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Friday April 18, 2003

Anti-Israel group uses tax day to itemize deaths

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Anti-Israel activists made hay on tax day.
At post offices around the country, members of the national group SUSTAIN (Stop U.S. Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now) circulated mo

The form's final line, mirroring the signature line on tax returns, reads, "Under penalty of perjury, I declare that I know and approve of my taxes being used to kill, maim and destroy innocent lives."

According to SUSTAIN's press release, "This form illustrates how a huge portion of our taxes is used to pay for an outrageous military in the U.S. and Israel, and for oppression in Palestine."

"Clearly it's duplicitous, but it gets attention," said Ken Jacobson, associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

But, he added, "Nothing is very new here." It's "part of the ongoing campaign against Israel."

Ash described SUSTAIN, which was formed two years ago, as a "non-hierarchical" grassroots group with "dozens" of members in New York.

Jacobson called it an "extremist group."

It advocates cutting off U.S. aid to Israel and endorses a "right of return" to Israel for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Jacobson said.

Still, handing out mock tax forms on April 15 is a clever publicity stunt for SUSTAIN. Ash and fellow activist Zaid Khalil said the move was intended to reveal America's alleged warmongering, but Israel clearly was the focal point.

Under a section titled "What U.S. Aid to Israel Pays for," the group lists the number of Palestinians injured by the Israeli army -- more than 22,200, SUSTAIN claims -- and the percentage of time Bethlehem residents were under curfew from June 18 to March 18 (40 percent, the group says).

According to Khalil, "Israel is just a conduit'' through which America promotes violence and destruction.

Mock tax forms also were being handed out in San Francisco, Boston, Memphis and Connecticut, members said.

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