Trump gave $10,000 for West Bank settlement, tax form shows
JERUSALEM -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump donated $10,000 for a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in 2003.
According to a tax filing, the Donald J. Trump Foundation made the donation to a U.S. nonprofit group that raises funds for the Beit El settlement’s seminary, a news organization affiliated with the settler movement and other activities in the settlement.
Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, lawyer David Friedman, is the nonprofit’s president.
Beit El founder Yaakov Katz revealed Trump’s donation to Israeli settler radio Sunday.
The Obama administration, like many before it, considers West Bank settlements obstacles to peace. The Palestinians seek the territory, captured by Israel in 1967, for a state.
But an adviser to Trump has said Trump does not see settlements as an impediment to peace.
Trump’s transition team had no immediate comment.
In a recent interview for CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I know Donald Trump. I know him very well. And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is clear.”
“He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people,” Netanyahu said. “There’s no question about that.”