Mar 23, 2013
In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) may grant federal tax-exempt status to certain organizations that are organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes such as, among others, charitable, religious or educational purposes. Just as the IRS grants, so can the IRS take away, or revoke, an organization’s tax-exempt status. Organizations may lose their tax-exempt status for various reasons, including if the organization:
- is not organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes,
- engages in deceptive or improper fundraising practices or
- operates contrary to the United States’ public policy. An organization operates contrary to the United States’ public policy if, for example, the organization’s activities are racially exclusive or discriminatory, increase neighborhood tensions, increase prejudice and discrimination or undermine human and civil rights.
On all of these accounts, the JNF is not an organization that warrants tax-exemption. Yet the JNF raises over $50 million per year in the United States alone and reaps the benefits of a tax-exempt organization. Therefore, Stop the JNF is requesting that the IRS investigate and, based on the existing evidence, revoke the JNF’s charity status.
Complete the petition form below to send a letter to the IRS to help us challenge the JNF’s tax-exempt status in the United States.
You can also download, print this letter and send to the IRS: [wpdm_file id=20]
Download the petition to the IRS: [wpdm_file id=21]
Signature sheets: [wpdm_file id=22]
Note: the letter should be signed by US residents only. To prevent spam you will be asked to confirm your email address before your letter is sent to the IRS.
[emailpetition id=”1″]
Mar 13, 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
17:30 in EDT
Beat Street Station Manayunk, 4401 Cresson Street
Facebook event page
Join PhillyBDS at the “STOP the The Jewish National Fund” protest! The must-attend Philly BDS community protest of the year for everyone who cares about justice in Israel-Palestine.
Each year, Philly BDS is a colorful and vocal presence in protest at the annual fundraiser for The Jewish National Fund. Let’s connect the dots: Tribe Hummus is owned by Osem, a company whose profits contribute to the Jewish National Fund. The Jewish National Fund provides the infrastructure for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and has since its establishment in 1901. The JNF mandate is the acquisition of land and property rights for the exclusive use of Jewish Israelis. After 1948, the JNF was re-branded as an environmental organization focused on forestation. Each year, the JNF raises over $60 million in the United States alone. Despite its role in ethnic cleansing and apartheid, the JNF continues to enjoy charitable status.
This year’s fundraiser is “March Madness Poker Tournament” and will be held at Beat Street Station Manayunk, in Manayunk on Thursday, March 21. Philly BDS and allies will gather to protest at 5:30 pm at 4401 Cresson Street. We will be bearing the motto “STOP THE JNF’s APARTHEID ROYALE” carrying signs, wearing splashy costumes, walking a picket line, performing raucous street theater, and reciting somber poetry.
The point of the demonstration is to call attention to the human rights abuses against Palestinians by the Jewish National Fund and to encourage activists to work to revoke the tax-exempt status the JNF holds.
Since launching its campaign targeting Sabra Hummus and Tribe Hummus in October 2010, Philly BDS continues to stand for justice with Palestinians by responding to the 2005 Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel until it meets it obligations under international law.
Mar 30, 2012
On March 30th, 1976 Palestinians went on general strike and held non-violent marches and protests in response to an Israeli announcement that the state would be stealing more land from Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israel reacted to these non-violent actions with deadly force. Six Palestinians were killed, hundreds wounded, and many more jailed.
March 30, now known as Land Day, has become an annual commemoration of that day. It is a day to not only remember those killed in 1976 but to mourn the loss of land and those who died defending the land from the time of the earliest Zionist colonizers.
March 30 is also the anniversary of the launch of the Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Campaign in 2011 (www.stopthejnf.org). Stop the JNF is an international campaign aimed at ending the role of the JNF (or in Hebrew KKL – for Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) in its on-going displacement of Palestinians from their land, the theft of their property, its cover-up of both, its funding of historic and present-day colonies, and the destruction of the natural environment.
In one year the StJNF Campaign has made enormous strides:
– We released “Greenwashing Apartheid: the Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover-up” [wpdm_file id=4 title=”true” ].
– We launched a campaign petitioning the IRS to end the tax exempt status of the JNF.
– David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, ended his status as “Honorary Patron” of the JNF.
– We launched “Plant a Tree” in Palestine to replant indigenous, life-sustaining trees.
– We sent a fact-finding delegation to Palestine and met with families impacted by the JNF.
– Environmental justice, indigenous rights, and labor groups world-wide endorsed the campaign.
And we can do so much more if you join us! Get involved today:
– Sign onto the Stop the JNF campaign call-to-action
– Sign the IRS petition
– Plant a tree in Palestine
– Sign onto a petition to demand Palestinian access to water, including putting a stop to the JNF’s role in stealing Palestinian water
– Bring the campaign to your location, email us at us@stopthejnf.org
– Watch, share and post the following videos that expose the role of the JNF across Palestine:
– al-araqib: the role of the JNF in today’s forced displacement of the 100 plus year Bedouin community living in the Negev
– silwan: a documentary about today’s displacement of Palestinians in Silwan, a place where the JNF is playing a significant role
For more information and to get involved email us: us@stopthejnf.org
www.stopthejnf.org
