Trump Donated $10,000 to Illegal W Bank Settlement

Local Editor

As part of the US continuous policy in backing the apartheid "Israeli" regime in its aggression on Palestine, it emerged on Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump donated $10,000 to institutions located in the illegal occupied West Bank settlement of "Beit El" in 2003.

The donation appears in the income tax filings of the Donald J. Trump Foundation for 2003. His foundation made a total of $186,700 in charitable donations that year to close to 40 institutions. The gift to the illegal "Beit El" settlement was among the largest.

The donation was also discussed in an interview on settler radio station "Galey ‘Israel'" on Sunday. Yaakov ["Ketsale"] Katz, one of the founders of the illegal "Beit El" settlement, said in the interview that the donation was made in honor of Trump's lawyer and friend David Friedman, whom he has since chosen as the next US ambassador to the "Israeli" entity.

Friedman serves as president of the American Friends of "Beit El" Institutions, which raises about $2 million a year for projects and institutions in the illegal settlement.

"If I would have known he would be elected president, I would have saved the check," said Katz.

With a population of about 6,500, the illegal "Beit El" settlement is one of the oldest "Israeli" settlements. Katz serves today as chairman of the "Arutz Sheva" news site, one of several projects funded by Friedman's organization.

The illegal settlement of "Beit El" also receives financial support from the family of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Charles and Seryl Kushner, Jared's parents, were on the founding board of trustees of the fundraising organization, Haaretz reported.

Other members of the founding board included David Friedman and his wife Tammy, as well as the late Irving Moscowitz and his wife Cherna. [Irving Moscowitz was a prominent supporter of the illegal settler movement, best known for buying up properties in Arab neighborhoods of East al-Quds [Jerusalem] for the purpose of creating a Jewish majority there.]

In the radio interview, Katz - a well-known settler leader - said he and Friedman had been friends for 40 years and were "like brothers." He said he was also very close friends with the Kushner family, whom he described as "big donors" to the organization.

Haaretz recently published that the Kushner family foundation had donated $20,000 to American Friends of "Beit El" Institutions in 2013 - among its biggest donations to a single organization that year.

The honorary chairman of the American fundraising arm of "Beit El" is Eugen Gluck. His daughter Rosie is married to Mark Friedman, the brother of the designated ambassador to the "Israeli" entity.

Prominent among the institutions that benefit from the organization's fundraising efforts is a "yeshiva" headed by a militant rabbi who had urged "Israeli" soldiers to disobey orders to evacuate illegal settlements.

The "yeshiva", which combines "Israeli" learning and army service, was founded and run by Rabbi Zalman Melamed, a founder of the far-right political party "Tkuma" [today part of "Habayit Hayehudi", a member of the governing coalition].

In 1995, following the Oslo agreements, Melamed was among a group of rabbis that declared it a violation of "Israeli" law for soldiers to evacuate "Israeli" Occupation Forces [IOF] bases in the occupied territories. In 2005, he urged "Israeli" soldiers to resist orders to evacuate the illegal "Gush Katif" settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team