Visa, Mastercard and PayPal help fund Israel’s illegal settlements

Crikey reports:

Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law.

It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.

All three have in the last week ceased enabling donations to WikiLeaks. Neither Mastercard nor Visa have explained the basis for their decision to do so. PayPal has backed away from its initial claim that the US State Department told PayPal WikiLeaks had broken the law after the claim was discredited. This is the third occasion on which PayPal has suspended payment services for WikiLeaks.

Israel subsidises over 100 settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law. Another 100+ are “illegal outposts” even under Israeli law. All benefit from extensive support from the United States, channelled through a range of Jewish and right-wing Christian bodies, all of which have charitable status under US law. The International Crisis Group’s report on settlements in July 2009 identified the important role played by US charities. Israeli newspaper Haaretz has investigated the strong support provided via US charities, and Israeli peace groups have also targeted the generous support provided via private donations from the US and Canada.

Credit card transactional systems play a key role in facilitating this support for illegal settlements.

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3 thoughts on “Visa, Mastercard and PayPal help fund Israel’s illegal settlements

  1. Norman

    How does the saying go, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, then it must be a duck. What has that got to do with this story? If you have to ask, then you don’t need to know. After all, didn’t the U.S. Government give the NAZI’S aid & cover? Who would have though that this country would be in the deep shit it’s in today. Is this the price to pay for arrogance? What will Israel do when the U.S. is Bankrupt? Commit “Hari-Kari? Probably, because they won’t have any choice. The big joke is, The dollar will be worthless, so, what difference does it make if Master Card-Visa-Pay Pay or any other financial entity is around? I guess like all greedy players, it’s get as much as you can before it’s all gone.

  2. John Somebody

    Electronic Intifada.
    There’s more to this. The exellent website, Electronic Intifada, is under attack, by a bunch of zio – thugs, called the NGO Monitor. They’ve had some success, at pressuring sponsors, to pull the plug. They do this, apparently, because e.i. are so effective, Ali Abunimah, particularly, who, occaisionaly even gets interviewed by the BBC. So, they’re asking for donations, by, amongst other means, PayPal.I’m inclined to help, but the other options seem to present difficulties, for those of us, not U.S. based.
    Surely, there’ must be lots of really good folks, who use it, as well as the nasties. I dare say, there are quite a few murders commited with bread knives. That can’t be a reason to boycott the use of breadknives, can it ?

  3. seamus o'bannion

    This is just a reminder – you can still contribute to the KKK, which is still not considered a terrorist organization, despite the fact that it has killed more Americans in its history than did the collapse of the three World Trade Center towers.

    SOB

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