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David Abrams, Attorney at Law August 21, 2019 To David Abrams, Attorney at Law P.O. Box 3353 Church Street Station, New York NY 10008 Tel. 212-897-5821 Fax 212-897-5811 August 21, 2019 To: Internal Revenue Service (by FedEx) Whistleblower Office - ICE 1973 N. Rulon White Blvd. M/S 4110 Ogden, UT 84404 Re: Whistleblower Complaint Against New Israel Fund Dear Sir / Madam: I am the whistleblower in connection with the above-referenced Complaint. Enclosed please find a completed IRS Form 211.. Further, I am respectfully submitting this memorandum to elaborate on the factual and legal aspects of the enclosed IRS whistleblower complaint. In addition, I am enclosing a CD which contains the full, unannotated versions of the documents attached as Exhibits hereto. 1. Who is New Israel Fund? New Israel Fund (“NIF”) is a District of Columbia non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation with its principal place of business in the State of New York, county of New York. NIF financially supports many companies that work to undermine the state of Israel. As set forth in more detail below, NIF has crossed the line from permissible advocacy to unlawful "electioneering." Put another way, NIF is violating the tax codes by attempting to influence the outcome of elections. As stated on its own web site, NIF works on its “concerted campaign to equip Israel’s pro-democracy and progressive forces with the tools to fight Israel’s regressive right-and win.” As set forth in more detail below, NIF's activities are flagrant and unlawful electioneering in violation of the tax code. 2. Who is the Whistleblower? I am a New York attorney and political activist who regularly engages in pro- Israel litigation in state and federal Court. For example, I recently brought a False Claims Act against Norwegian People Aid, which the Justice Department intervened and settled. This case was brought against Norwegian People Aid for falsely certifying that it had no ties to terrorist organizations. This certification allowed it to get USAID money. (See Exhibit 1) This claim is similar my allegation that NIF made false certifications on their 990 forms and this resulted in NIF’s 501(c)(3) tax exempt status and thus NIF is evading substantial taxes. David Abrams, Attorney at Law P.O. Box 3353 Church Street Station, New York NY 10008 Tel. 212-897-5821 Fax 212-897-5811 3. What is the Fraudulent Scheme? NIF has engaged in various direct and indirect campaign activities on behalf of and in opposition to candidates running for public office. NIF gave multiple grants to organizations which promote and oppose candidates in Israeli elections. NIF’s electioneering is ongoing as of the 2019 Israel elections. Although NIF’s electioneering was and is focused in Israel, the anti-electioneering provisions of the tax codes apply to both domestic and foreign elections. 4. Exactly What Statements are Fraudulent? The 990 tax forms that NIF submitted ask if the corporation “engaged in direct or indirect campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.” New Israel Fund checked the “no” box year after year including from 2008 until 2017, their last submitted tax return. The obvious reason is that in order for NIF to retain its tax- exempt status it cannot get involved in political campaigns. However, this answer is false because NIF has been engaging in campaign activities and supporting and opposing candidates in Israel elections on a constant basis. The pertinent part of NIF’s most recent 990, is attached as Exhibit 2. All the form 990s are attached in full on a CD. 5. How do the Fraudulent Statements Harm the Internal Revenue Service? The false statement described herein resulted in 501(c)(3) tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service which greatly reduced tax revenue. In this case, the taxes are substantial. 6. What is the Evidence Which Demonstrates the Misconduct? Attached to this memorandum are documents, most of which were copied from various websites and social media pages, including NIF’s web page and its grantees. Many NIF grantees admit to electioneering on their websites and social media pages. NIF posts some of these activities on its website which shows that NIF knows about the activities in which its grantees engage. NIF also states that it is careful to regularly monitor and evaluate the actions of its grantees. (See Exhibit 3) Thus, instead of cutting funding to organizations that electioneer NIF endorses their actions. A list of NIF grantees from 2012 until and including most of 2018 is attached as Exhibit 4. Following is a brief summary of the evidence, starting with the most recent electioneering. Although technically the 2019 electioneering occurred after NIF's most recent tax certifications, it is illustrative of NIF's course of conduct over the years and in any event NIF will almost certainly execute additional fraudulent certifications going forward. David Abrams, Attorney at Law P.O. Box 3353 Church Street Station, New York NY 10008 Tel. 212-897-5821 Fax 212-897-5811 a. Electioneering in 2019 In 2019 NIF opposed candidates running for office in Israel, specifically members of the Otzma Yehudit party who were running for seats in the Knesset (Israel's legislative body, equivalent to the United States Congress). These candidates included Michael Ben-Ari and Ben Gvir. Furthermore, NIF stated its opposition to Otzma Yehudit candidates by publicly calling them racist and labeling them as Kahanists (It should be noted that Kahanist parties are banned in Israel and in fact Kahane's organization is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization). See Exhibit 5. NIF posted on its website that it was proud of the work that many of its grantees had done to oppose Otzma Yehudit Party from running for office. A copy of this post is attached hereto as Exhibit 6. In particular, NIF wrote that Zazim: Community Action ("Zazim"), a NIF grantee, actively opposed the Otzma Yehudit Party. Zazim had started a petition to disqualify Otzma Yehudit candidates from running in the 2019 Israel Elections and NIF “gathered names in support.” Attached as Exhibit 7 is a screen capture from NIF’s twitter page showing that NIF had asked people to sign the petition to ban the Otzma Yehudit candidates. On the same post of Exhibit 6, NIF states that Tag Meir Forum -- another grantee -- co-hosted a protest against the merger of the Otzma Yehudit party and the Jewish Home and National Union. Tag Meir was protesting the merger because this merger gave the parties a greater chance of winning Knesset seats. Another NIF grantee, Israel Religious Action Center ("IRAC") opposed these members of the Otzma Yehudit Party running for office. This is mentioned on the same Exhibit 6. IRAC made a video about the danger of Kahanism which specifically targeted candidates Ben Gvir, Michael Ben-Ari and Baruch Marzel. (A download of the video is included on the enclosed CD.) Later, in April 2019, NIF posted that because of IRAC’s work Michael Ben-Ari was banned by the Supreme Court from running for public office. (See Exhibit 8.) Anat Hoffman, the executive director of IRAC, posted that she was happy that Ben-Ari had been banned, and stated it was due to the work of IRAC petitioning the Israeli Supreme Court. Further, she posted that this was IRAC’s third attempt to get Ben-Ari banned from the Knesset and called it a major victory. (See Exhibit 9.) b. IRAC (Grantee of NIF) 2015 Electioneering Activities As mentioned above, IRAC is a grantee of NIF. Not only did IRAC electioneer in 2019, it also electioneered in the previous Israel elections in 2015. An IRAC attorney argued before the Supreme Court against the appeal of Baruch Marzel who had been disqualified from running by the Central Election Commission. IRAC posted a picture boasting about these activities on its Facebook page along with a caption which picture and caption are attached as Exhibit 10. David Abrams, Attorney at Law P.O. Box 3353 Church Street Station, New York NY 10008 Tel. 212-897-5821 Fax 212-897-5811 c. Adalah (Grantee of NIF) Electioneering Activities Adalah is another major grantee of NIF. On their website, a screen capture of which is enclosed as Exhibit 11, Adalah admits to petitioning the Israeli Central Election Commission to allow certain candidates to run for public office and not be disqualified. More specifically Adalah admits that in 2013 its general director Hassan Jabareen, and its attorney, Sawsan Zaher, represented candidate MK Haneen Zoabi in front of the Israel Supreme Court to challenge the Central Elections Commission decision to disqualify him from running for the Knesset. See id. This is clearly supporting a specific candidate for public office. In 2015, Adalah continued to electioneer and again helped MK Haneen Zoabi to allow him to run for public office by filing responses with the Central Election Commission. See Exhibit 12. Adalah continued to electioneer in 2019. In 2019 it petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to remove the authority of the Central Election Commission to vet Knesset candidates (see Exhibit 13). Not only that, Adalah also petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the disqualification of Dr. Ofer Cassif and of Balad-Ra'am. These individuals were Knesset candidates who Adalah supported for election. See Exhibits 13, 14. Furthermore, Adalah stated its opposition the Otzma Yehudit candidates by publicly calling them racist and labeling them as Kahanists (As mentioned above, Kahanist parties are banned in Israel and in fact Kahane's organization is a U.S.- designated terrorist organization). See Exhibit 13. d. Mossawa (Grantee of NIF) Electioneering Activities In 2018 Mossawa attacked a sign of the Jewish Home Campaign as "racist" clearly insinuating that it does not approve of the Jewish Home candidates and no one should vote for them.
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