NEWS PROVIDED BY
Virginia Coalition for Human Rights
RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — A plurality of Virginians (38.1%) favor ending taxpayer funding for Israeli business ventures in the commonwealth according to a Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) poll fielded by Google Surveys.
32.7% of Virginians were neutral about discontinuing subsidies, while 29.2% disagreed. The representative September 22 to October 4 poll of 2,110 Virginians is available online from Google.
VCHR, a coalition of 16 organizations representing over 8,000 Virginians, is concerned unconditional funding for Israeli business projects fails to consider Israel’s worsening human rights record and disengagement from peace efforts. In 2018 Israeli forces have shot, wounded and killed hundreds of mostly unarmed Palestinian protesters.
State Israel advocacy organizations lobbied to create and staff a taxpayer-funded state government office to exclusively promote Israeli business projects called the Virginia-Israel Advisory Board (VIAB) in 1996.
VCHR has reviewed and publicly posted disturbing VIAB internal files released by the Governor’s office.
VIAB code-named an Israeli aquaculture bid “Project Jonah” to obtain $1 million from Tazewell County, while Virginia Tech was asked to secure another $500,000 from local and federal sources in 2015. VIAB worked unsuccessfully to bring El Al Israel Airlines into Dulles. A VIAB board member sought to promote an Israeli energy company she ran. Successful or not, Virginia taxpayers cover the cost of VIAB operations and reimbursement of its officials. Internal governor’s office email characterized VIAB success stories as “…inflated without merit.”
Some Virginians may oppose subsidizing Israeli business ventures because, as stated in the poll “Virginia had a $500 million trade deficit with Israel in 2017.” The overall 2017 U.S. trade deficit with Israel was $9.3 billion.