Israel Tax Authority Rejects Exemption Status for Rabbis for Human Rights

The Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) says that the Tax Authority’s recent decision to reject its application for tax-exempt status is politically motivated. The authority said it rejected the group’s application because some of its activities were not “for the benefit of the residents of Israel.”

Every fall, Rabbis for Human Rights brings hundreds of volunteers to work side-by-side with Palestinian farmers during the Olive Harvest campaign. The presence provides protection against possible settler intimidation, enables farmers to complete the harvest within the limited number of days they can safely do so, and has also become an act of solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians.

Every fall, Rabbis for Human Rights brings hundreds of volunteers to work side-by-side with Palestinian farmers during the Olive Harvest campaign. The presence provides protection against possible settler intimidation, enables farmers to complete the harvest within the limited number of days they can safely do so, and has also become an act of solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians. (Photo: RHR)

RHR executive director Ayala Levi told Haaretz, “We are an organization that tries to promote human rights. It is difficult to understand how this can be perceived as something negative.” The Tax Authority’s decision will prevent the group’s donors from claiming tax exemptions.

According to Haaretz, the organization’s first two applications to the Tax Authority over the past decade received no official response. But a month ago, a 2013 application was rejected in a letter received from Erez Orad, Director for Nonprofit Associations and Public Institutions in the Tax Authority. “After examining reports and material you appended to your application, it was found that some of the institution’s activities – such as the ‘territories project’ and the ‘legal project’ – are not for the benefit of the residents of Israel,” the letter stated. Orad suggested he would re-examine the application “after the aforementioned defects are removed.”

Rabbis for Human Rights was founded in 1988, and claims more than 100 members, “all ordained Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Renewal rabbis as well as some rabbinical students.” The Tax Authority’s recent third refusal to grant Rabbis for Human Rights tax-exempt recognition is under Paragraph 46 of the tax code. Such status allows donors to a nonprofit organization recognized as a public institution to claim the donation as an income-tax deduction. This year the Tax Authority revoked the Paragraph 46 status of the NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel after the charity refused to hand over to the authorities the personal details of ill persons that organization has treated, many of whom are Palestinian. The NGO’s claim of violation of client trust and doctor-patient privilege did not persuade the Tax Authority, which did not make similar demands of organizations such as Eran, a mental health hotline, or the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

This abuse of authority does not happen in a vacuum. It is the effect of a governing principle, carefully cultivated by the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which regards entities that dare criticize the government as enemies of the state whose activities should be restricted as much as possible.