Sunday, February 23, 21:04 On Sunday, February 23 the Peace Now organization posted on their Hebrew Facebook page an announcement calling for the State of Israel to cancel Honenu’s non-profit status and informing the Israeli taxpayers that until the non-profit status is canceled and donations to the organization are no longer tax exempt, they are “contributing” to a organization which represents “terrorists” and has “criminals” among its clients. Honenu’s stand is that everyone is entitled to a fair trial, regardless of the crime of which s/he is accused. Honenu’s homepage states: “Honenu is an Israeli Zionist legal aid organization which offers legal assistance to our people to protect and preserve their rights to receive a fair judicial process. … In the Arab-Jewish conflict in Israel there are dozens of foreign funded organizations helping our enemies. We are there for those loyal to the Jewish people.”
Before reading Honenu’s translation of the announcement posted by Peace Now on their Facebook page (February 23), please note that only one out of the five Honenu clients featured in the poster has been convicted; two have been indicted, but not convicted; and two were exonerated. Binyamin Richter and Yehuda Landsberg have been indicted, but not convicted of “price tag” attacks and therefore still maintain the status of “innocent until proven guilty.” Yosef Ben Baruch was exonerated. As stated in the announcement, Rabbi Yosef Elitzur is one of the authors of a book entitled “Torat HaMelech” and was detained on charges of “incitement” for his part in writing it. In the end, however, Rabbi Elitzur was unconditionally released. Ami Popper has served 24 years out of a 40 year prison sentence.
Honenu’s translation follows Peace Now’s announcement. Click on image to enlarge.
The text of the announcement by Peace Now which attempts to discredit legal aid and the Honenu Organization is as follows (Translation by Honenu):
Clients of Honenu featured in the poster, from left to right with translation of Peace Now’s captions: Binyamin Richter, indicted on a serious charge of involvement in a “price tag” incident; Yehuda Landsberg, indicted on a serious charge of involvement in a “price tag” incident; Yosef Ben Baruch, among the organizers of the Bat Ayin Underground; Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, one of the authors of “Torat HaMelech”; Ami Popper, convicted of murdering seven Palestinians in 1990.
Text of the Peace Now announcement:
In large font: You also are contributing to extreme right wing non-profit organizations!
Main body of the text: Honenu provides legal advice to and represents terrorists in court and is recognized as a non-profit organization eligible for the 46a benefit. Among Honenu’s clients are Ami Popper, the “Bat Ayin Underground”, the fugitive criminal Yehoshua Elitzur, “Price Tag” criminals and more.
The 46a clause in the non-profit organization law allows a tax refund to every contributor to a non-profit organization, as the state pays the organization the tax which has
been deducted.
The 46a clause was intended to encourage donations to organizations working for the good of the community, however in reality the clause has turned into a source of funding for extreme right wing non-profit organizations.
Additional non-profit organizations benefiting from governmental funding: Regevim, The Organization for the Development of Itamar, The Organization for the Development of Mitzpeh Keramim [illegal outpost], Midreshet Shilat [located in the illegal outpost Alonei Shiloh], The Fund for the Development of Central Binyamin, and more.
Yair Lapid, we are fed up with funding the extreme right wing organizations. This is the time to cancel their 46a clause exemption.
Peace Now
Update: Peace Now has removed the aforementioned post from their Facebook page. See here for more information.