Far-right Israeli groups attacking Gaza aid received over $200,000 from donors
Israeli right-wing activists destroy humanitarian aid on trucks at the Tarqumiyah border crossing in the West Bank, on 13 May 2024
Middle East Eye reports on 16 July 2024:
Israeli far-right groups accused of attacking aid convoys to the Gaza Strip have raised more than $200,000 on crowdfunding sites from donors in the US and Israel, where the contributions can be deducted from the individuals’ taxes.
Donations to the groups have poured in on Givechack, an Israeli crowdfunding site, and JGive, a US and Israeli crowdfunding site, according to a report by the Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site, Shomrim, based on open source inspections of the websites and other public records. Charitable contributions are tax-deductible in the US and Israel.
Groups working to get aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave told the AP and Shomrim that “incentivizing these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America’s and Israel’s stated commitments to allow unlimited food, water and medicine into Gaza”.
One of the groups, Mother’s March, raised the equivalent of over $125,000 on Givechack and $13,000 on JGive.
Tzav 9 raised over $85,000 from around 1,500 donors in the US and Israel on JGive. The Tzav 9 group has been blocking aid convoys en route to Gaza since January, arguing that Palestinians should not be able to access aid until the hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023 are released.
The group has claimed responsibility for blocking aid shipments from Jordan in the occupied West Bank and ransacking the aid deliveries from trucks. In June, the US sanctioned Tsav 9, which also has ties to Israeli army reservists and settlers in the occupied West Bank, saying its activities included the blocking, harassing and damaging of aid shipments.