cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/47099

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Gabriel Boxer, the “Kosher Guru,” in a video showing destruction in Gaza and promoting donations to American Friends of Judea and Samaria. Source: Instagram.

$8,000 to supply the Israeli military with a thermal drone, $600 for a helmet, $150 for a rifle plate: these are some of the tax-deductible donations that American citizens can make to support the Israeli military.

The campaign is run by a registered U.S. charity that, since the early months of the war, has been fundraising to purchase drones and other military equipment for the Israeli military. The organization, American Friends of Judea and Samaria (AFJS), is a registered nonprofit whose advocacy focuses on strengthening Israeli control over the occupied West Bank and first launched an “Emergency Tactical Gear Campaign” in the weeks after October 7, 2023. AFJS has continued fundraising asking for tax-deductible donations from Americans to help supply Israeli soldiers with a range of equipment including vests, rifle plates, helmets, medical kits, and thermal imaging drones.

AFJS has close ties to the far-right settler movement in Israel and has become increasingly focused on not merely doing advocacy for Israel in the U.S. but also providing the Israeli military with direct material support on the ground via funds raised from American citizens. The contributions allow donors to reduce their own tax burden to the U.S. government in order to channel funds to the Israeli military for its wars in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East.

“As the war progresses towards a total IDF victory over Hamas, AFJS is trying to get the soldiers fighting on the front lines the essential equipment they need to achieve that victory,” a since-removed campaign pitch for another AFJS “Thermal Drones Campaign” launched in 2024 stated. That campaign was said to be launched on behalf of “our heroes” fighting in Gaza for the Israeli military. “Each thermal drone costs $8,000. Please partner with us, in order to get the drones to the IDF units, which need them the most. Donations towards the drones are tax-deductible—501(c)3, via AFJS.”

Numerous promotional videos, posted across AFJS’s social media accounts, parade purchased drones and other equipment as they are received and deployed by the Israeli military. This includes footage of Israeli soldiers operating inside the Gaza Strip using drones labelled as provided by the organization. In one video showing Israeli soldiers operating a drone, a soldier filming the scene says, “AFJS drones, inside Gaza. We use it for one of the biggest operations against Hamas. We are here, start to work with your drones AFJS, thank you very much. Thank you from Gaza. Am Yisrael Chai,” a Hebrew phrase that means “the people of Israel live.”

In other footage posted to the organization’s social media channels, individuals representing AFJS deliver equipment directly to IDF military units in Israel for deployment in the field, including handing over a box containing a small consumer drone to members of the 646 Paratrooper’s Brigade, which has been active in recent fighting near Gaza City.

Members of the 646 Brigade, of which AFJS co-founder Yigal Dilmoni has served as a commander during the current war, have made genocidal comments about their intentions in Gaza. Major Ben Yakov Sabo, a Commander of the Frontal Command Unit of the brigade, tweeted that “In Gaza… there is not a single innocent person” and that “a nuclear bomb on all of Gaza is not even a sufficient punishment for these bacteria.”"

Dilmoni is also the former CEO of the Yesha Council, an Israeli organization that serves as an umbrella organization of municipal councils representing the interests of West Bank settlers. The advisory board of AFJS also includes another former Yesha Council head, Shira Livman; the council’s current chairman, Yisrael Gantz; and the mayors of several West Bank settlements.

In addition to promoting the settlement of the West Bank, the Yesha Council has publicly demanded that the Israeli government formally annex the territory as a means of preventing the eventual emergence of an independent Palestinian state. In a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, a Yesha council member reportedly told the Israeli leader, “Imposing sovereignty only after a UN declaration would be seen as a reactive step and would grant legitimacy to the narrative drawn by Israel’s enemies. We must reverse the order—sovereignty first, and then there will be nothing left to declare,” adding that, “Israel’s hesitation in recent years is what fuels the diplomatic moves advancing the idea of a Palestinian state.”

In its 2023 tax filings, AFJS stated that it “provided villages in Israel with protective gear, vests, first aid kits, and drones to protect the people of the valley, as well as leading tours from the United States educating people about the history of Israel.”

That year the organization listed contributions received in the amount of $137,525. The same filing lists an amount of $132,481 donated that year to an organization in Israel with a listed address in “Giva'at Hashlosha, Samaria” called the Ari Fuld Project. That organization—named after an American-Israeli pro-settlement activist who moved to the West Bank and was killed by a Palestinian in a stabbing attack in 2018—describes itself as involved in directing equipment to Israeli military units in the field. The equipment provided by AFJS to the Ari Fuld Project includes “vests, first aid kits, and drones for protection.”

In addition to helping arm Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, AFJS has been raising funds to help support its war effort in Lebanon against Hezbollah. Yet another fundraising campaign targeting American taxpayers, called the “Emergency Campaign for the North,” asked for donations for military supplies to help fortify Israel’s northern border, including offering donors the ability to sponsor full packages of military aid: thousands of dollars drone equipment, cameras, and fiber optic systems for provision to the IDF.

“This is our time to act and donate in order to help provide our army with important life-saving equipment, enabling our soldiers to become stronger and well-equipped for now, as well as for the time that will follow the war,” the campaign pitch stated.

“The Go-To Organization for Anything Connected to Judea and Samaria”

AFJS was launched in January 2023 with the aim of being “the go-to organization for anything [connected to] Judea and Samaria,” according to Rafi Lazerowitz, a Brooklyn-based businessman who leads the organization. “Judea and Samaria” is the term used by religious extremists in Israel and the U.S. to refer to the West Bank—occupied territory that is recognized by international law as grounds for the creation of a future Palestinian state.

In addition to running campaigns raising funds for occupation efforts—and to provide equipment for the Israeli military—AFJS also bills itself as an education and advocacy organization raising awareness about the need for Israel to annex the West Bank. They instruct the public and U.S. policymakers on “the damage that the lack of Israel sovereignty does to the State of Israel and how the application of sovereignty will benefit all who live in the region, and the State of Israel.”

AFJS is one of a number of organizations using U.S. nonprofit tax status to fund Israeli military units or settlements. Drop Site reported last year on another charity that was supporting an IDF sniper unit. Friends of Paratrooper Sniper Unit 202 raised over $300,000 to support an Israeli military unit whose members shared video of themselves shooting unarmed Palestinians while operating in Gaza.

Other groups are working to evict Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. A 2021 investigation by journalist Alex Kane found that a U.S.-based nonprofit called the Israel Central Fund was funnelling money to groups working to evict Palestinians from Jerusalem. These connections are also longstanding. Prior reporting by the Israeli publication Haaretz found that between the years 2009-2013, charities registered in the U.S. had funnelled a staggering $220 million to Israeli settler organizations.

But this type of U.S. nonprofit activity in support of the Israeli government has taken on fresh expression during the current genocide, extending to buying equipment expressly intended to support violence.

In addition to AFJS, another 501(c)3 non-profit that has raised money for the purchase of drones for use by the IDF provided support to armed emergency response squads in the West Bank is Israel Friends. According to their latest filings, the organization, officially registered as Worldwide Friends Foundation, raised over $12 million for their programs in Israel. Among their fundraising programs is their “Advanced Technology Solutions” package dedicated to purchasing various drones for the Israeli military, that cost up to $10,000 for a full thermal camera system. Their glossy “Eyes in the Sky” promo video, which includes IDF drone footage of the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, shows potential donors the various ways that drones can be used.

Other high-profile U.S. non-profits have also worked in partnership with Israeli organizations to support so-called “Lone Soldiers,” a reference to American citizens who move to Israel to fight with the IDF, or to place American citizens on volunteer trips that include stints working on Israeli military bases.

The ties between AFJS and the Israeli military and government run deep in its leadership. Gabriel Boxer, a board member of AFJS who is listed as director on its non-profit filings, is also a social media influencer who goes by the name “Kosher Guru.” In addition to launching a run for the New York State senate in 2022, Boxer is reportedly an advisor to Israeli Knesset member Simcha Rothman, and recently filmed himself inside the Gaza Strip on a trip embedded with the Israeli military.

In a video posted to his Instagram in December 2023, Boxer can be seen wearing an IDF t-shirt while speaking with former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy with a caption that reads, “We have every right to defend our homeland and our nation. This is a just war perpetrated against Israel.” In an interview with Jewish News Syndicate in August, Boxer also described what he saw inside the besieged territory while embedded with the IDF, stating that the Israeli military is, “the most caring and moral army in the world,” and that he had been shown Hamas tunnels filled with weapons built directly under children’s cribs.

In previous trips to Gaza, which Boxer had also shared on social media, the influencer can be seen embedded with IDF troops of the 646 paratroopers brigade, narrating for the camera as they conduct detonations of houses and other buildings inside the territory.

In one video Boxer posted to his personal Instagram account while embedded with the IDF, he animatedly describes the soldiers demolishing Palestinian homes with explosives. “We just, uh, yeah, saw those houses being blown up over here in the back in Khan Younis,” Boxer says in the video.

“Wow, that’s all I can say!”

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