Scottish charity regulator to look at KKL claims

by Third Ford News, 26 October 2007

A SCOTTISH charity set up to fundraise for an Israeli land organisation that discriminates against non-Jews is to have its status investigated.

A complaint has been made to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) about KKL Scotland, which was formed this year to fundraise for Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL).

According to critics KKL has created a land situation in Israel similar to apartheid South Africa by ensuring that only Jews are able to live on the majority of land in Israeli territory.

The organisation currently owns 13 per cent of Israeli land and was set up to acquire land in Israel for the use of Jews only.

The Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (Scottish PSC), in a letter of complaint to OSCR, has also accused the organisation of acting illegally by acquiring land in Palestinian occupied territories.

Bill Wilson, SNP MSP, this week called on the Scottish Parliament to investigate the claims made about KKL Scotland, and to encourage OSCR to revoke its charity status if it is found to be supporting discriminatory activity in Israel.

Writing to MSPs about the issue Sofia MacLeod, secretary of the Scottish PSC, said of KKL, which is also known as JNF (Jewish National Fund): “I believe that the genesis of KKL Scotland creates a strong presumption that it will be operating primarily for the benefit of JNF (Israel)/KKL. That means that it will be supporting blatantly discriminatory and racist actions within Israel and actions in the West Bank that are illegal under international law.”

This is not the first time that JNF has been under the spotlight. A Charity Commission investigation into JNF UK allowed it to retain its charitable status after it indicated that it was no longer connected to or a direct supporter of KKL JNF in Israel.

KKL Scotland however has been set up by a former national vice-chairman of JNF UK, Stanley Lovatt, who according to that charity left its board two years ago. In its charity objectives, KKL Scotland has outlined a much closer link to the Israeli organisation.

As seen on OSCR’s website, these are: “To promote the advancement of environmental protection or improvement by supporting charitable projects within the State of Israel, particularly but not exclusively those carried out by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael which promote the environmental reclamation of the lands of the State of Israel.”

A leading Israeli academic and vice-chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights Uri Davis, has backed the claims of the Scottish PSC.

Davis said: “The JNF has been centrally instrumental in veiling the ruins of many, if not most, of the Palestinian Arab localities ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 war by planting forests and developing recreational facilities over their lands and their remains.”

He added: “Since the 1967 war and the occupation of the entire territory of Mandatory Palestine (and additional territories) by Israel, the JNF has operated very intensively in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights directly and through subsidiaries, notably the Hemnutah company, which is registered in Israel (Jerusalem) and in the West Bank (Ramallah).”

Following the allegations about KKL Scotland, SNP MSP Bill Wilson posted a Parliamentary Question on the issue this week.

He told TFN: “If we’re going to give charities financial relief then these charities have to be non-discriminatory.

So, if it is the case that this organisation is indeed discriminating against people of non-Jewish origin in Israel then it seems to me that would breech the principal of charity.”

“I would encourage the Scottish Government to establish whether or not this is the case and therefore whether or not that makes it eligible for charitable status.”

OSCR, which granted charitable status to KKL Scotland in March this year, confirmed that it had received the complaint but that it cannot comment on individual investigations. Stanley Lovatt of KKL Scotland refused to comment.

Original article at Third Force News