Amnesty platitudes
Amnesty platitudesiStock

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) called for denying Amnesty International tax-free status because it called for an economic boycott of the State of Israel, violating the Boycott Law.

In a letter to MK Moshe Gafni, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Smotrich noted that a few months ago a discussion was held in the Finance Committee regarding the recognition of donations for tax purposes under section 46 of the Income Tax Ordinance for Amnesty International.

"At the hearing, I and other members had serious complaints about approving the organization's status, since there was already a heavy cloud [over the organization for] its support for the boycott of the State of Israel, its call to put IDF soldiers on trial in international courts and efforts to present the State of Israel as a war criminal," wrote Smotrich.

At an October meeting of the Finance Committee, Amnesty's status was finally approved. However, Smotrich believes he has now caught the organization in flagrant violation of the Boycott Law.

"In the past week, Amnesty International published on its Facebook page - and later in the media - a call on countries that do business with products manufactured in Judea and Samaria to boycott the State of Israel and not to purchase these products," added Smotrich, and quoted from the organization's website: "Human Rights Movement Amnesty International calls on the international community to ban the importation of all types of goods and products from the illegal settlements built by Israel and to stop the flow of millions of dollars fueling mass violations of Palestinian human rights."

"This proves what we said in the discussion - that Amnesty International calls for an economic boycott of the State of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, and thus loses its entitlement to such recognition in accordance with the boycott law approved in 2012," Smotrich stressed, requesting to bring the matter up in committee once again for the purpose of denying the recently approved tax refund status.