The Rieders Foundation Files Formal Complaint with NY State Against Rockefeller Brothers Foundation BDS Ties

The Rieders Foundation is filing a formal complaint with the New York state division of Human Rights on Monday May 20, 2019 against the Rockefeller Brother’s Foundation (RBF) for its extensive and well-documented donations to groups with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bias.  Attached to the complaint is a 19 page report outlining the various individuals and organizations that the RBF supplies with grants.  Stephen Heintz, president of the RBF, responded to these claims in an article that was published in Tablet magazine.  Heintz reiterated that donations regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were “aimed at ending the 50-year long occupation in order to bring justice, dignity, and security to all Israelis and Palestinians.”

Heintz failed to acknowledge that many of the recipients of RBF grants strongly support a 1 state solution, as well as the boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movement.  BDS is widely recognized as the least productive path to a peaceful solution, eliminating the possibility for two states to coexist side by side.  Legislation in the United States has made BDS irrelevant in 27 states and the number is increasing steadily.  BDS is a symbolic replacement for traditional anti-Semitism, as was recognized 5/17/2019 by the German Bundestag.

At the Rieders Foundation, we are also clarifying the tax-exempt status that the RBF operates under.  With donations as large as $3 million to organizations such as JStreet for its “Iran Campaign”, the RBF should not remain eligible for its 501(c) 3 tax-exempt status.  Other recipients of RBF grants include, Ifnotnow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the US campaign for Palestinian rights.  Organizations such as Defense for Children International (which received $25,000 from the RBF in 2017)  employed board members and workers with direct ties to the Popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP), “a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.”