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American Section
- Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. Deregisters as a Foreign Agent after
the DOJ orders it to file secret 1953 Covenant
Agreement with the Israeli Government
Documents
The American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. was the US subsidiary of the Jewish Agency, a pre-state
lobby for Israel. During the
1963 Senate Foreign Relations
Committee hearings on the activities of registered foreign agents American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc.
executives testified under oath about funding flows, corporate
structure, payments to US entities such as the American Zionist Council
for grassroots development, lobbying and public relations. American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. executives testified under oath
that they had no subsidiary relationship to the
Israeli government. However when Rabbi Elmer Berger and George
Washington University legal scholar William T. Mallison Jr. filed a complaint
with the Department of Justice, the American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. was
forced to file the Jewish Agency's 1953 "Covenant" agreement with the Israeli
government. The American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc.
subsequently closed down in November of 1971, but quickly reorganized
its operations
under a new corporate shell: the World Zionist Organization - American Section,
which claimed
no foreign government principal.
| Document/File
Date |
Contents |
|
3/28/1939 |
A New York Times article
titled "15 more registered as Foreign Agents" states the
Jewish Agency for Palestine has registered under the 1938 Foreign Agents
Registration Act. |
|
9/14/1943 |
The American Section of
the Jewish Agency for Israel, formerly known as the American
Section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, registers at the
Department of Justice FARA section. (source: FARA
Database) |
|
09/1948 |
The Jewish Agency is granted
tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service |
|
5/23/1963 |
Testimony from the
Senate Record: Senator J. W. Fulbright
asks American Section - Jewish Agency - officials Isadore Hamlin and Maurice Boukstein to
produce Jewish Agency articles of incorporation, resolutions and
relevant governing documents during sworn testimony. Documents
about the Jewish Agency's contractual relationship with the Israeli
government are never received or entered into the Senate record.
The Senate investigations go
on to discover that the
Jewish Agency moved $5 million (equivalent to $35 million
today) into the
American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. in New York, and on to the
American Zionist Council (AZC). The editor of the "Near East Report"
Isaiah L. Kenen, and other "conduits" for public
relations, lobbying and grassroots coalition building in the
United States received Jewish Agency funding. |
|
Document Archive |
The Department of Justice
orders the American Zionist
Council to register as a foreign agent of the Jewish Agency.
The AZC fights the registration demand until the DOJ acquiesces to a
partially
secret filing. The AZC then files
a partial list of expenditures only to shut down and shift
operations over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC). |
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05/27/1969 |
The American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. files a supplemental FARA statement revealing the existence of a July, 1953 agreement
between the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency and receipt
of Israeli government funding:
"The Government of Israel has
from time to time made subventions to the Jewish Agency for
Israel, particularly in connection with its work in agricultural
settlements and immigrant housing. These subventions
varied in amounts from time to time. In all cases, control
over the operations subventioned by the Government remained
fully with the Jewish Agency...."
"A special law to that effect
was passed by the Kenesseth of Israel in 1962 and an agreement
setting forth the areas of cooperation between the executive of
the Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel in respect to the
foregoing functions of the Agency was entered into in July 1953.
The Jewish Agency is not an instrumentality or subdivision of
the Government of Israel." |
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8/29/1969 |
Under order from the
Department of Justice, the American Section - Jewish Agency files the Jewish
Agency's 1953 Covenant Agreement in a supplemental FARA
statement. |
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12/31/1970 |
The US
Department of Justice reviews the Jewish Agency's claims of
"reconstituting" itself, finding the story and documents
submitted to be "sketchy". |
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6/30/1971 |
The American Section of the
Jewish Agency for Israel files its final Foreign Agent
Registration Act supplemental statement detailing activities and
$26, 814, 628
in revenue flow. It then ceases operations. |
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9/21/1971 |
The World Zionist
Organization - American Section registers on September 21, 1971
as a foreign agent of the World Zionist Organization in Israel.
It claims not to be owned, directed, controlled or financed by
any foreign government. It occupies the same 515 Park
Avenue office space as the American
Section - Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. and immediately takes over
publication
of the Jewish Agency's "Israel Digest".
It employs the same management and staff. |
|
Document Archive |
Israeli prosecutor Talia
Sason discovers the Jewish Agency at the center of a multi-billion dollar money
laundering and illegal West Bank colonization ring. |
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2001
New! |
The Jewish Agency tries to
wriggle out of Foreign Agents Registration Act but the Justice
Department denies request. |
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2002 |
The Jewish
Agency establishes and funds the "Jewish People Policy Planning
Institute" in Jerusalem. American Diplomat Dennis Ross
becomes its first Chairman. |
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