The Tax Authority has opened an investigation that could result in the denial of tax benefits for donations to the Israeli branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International on the basis that the organization violates anti-BDS laws, Israel Hayom reported.
The Boycott Law states that the Finance Minister may, in consultation with the Justice Minister, and with the approval of the Knesset Constitutional Committee, deny tax benefits for donations to organizations that publicly call for a boycott of the State of Israel.
Sources which have seen the letter from the Tax Authority say that the authority has come to an understanding that it is not possible to separate the Israeli branch of Amnesty International from the global organization, which encourages and legitimizes boycotts against the State of Israel, in the reports it issues and in reference to the BDS organizations and movements around the world.
According to the same sources, the Tax Authority raised a series of allegations against the Amnesty organization based on publications and public information, which show that the organization has called for a boycott of the State of Israel. In 2022 the global Amnesty International organization issued a scathing report in which it accuses the State of Israel of war crimes, being an apartheid state, and also called for an arms embargo against the Jewish State.
The Foreign Ministry determined in a 2022 report that Amnesty International has become a "central generator of delegitimization in the apartheid discourse that is conducted against the State of Israel". According to the report, the organization, led by Secretary-General Agnès Callamard , exploits its image as a human rights organization, in order to "serve as a locomotive for accusing Israel of being an apartheid state and be a 'source of authority' for establishment parties, political parties and boycott and delegitimization organizations."
Amnesty International Israel executive director Molly Malekar has made calls for an international boycott of Judea and Samaria in 2020.
A spokesperson for the organization's Israeli branch called the investigation "absurd" and stated that the branch operates in Israel and seeks to reach an Israeli audience, so it cannot boycott the State of Israel.