Published: 7 April 2024
Last updated: 9 April 2024
The Taxation Commissioner has been asked to clarify claims that the Jewish National Fund Australia (JNF), along with other Australian charities, has “solicited and funnelled donations to support illegal settlement activities” in the occupied West Bank.
In a letter dated March 22, the Federal Member for Bruce, Julian Hill, MP, said “profound concerns have been raised by many Australians and civil society organisations with relation to Australia’s involvement in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise”.
In addition to JNF, the other organisations named in the letter were the Christians for Israel Foundation and the Ariel University Australia Trust.
Mr Hill said the issues had been raised “over many years”, including by the Australian Jewish Democratic society, the New Israel Fund and human rights organisations in Australia, Israel and internationally.
Mr Hill said his letter followed recent reports by media outlets alleging that donations by these groups had been used to fund illegal settlement activities in the West Bank.
The letter asked for a response to the media reports, and also for answers to four specific questions:
Are donations made to not-for-profit (NFP) organisations which support Israeli settler activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories rewarded with tax deductible concessions?
Can you confirm that the Australia-Israel 2019 Convention for the elimination of double taxation only applies to land within the pre-67 borders?
Do provisions exist under Australian law for the removal of tax-deductible status for NFP organisations supporting illegal settler activity in the occupied territories?
What financial sanctions could be implemented to punish those who act in breach of any such prohibition?
The Jewish Independent approached JNF Australia for a response to Mr Hill’s letter but had not received any reply at the time of publication.
Comments1
Wesley Parish10 April at 08:00 am
Could you please drop the scare quotes around “illegal”? It’s amateurish. The Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a State Party, Article 49, states the following: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its
own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Ergo, Israel, the Occupying Power, is in material breach of its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention through its settlement project. And anything Australia does that permits support by Australian citizens of the illegal settler enterprise, is a crime, particularly when the settlers have been committing terror against the Palestinians. Australia was and is party to a number of US anti-terrorism policies; it’s frankly racist not to apply them to the Israel West Bank settler enterprise.