reduce the funding to settlements
DE PAUS - 10.08.2004 13:33
Friends,
Your fax can significantly reduce the funding to settlements in Israel. How?
Friends,
Your fax can significantly reduce the funding to settlements in Israel. How?
Irving Moskowitz is a Miami resident who makes millions of dollars off the poor in California by running “non-profit” bingo parlors in low-income neighborhoods. His money is used to support the most extremist right-wing elements in Israel – settler homes in Silwan, the Old City, Ras al-Ammud, and other Palestinian communities. I have been at many actions trying to prevent these settlements from being constructed, and once arrested trying to prevent Moskowitz himself from driving up to survey his new property.
Right now there is a singular opportunity to cut off Moskowitz’s corrupt gambling operations in Hawaiian Gardens. A flood of faxes can influence the regulatory agency not to renew Moskowitz’s gambling license, and thereby cut off this major flow of money into the settlements.
Please print out and fax the sample letter below (also attached). It is written to address the concerns of the Gambling Commission – the rampant corruption accompanying these casinos and the neglect of the local community, on which the license is premised.
This campaign is being organized by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak and Jan Hunter, so contact them if you have questions ( news@stopmoskowitz.org).
It’s good to work together from Israel & the U.S., each in our own way, on this.
Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem
PLEASE WRITE GAMBLING COMMISSION URGING DENIAL OF SETTLER-FUNDER MOSKOWITZ'S GAMBLING LICENSE
Dear Friends,
On August 19th California's Gambling Control Commission will vote on the casino license application of Irving Moskowitz, the leading funder of militant Israeli settlers. This is a critical moment in our Coalition's six-year campaign to stop Moskowitz and we are appealing to you to take a moment to write to the Commissioners.
We, along with other opponents of the license, have given the Commission extensive written and oral testimony - a wealth of reasons for denying the license. But the commission has never denied a casino license application. So your letters, emails and faxes encouraging the Commissioners to "do the right thing" can make a huge difference.
We have included in this message a model letter that you can email, fax or "snail mail" as is, or edit to express your own comments. We've followed that with the Commissioners' contact information in easy to click or paste formats. The Background column on the right contains links to detailed information about Moskowitz's support for violence-prone settler causes and the damage he has done to Hawaiian Gardens, where he operates both a bingo and the casino for which he seeks a license.
Note: Because of the way the gambling code is written, the Commissioners are likely to give more weight to Moskowitz's behavior in Hawaiian Gardens than in the Middle East, so our model letter begins with Hawaiian Gardens, then proceeds to Moskowitz's use of gambling profits from Hawaiian Gardens to fight Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Please copy the following text and paste it into your outgoing email or your letterhead, modify it if you'd like, and sign your name. Addressing information follows the model letter text.
Model Text for Fax (also attached)
Dear Commissioner,
I respectfully urge you to vote NO on Irving Moskowitz's application for a permanent license to operate the Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Moskowitz's actions both in Hawaiian Gardens and the Middle East provide numerous justifications to deny him the privilege of a gambling license.
Moskowitz employed street-gang "muscle" to win the referendum authorizing casino gambling in Hawaiian Gardens. Then he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars recalling City Councilmembers who opposed his casino-and his use of millions of dollars of Hawaiian Gardens' public funds to develop it. Moskowitz controls the predominantly Latino city so completely that no one filed to run against his hand-picked City Council in the last election.
Moskowitz's political and economic control of Hawaiian Gardens, which is supposed to regulate his gambling businesses, is precisely the "corruptive influence" that the gambling code rules out for a license applicant. Moreover, a drive through Hawaiian Gardens shows that Moskowitz and the government he controls have done nothing to alleviate the blight and poverty of the City, one of Los Angeles County's poorest.
In the Middle East, Moskowitz has gone far beyond exercising his freedoms of speech and association. He has funded settler activities that, predictably, resulted in violence. Even though these deeds occur half a world away, I urge you to take note of them because they show that Moskowitz does not have the good character that the gambling code requires for the privilege of a license.
In 1996 riots sparked by the opening of a Moskowitz-sponsored tunnel near Jerusalem's Temple Mount took over 70 Israeli and Palestinian lives. Moskowitz has given millions of dollars from his Hawaiian Gardens bingo to the militant settler group Ateret Cohanim which is preparing for the rebuilding of the ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in the place of two revered mosques.
In a deliberate effort to thwart peace, Moskowitz has purchased Palestinian properties in areas of Jerusalem designated for Palestinian sovereignty. Violence has often accompanied his colonizing of these properties with settlers. He is a leading funder of the settlers in Hebron, who are notorious for their vigilante-style attacks on that city's Palestinian majority. Even as the vote on his license application approaches, Moskowitz is generously funding the settlers resisting Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Israeli newspaper.
I hope that, after considering all of the above, you will agree that Moskowitz should not be rewarded with the privilege of a gambling license and that you will use the power the legislature gave you in the Gambling Control Act to vote against granting the license.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Sincerely yours,
Commissioners' Contact Information
Fax Numbers:
You can fax to each of the commissioners at the Gambling Control Commission at
916-263-0499
Email Addresses:
Chairman Dean Shelton
Dshelton@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner Michael Palmer
Mpalmer@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner J.K. Sasaki
Jsasaki@cgcc.ca.gov
Commissioner Arlo Smith
Asmith@cgcc.ca.gov
Postal Addresses
Chairman Dean Shelton
Calif. Gambling Control Commission
P.O. Box 526013
Sacramento, CA 95852
Michael Palmer
Calif. Gambling Control Commission
P.O. Box 526013
Sacramento, CA 95852
J.K. Sasaki
Calif. Gambling Control Commission
P.O. Box 526013
Sacramento, CA 95852
Arlo Smith
Calif. Gambling Control Commission
P.O. Box 526013
Sacramento, CA 95852
Thank you very much for taking the time for this important correspondence. We hope you will take another moment to forward this email to friends who will want to take this quick action on behalf of Israel-Palestinian peace and the people of Hawaiian Gardens, who deserve to get back control of their government.
Lastly, we invite you to visit our website, www.stopmoskowitz.org , and, while there, please make a tax-deductible donation to support our work. There's a secure online donation form in the left margin. Or, if you prefer, please send a tax-deductible check to the Coalition for Justice at the address below.
We appreciate your support and continuing interest.
Haim Dov Beliak
and
Jane Hunter
Co-directors
Coalition for Justice
in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem
P.O. Box 67903
Los Angeles CA 90067
310-553-1146
www.stopmoskowitz.org
email: news@stopmoskowitz.org
_________________________________
Alert! Please attend public hearing
and the vote on Moskowitz's license application.
Thurs., August 19th,
1PM-5PM
801 Capitol Mall (Auditorium)
Sacramento, CA 95814.
For more information call 310-553-1146 or email news@stopmoskowitz.org
_______________________________
Background
Click on any phrase below for more information on its subject matter.
Irving Moskowitz, a Florida multi-millionaire, is notorious for funding extremist settler enterprises, such as the violent settlers of Hebron , and the controversial yeshiva in Jerusalem, Ateret Cohanim, which prepares for the rebuilding of the ancient Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque now stand .
In 1996, riots sparked by the opening of a Moskowitz-sponsored tunnel near the Temple Mount took over 70 Israeli and Palestinian lives.
Moskowitz is also known for buying Palestinian properties in sensitive Arab areas of Jerusalem and colonizing them with militant Israeli settlers; his purpose is to foil an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Moskowitz funds many of these extremist activities with the proceeds from a non-profit bingo he operates in Hawaiian Gardens, next to the casino he's trying to license. He has also given millions from the bingo to leading US-based "neocon" organizations.
Hawaiian Gardens is a predominantly Latino city in Los Angeles County. It is one of California's smallest and poorest cities. A decade ago, Moskowitz seized political control of the city and, even though he is a very wealthy man, used all its available public funds to develop his casino.
Our Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens & Jerusalem has worked since 1998 to stop Moskowitz's use of Hawaiian Gardens to generate funds for his anti-peace causes - and to stop his abuse of Hawaiian Gardens.
We--and many other organizations--testified against Moskowitz's gambling license application at state gambling commission hearings in December and January. The commission will vote on the license on August 19th.
Meanwhile, Moskowitz is one of several urban casino owners sponsoring Proposition 68, a November ballot measure that would end Indian casinos' current exclusive right to slot machines in California.
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