Saturday, December 9th., 2017
As Jared Kushner leads the U.S. government's effort to develop an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, the Kushner Companies Charitable Foundation is funding a hardline Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
The charitable fund made a donation of at least $18,000 at the "Master Builders" level to American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center, according to a donor book distributed at the group's annual gala Sunday evening.
The Kushner family has given money in past years to the group, which funds construction of the Bet El settlement outside the Palestinian city Ramallah, as Haaretz first reported. But this appears to be the first time they've done so while Kushner, whose title is senior adviser to the president, is the lead administration official brokering a peace plan.
Advocates of a two-state solution said the donation was troubling given Kushner's role.
"Under normal circumstances, you would expect someone who has a background of activism related to Israel to be working very hard to take a step back from that to show that he can be a credible mediator. Not only is that not the case, it's the opposite," said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
Comment: The whole logic if Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is to steal land by 'creating facts on the ground'. The international community will not be able to demand later that the land be given back to Palestine, for the simple reason that Israelis are already living there - surely you cannot evict them from their homes? But of course, Israel does not grant the same rights and considerations to Palestinians when they bulldoze entire villages to create those illegal settlements. It is to this strategy of ethnic cleansing that Jared Kushner, the "peace envoy", has been contributing:
© AP/Evan Vucci
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner visits the Western Wall, May 22, 2017, in Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner visits the Western Wall, May 22, 2017, in Jerusalem.
The charitable fund made a donation of at least $18,000 at the "Master Builders" level to American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center, according to a donor book distributed at the group's annual gala Sunday evening.
The Kushner family has given money in past years to the group, which funds construction of the Bet El settlement outside the Palestinian city Ramallah, as Haaretz first reported. But this appears to be the first time they've done so while Kushner, whose title is senior adviser to the president, is the lead administration official brokering a peace plan.
Advocates of a two-state solution said the donation was troubling given Kushner's role.
"Under normal circumstances, you would expect someone who has a background of activism related to Israel to be working very hard to take a step back from that to show that he can be a credible mediator. Not only is that not the case, it's the opposite," said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
Comment: The whole logic if Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is to steal land by 'creating facts on the ground'. The international community will not be able to demand later that the land be given back to Palestine, for the simple reason that Israelis are already living there - surely you cannot evict them from their homes? But of course, Israel does not grant the same rights and considerations to Palestinians when they bulldoze entire villages to create those illegal settlements. It is to this strategy of ethnic cleansing that Jared Kushner, the "peace envoy", has been contributing: