements from foreign donations, the official state budget and secret military accounts. One global nonprofit, the World Zionist Organization, played a central role in coordinating illegal settlement activities.
Opaque and fungible assets freed up by massive yearly US foreign aid to Israel are pouring into settlement development and infrastructure building designed to partition key Palestinian territories and annex others to the state of Israel. US nonprofits are directly and indirectly financing the coordination of illegal settlement building, encroachment, and violence against Palestinians. Recently disclosed charitable contributions from US lobbyist Jack Abramoff laundered to finance violent armed Israeli activity in the Palestinian territories is only the tip of the iceberg. Considered against the findings of a groundbreaking new study revealing the causes of suicide terrorism, Americans must confront a disturbing question: “Are tax exempt donations from the US generating terrorist retaliation against America?”