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Moskowitz
and settler violence
In
these days when Muslim charities are shut down on the basis of accusations
of supporting violent organizations, Moskowitz continues to fund settlers
in Jerusalem and Hebron who are known for terrorizing Palestinians and destroying
their property. We have seen no evidence that Moskowitz has ever condemned
settler violence and, in several instances the Coalition has found, he appears
to condone it.
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[Click
here for two news reports about settler violence [in
.pdf format]]
[More news reports about settler violence in this section]
Mother Jones magazine published a report on Moskowitz in its Sept-Oct. 2000 issue
that included interviews with many of the his associates, most notably a
longtime Moskowitz friend, who remarked that the bingo magnate "makes no
secret of his hostility toward Arabs -- and toward Jews who seek reconciliation."
The longtime friend, Robert Silverstein, who grew up with Moskowitz in Milwaukee,
said "I can't believe he's dong this to cause peace between Arabs and Jews,"
He also recounted a conversation with Moskowitz soon after a right-wing activist
assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in an ideologically driven effort
to kill the peace process.
As Mother Jones recounts it:
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In
November 1995, Silverstein was preparing to visit the doctor in Miami. Prime
Minister Yitzchak Rabin of Israel had just been assassinated. "I called him
to set up the meeting," Silverstein recalls. "There was a pause in the conversation,
and I said this business with Rabin is too much. Suddenly there was a cold
silence. Then he said, 'You don't know all the facts.'" Shocked, Silverstein
concluded that Moskowitz supported the assassins. He soon called back to
say he wouldn't be visiting, ending the men's lifelong friendship.
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A
Moskowitz-Sponsored Hate Web Site
In 2001 Moskowitz's wife –
and partner in the casino—Cherna Moskowitz sponsored
a website "game" of destroying top Israeli leaders who
favor peace with the Palestinians.  The
animation-based game invited "players" to click on –and
explode-- images of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Parliament Member Yosi
Sarid. The exploding faces were accompanied by the sound
of screaming.
What does this have to do with the
controversy in Hawaiian Gardens? As explained in a Yedioth Aharonot story
from February 21, 2001, the website is registered to Cherna Moskowitz, the
wife of Irving Moskowitz. [see the article on the Assassination Game page]
After this game was exposed in
the Israeli press, the Internet hosting company took it down. But we saved
it to show California officials its violent nature – evidence that the Moskowitzes
do not have the good character required by California law of applicants for
a gambling license.
[You can view the game by clicking here.] |
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Moskowitz
website posts call for expulsion of Palestinians from
their homeland
http://www.ourjerusalem.com/opinion/story/opinion20020905a.html
On
September 5, 2002, Irving Moskowitz posted on his website www.ourjerusalem.com
a call by columnist Gary M. Cooperberg to expel Palestinians. Cooperberg
writes: "I believe in a different "Gaza First" plan. First we should move
all of our Arab population to Gaza, and then we can deport them elsewhere,
outside of Israel. Unless we are prepared to move our enemies out of our
homeland altogether, we are doomed to suffer more acts of terror." He also
writes: "we cannot afford to guess which Arabs will and which will not come
to murder us. They all must be removed before more Jews get murdered. The
Ostrich has its own peace plan. When danger approaches it buries its head
in the sand and chooses not to accept reality. This is exactly how the Israeli
government is behaving. Pretending that speaking and negotiating with the
PLO will bring peace fools no one but ourselves."
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Maximalist
Christians and Jews
The
articles below point to the curious and ominous alliance between traditional
"end-of-the-world" Christians waiting for Jesus and their Jewish counterparts
whose theology requires that the Muslim Mosque complex Omar and Al Aksa (the
Dome of the Rock) be replaced with the restored ancient temple and all of
Jerusalem "purified" of non-Jews. Ateret Cohanim, the radical settler group
to which Moskowitz has given $5.63 million, trains men who assert priestly
descent to resume a 1900-year old practice of animal sacrifices. Ateret Cohanim
might be a Yeshiva (school for advanced religious study) but its curriculum
of temple revival practices puts it in a category of one. Muslims perceive
a threat from both the Christian and Jewish fundamentalists encroaching on
the complex, Haram al -Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). Jewish, Christian and
Muslim peacemakers, prefer to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on
the pragmatic issues of land, water, dignity and coexistence. |
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Will
fundamentalist Christians and Jews ignite apocalypse?
Pt 1
by Margo Patterson
11 October 2002
National Catholic Reporter
Margo
Patterson notes the closeness between "...the intransigence of certain Christian
fundamentalists mirrors that of many right-wing Israelis, notably the ultra-nationalist
religious settlers on the West Bank who view the conquest of the West Bank
as part of a plan for divine redemption and who oppose a peace settlement
that would involve Israel ceding any inch of territory it controls. For many
of these settlers, rebuilding the Temple, an activity that would almost inevitably
involve the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third-holiest site,
which is believed to lie on the ruins of the old Temple, has become a rallying
cry."
Hebron:
a West Bank Magnet for Trouble, Pt 2
by Margot Patterson
18 October 2002
National Catholic Reporter
Patterson
reports on how extremist Jewish settlers are affecting life in the predominantly
West Bank city of Hebron. She quotes Lewis Roth of Americans for Peace Now,
saying that "Hebron has attracted some of the most reactionary elements of
the settlement movement." and that "the settlers not only harass the Palestinians
around them but they harass the police and the soldiers who are sent to protect
them." She also quotes a settler spokesman saying: "We shouldn’t give up
one inch of Israel, whether this will bring war or not. We’re in the middle
of a war because the Arabs are trying to take over bit by bit the whole of
Israel."
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Bingo
Tycoon Subsidizes Extremism in Israel
by Margot Patterson
18 October 2002
National Catholic Reporter
Irving
Moskowitz has disrupted the peace process in Israel by purchasing land from
Palestinians and supporting Jewish settlement in Palestinian neighborhoods.
Curbs
on Muslim charities seen as double standard: Some say
Treasury is allowing Israeli groups to operate
by Chris Di Edoardo
27 December 2001
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Area
activists say the U.S. Treasury is using a double standard when it freezes
the assets of Muslim charities while allowing Israeli groups to operate.
The
Treasury is "closing a legitimate charitable organization that, as far as
anyone knows, is doing legitimate charitable work," said Aziz Eddebbarh,
spokesman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Southern Nevada. "Meanwhile,
we look the other way when people use tax-free money to build illegal settlements
in occupied territory."
Eddebbarh is referring to the Irving I. Moskowitz
Foundation, which is based in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., near Los Angeles.
With tax-free revenue generated by a bingo club, Moskowitz has bought land
in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem and transferred title to Jewish migrants.
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We already have a "Road Map"
by Gary M. Cooperberg
25 March 2003
"We
can argue as to whether or not Arafat and his followers are truly descendants
of Amalek, but there can be no doubt that no Jewish government has the right
to give away Jewish land to anyone, much less to enemies of the Jewish people.
In the Passover Seder it says, "In every generation there are those who rise
up to destroy us, but Hashem, in His mercy always rescues us from them."
It is one thing to depend upon God's mercy, but another thing entirely to
actually oppose God by aiding our enemies in their effort to destroy us."
What is Amalek? According
to Amnon Rubinstein (The Zionist Dream Revisited: From Herzl to Gush Emunim
and Back, Schoken: 1984, p. 116) "The Deuteronomy injunction to smite Amalek
and 'blot out his memory' is taken, despite all religious evidence to the
contrary, as referring to the Arabs. Consequently, and because Israel's wars
are described as a 'war of religious obligation,' ordinary rules of humanity
should not be applicable to these new 'Amalekites.'....Military rabbinical
chaplains have scandalized the public by asserting that under Halachic law
(Jewish religious law), Arab civilians may be killed in these wars of religious
obligation. Rabbi Israel Hess, of Bar Ilan University, went even further
and unwittingly mocked his own views by resorting to Moslem terminology and
declaring that 'God personally intervenes in this war of religious obligation
against Amalekites and declares a counter-Jihad against them. 'Lest anyone
miss the innuenda, the aritcle, published by the Bar Ilan Students Union,,
is entitled 'The Torah's Commandment of Genocide.'"
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Moskowitz
supports domestic right wing groups
under construction more... |
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News
reports about Moskowitz’s support of militant settlers
Irving
Moskowitz’s patronage of the right-wing settlers goes back many years. These
articles, some stretching back to the mid-nineties, highlight Moskowitz’s
financial ties to some of the most controversial settler development activities
in East Jerusalem in recent years.
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Settlers
torch Palestinian fields to disrupt Yitzhar outpost removal
by Amos Harel, Nadav Shragai and Moshe Reinfeld
19 June 2003
Haaretz
Violent
clashes erupted Thursday between settlers and security forces as evacuation
began of the illegal outpost of Mitzpeh Yitzhar, adjacent to the West Bank
settlement of Yitzhar, south of Nablus.
Settlers ignited Palestinian-owned
wheat fields and olive groves in the area in an attempt to disrupt the operation,
which was the first to remove an inhabited outpost. Ten uninhabited outposts
were removed last week.
The hundreds of paratroopers and police who
managed to make their way to the hilltop were armed only with the knives
they carried to remove the settlers' tents.
Hundreds of settlers turned
back soldiers attempting to take down the main tent located in the center
of the outpost, and hundreds more settlers were reported to be making their
way to the site to join the resistence. Security forces resumed their efforts
at around 3 P.M. to remove the outpost after halting it for a few hours in
the afternoon
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Jewish
purchase of Arab lands could trigger IRS investigation
by Cynthia Mann
14 January 1997
JTA News
U.S.-based
charities raising money to purchase Arab-owned land in Israel"s disputed
areas could be scrutinized for possible violations of U.S. tax laws.
Critics
of these purchases charge that they are a political and provocative act by
those who seek to change the facts on the ground and sabotage the peace process.
They
say such ideological activity cannot legally be financed with the help of
U.S. dollars, through charitable tax exemptions and deductions.
Both
a current and former official with the Internal Revenue Service said publicity
of the issue, such as a recent segment on the CBS "60 Minutes"" program,
could trigger an audit by federal tax authorities.
But the results of such an audit are far from certain.
Tax
experts say determining whether organizations are violating their tax-exempt
status is highly subjective and rendered on a case-by-case basis. They say
the complexity stems in part from IRS guidelines that are highly nuanced.
The charities in question, such as Ateret Cohanim, defend their tax-exempt
status as legitimate, saying that their mission is humanitarian or educational.
They say any related property acquisition fulfills the religious and Zionist
call to redeem the Land of Israel and that it is anti-Semitic to restrict
Jews from living in certain places, Israel most of all.
Some add that
by helping settlers, they are filling gaps caused by the United Jewish Appeal"s
policy of not allocating funds over the Green Line, or beyond Israel"s pre-1967
borders.
That UJA policy evolved in part in deference to the political
sensitivity of the U.S. government, which provides grants to the UJA"s system
for refugee rescue and resettlement.
The ideological back and forth
over the purchases by the charities could continue without resolution, but
for one claim by the critics: that the charities" tax-exempt status is illegal
if their raison d"etre is primarily political and ideological. And these
critics say they are intent on calling it to the attention of U.S. tax authorities.
Jerusalem
Municipality Planning Another Jewish Settlement In Abu-Dis.
The Solution: Irving Moskowitz
by Eyal Hareuveni
03 January 1997
Kol HaIr
According
to initial planning, 250 units will be constructed in the settlement on 82
dunam [=20.5 acres], and it will extend beyond the Jerusalem city limits.
The architect of the neighborhood also planned the settlement in Ras al-Amud
for the patron of the extremist right, Irving Moskowitz, who is behind this
initiative as well.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem City Council approved
the allocation of 298,000 shekel [=$92,000] for planning a Jewish settlement
in abu-Dis on land owned by Jews adjoining the planned route of the eastern
ring road. The area of the planned settlement is 82 dunam [=20.5 acres],
of which 62 dunam [=15.5 acres] are within the city limits. According to
the plan, some 250 units can be built on this site. In the past, Dr. Irving
Moskowitz, the patron of the settlers' associations Ateret Cohanim and Elad,
tried to take control of these lands through a bid issued by Amram Blum,
former head of the Bureau of State Bequests. After publication of the affair
in Kol Ha'Ir and the intervention of the Ir Shalem association, which filed
an appeal to the High Court of Justice, the bid was disqualified by the Attorney
General, Michael Ben-Yair, and it was agreed then that the lands would be
managed by the Bureau of State Bequests at least until January 1997. Now
the Municipality is trying to revive Moskowitz's initiative using public
funds.
Over
a Week Ago, Netanyahu Rejected a Proposal by Kahalani
to Delay Opening the Tunnel
by Akiva Eldar
27 September 1996
Ha'aretz
The
Western Wall Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization associated with
the National Religious Party (Mafdal), is in charge of managing the controversial
tunnel, which charges visitors a fee, while the state has invested public
money in the site through the Society for the Development of East Jerusalem.
This information appears in a document submitted by former minister Yossi
Beilin to the government of Shimon Peres early this year and is characterized
as "a public scandal that demands investigation".
The document, brought
to the attention of several ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's government,
includes a recommendation to delay opening the new tunnel exit until after
the elections, and even then to do so at the appropriate moment and while
engaging in dialogue and reaching understanding with the Muslim religious
authorities in Jerusalem.
Last Thursday, Netanyahu rejected a proposal
made by Avigdor Kahalani, the Minister for Internal Security, to delay opening
the tunnel until implementation of the redeployment in Hebron which might
have lessened the anticipated Palestinian protest.
Deterioration of
the tunnel incident began on September 4th following an order to halt restoration
work at Solomon's Stables issued by the City of Jerusalem, without holding
senior level discussions about the implications of that decision. In response
to the order, Waqf leaders gave orders to step up the pace of work. Police
officials anticipated that enforcement of the order would provoke riots in
Jerusalem, so the Prime Minister decided not to enforce it, but instead to
allow for opening of the tunnel.
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Moskowitz
Bought 3 Dunams on Mount Scopus
by Hillel Cohen
10 January 1997
Kol Ha'ir
Dr.
Irving Moskowitz, patron of the settlers, plans to construct a yeshiva and
dormitory between Beit Orot and Hebrew University.
Dr. Irving Moskowitz,
patron of Ateret Cohanim (and also contributor to the Tehiya party, Golan
settlers, and many others), recently completed another land deal in East
Jerusalem. Not far from the Augusta Victoria hospital, quite near Hebrew
University, the doctor bought a large plot with the intention of establishing
on it a yeshiva and dormitories for its students. This time it will not be
in the heart of an Arab area, like Ras al-Amud, but on the periphery, on
the seam between East Jerusalem and the Mount Scopus enclave from before
1967.
The purchase was effected by the Everest Foundation, one of
the non-profits set up by Moskowitz and his friends in Israel and the U.S.
for purposes of land and property acquisition in East Jerusalem. The source
of funding for the purchase is the bingo parlor that Moskowitz runs in California,
most of whose patrons are lower-class Hispanics. According to the tax authorities
of California and the agreement between Moskowitz and Hawaiian Gardens, where
the bingo parlor operates, Moskowitz must use the profits only for educational
or charitable purposes. In a correspondence between the Everest Foundation,
which requested the money, and the Moskowitz Foundation, asked to make the
contribution, the lawyer of the Everest Foundation in the U.S., Oren Ben-Ezra,
said that this allocation of funds is for goals that are legitimate, since
educational institutions and student dormitories will be constructed on that
location. Negotiation about the deal began as far back as 1993, and the registration
of the land under the name of the Everest Foundation was just completed several
months ago.
Diamonds
in Silwan
by Hillel Cohen
16 October 1996
Kol HaIr
The diamond family Ben-David bought a home in Silwan through the Elad association. Tension in the village.
New
residents moved into Silwan this week. The Posen family settled into what
is called Rimon House, which guards hired by the settlers had entered the
night of the elections. The house, bought through Elad, was acquired using
monies from the diamonds and hotel businesses of the Ben-David family, and
actually belongs to them. They plan to renovate it for use by one branch
of the family, while the current residents, a young couple, lives there for
the time being. This family then joins donors from all over the Jewish world,
especially France and the U.S., who invest their money in Silwan and East
Jerusalem. The family is known to have many investments in the territories,
both financial and ideological, from the Palm Beach Hotel in Gush Katif [Gaza
Strip] to donations to Channel 7 [pirate religious radio station] and other
bodies.
Opening
of the Tunnel at the Wall: Some of Netanyahu's Financial
Considerations
by Ya'ir Ettinger
27 September 1996
Kol Ha'Ir
How American donors of Netanyahu and Ateret Hakohanim are tied in with the opening of the Tunnel at the Western Wall
The
opening of the tunnel at the Western Wall following Yom Kippur was carefully
hidden from the media, and of course from the Palestinians. The only two
journalists who were invited promised not to publish anything about it in
advance. Among those who knew and were invited were representatives and donors
of the Society for the Development of East Jerusalem and the Fund for the
Heritage of the Wall. One of the main donors of the Fund who was present
at the opening was Dr. Irwin Moskowitz, the patron of Ateret Kohanim, who
bought a great deal of property in East Jerusalem (including Beit Orot, Sheffer
Hotel, and land in Ras al-Amud). Until the opening of the tunnel to tourists,
Ateret Kohanim settlers were among the few who held the keys to the tunnel.
Guides trained by them would lead groups of tourists in an effort to get
donations on behalf of Ateret Kohanim from those participating in the tours.
Bingo
in America Feeds Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel: Hawaiian
Gardens, Jerusalem, and The Moskowitz Foundation, Part
III
by Dan Aznoff
01 July 2001
socialaction.com
"...Rabbi
Beliak urged any person (whether Jewish or not) who supports peace in Israel
to visit The Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem website.
"Read.
Read all the background information. Read the story of Irving Moskowitz and
how he has used the people of Hawaiian Gardens for his own personal gain
and to delay the possibility of peace in Israel," said Beliak.
"If you read, you will take action. That much I know."
Abu Dis
Abu Tor
Beit Orot
Ras El Amood
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Money
For Settlements in Abu-Dis, Not for Poor Neighborhoods
by Eyal Hareuveni
10 January 1997
Kol Ha'Ir
Out
of its own pocket, the Jerusalem municipality is paying for the planning
of a new settlement in abu-Dis, even though it's private property. Other
plans for public use were frozen due to budget cuts.
The Jewish municipality
will cover the cost of planning the Jewish settlement in abu-Dis, 298,000
shekel [$92,000], from an improvement tax to be charged to residents of the
settlement, if it gets built. The plan is for development of privately owned
property, including a lot owned by Dr. Irving Moskowitz, the patron of extreme
right Israeli organizations.
Two
Cities, Two Stories, One Philanthropist-Kingpin
by Joey Fishkin
01 April 2000
Urim V'Tumim
n
Abu Dis, a tiny Palestinian town just east of Jerusalem, a secretive Jewish
businessman named Irving Moskowitz recently bought land a few months ago
for a Jewish settlement. Tensions ran high - the Palestinian penalty for
selling land to Jews is death, and this particular site has recently gained
international prominence as a possible capitol for a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinian and Arab press denounced Moskowitz, and contended that he
was acting at the secret behest of Israeli leaders - a view bolstered by
the fact that Moskowitz is a personal friend of former Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. Many have accused Moskowitz of deliberately disrupting the peace
process. Whatever his intentions, this purchase, like several previous high-profile
actions by Moskowitz in Israel, could not be better calibrated or timed to
imperil the chances of a "land-for-peace" settlement.
Halfway across
the world from Abu Dis, a largely Hispanic crowd plays an extremely fast,
dollar-a-board game of "speed bingo" in the bingo club of Hawaiian Gardens,
California, which at less than a square mile is the tiniest town in Los Angeles
County. It's an unusual scene. The glitzy club, open seven days a week, operates
like a casino and takes in a staggering $33 million a year. Casinos are illegal
in California, but this club is not because the law allows 501(c)(3) organizations
such as churches to run volunteer, charitable bingo games. In this club,
recent immigrants from Mexico, legally "volunteers," work the tables full
time and subsist on tips. It seems almost inconceivable that this oddly intense
bingo game, or these Californians, could have anything to do with Palestinian-Israeli
politics. Yet, because of Irving Moskowitz, they do.
The 501(c)(3)
this unusual bingo club supports is the Irving Moskowitz Foundation, which
sends most of its money to Moskowitz' causes in Israel, according to its
Form 990 reports filed with the IRS. In addition to the bingo club, Moskowitz
now owns and runs the rarest of cash cows in California - a real card-playing
casino, legal only because of a special referendum the town passed several
years ago, in a high-profile election that involved tremendous spending by
Moskowitz. Between the taxes he pays on his casino and other properties,
and voluntary contributions he makes periodically through his Foundation,
Moskowitz is responsible for much of the City of Hawaiian Gardens' bottom
line.
Bingo
in America Feeds Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel: Hawaiian
Gardens, Jerusalem, and The Moskowitz Foundation, Part
I of a 3-part series
by Dan Aznoff
01 July 2001
socialaction.com
The
low-income minorities who live in the tenement apartments in this tiny town
southeast of Los Angeles share a nightmarish bond with Palestinian residents
of the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in Old Jerusalem.
Both groups share
vivid memories of a knock on the door that led to the uprooting of their
families. In Hawaiian Gardens, poor black and Hispanic families were moved
out of their homes through eminent domain to make room for a community redevelopment
project that eventually became a gaudy, neon-covered gambling parlor.
The
knock on the door was much more ominous for the Palestinians. It was also
a notice of condemnation. Not by the Israeli government wanting the property
to enhance the community. But from Arabs groups who threatened to kill any
Palestinian who sold their land to make room for Jewish settlers.
"Selling
to Jews was like signing their own death certificate," said Rabbi Haim Dov
Beliak, founder of The Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem
( http://www.stopmoskowitz.org ). "They are forced to move. Not just out of Jerusalem, but out of the country if they have any hope of staying alive."
The
development in each country, critics say, is the direct result of the influence
peddled by Dr. Irving Moskowitz. Opponents claim that the retired Miami physician
bought enough influence in Hawaiian Gardens that he persuaded the city council
to use public funds to build him a casino. Gross receipts from his card room
and the bingo parlor around the corner--estimated to be as much as $35 million
per year--have been used by Moskowitz to buy out neighborhoods in East Jerusalem
to create new communities for Jewish settlers.
"We are not denying
that Dr. Moskowitz used his own money to buy the homes in Jerusalem. In most
cases the homes were purchased for twice what they were really worth because
the Palestinian owners knew the danger of selling to Jews," explained Moskowitz
attorney Beryl Weiner. "The money was probably used by the families to escape
the country before the Arabs were able to carry through on their threats."
Bingo
in America Feeds Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel: Hawaiian
Gardens, Jerusalem, and The Moskowitz Foundation, Part
II
by Dan Aznoff
01 July 2001
socialaction.com
Julia
Sylva was being pulled in many directions. As a Latina, she felt empathy
for the low-income residents of her town who had been forced out to make
room for a gambling establishment. As a lawyer, she saw how the strategies
used by Moskowitz and Weiner confused the members of the city council who
served in dual capacity as the town's redevelopment council. As a Jew, she
was appalled to learn that the monies generated from bingo by the non-profit
Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation were apparently being funneled to Israel to
displace Palestinians to make room for fundamentalist Jewish settlers in
Jerusalem and along the West Bank.
"The residents of Hawaiian Gardens
have suffered in a way that cannot be remedied or compensated with bingo
or casino proceeds," said Sylva. "All gains have been for Moskowitz/Weiner,
all the losses have been suffered by the residents of the city."
Members
of both the Likud and Labor governments in Israel have criticized the estimated
$25 million given to Orthodox settlers to establish Jewish communities in
Arab neighborhoods. In 1997, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright
described the "racist policy" of building of Jewish-only settlements as,
"the seizing of Arab lands, demolishing Arab homes, settlement expansion
and the construction of Jewish homes in East Jerusalem."
Louis Roth
of American for Peace Now has come out publicly against the construction
of flats for settlers. "What they are trying to do is establish a Jewish
stronghold in Arab neighborhoods with the eventual goal of taking over."
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