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MasterCard Accused of Backing "Extreme Settlers"

By Benjamin Joffe-Walt, The Media Line news agency

An Israeli peace organization has launched an international campaign against MasterCard to protest the eviction of Palestinians from a village in East Jerusalem.

Gush Shalom, a left-wing Israeli activist group, is protesting the inclusion of a coupon from the right-wing Israeli group Elad in the monthly statements issued by the Israeli MasterCard company Isracard. Gush Shalom says the coupons, which offer discounted tours of the ancient City of David managed by Elad, are helping to promote the 'Judaization' of East Jerusalem.

The coupons offer "City of David attractions for the entire family!" including a "tour and entry into the City of David National Park" on a Segway machine for 130 shekels (about $33). The offer includes a discount for MasterCard holders and is valid through the month of June.

"MasterCard was used without their knowledge in an advertisement for a group of aggressive, racist settlers from the extreme right," Adam Keller, a volunteer with Gush Shalom, told The Media Line. "MasterCard has the public duty to know what kind of people are advertising with them."

"Some of our volunteers have these credit cards," Keller explained. "We noticed this coupon in the monthly bill. It looks innocent if you don't know the background, but we knew who is running the City of David national park."

Last Monday, Gush Shalom wrote to MasterCard saying they were being used to support "extreme right-wing settlers."

"The Isracard Company, entrusted with issuing MasterCard credit cards in Israel, is at present involved in supporting extreme-right Israeli settlers who are actively dispossessing the Palestinian inhabitants of East Jerusalem's Silwan Neighbourhood," the letter stated. "Moreover, Isracard has been using the MasterCard name and logo in this campaign of support for the settlers."

Gush Shalom activists launched a campaign Wednesday when they did not hear back from the company. "We thought MasterCard should know what their Israeli partners are doing in their name and asked people all over the world to write to MasterCard," Keller said.

"MasterCard has a foundation which funds many human rights activities and works to empower people throughout the Third World," he added.

MasterCard and Isracard representatives both confirmed receiving hundreds of emails since the campaign was launched Wednesday night.

MasterCard declined to comment on its involvement in deciding which Israeli companies Isracard chooses to take advertising from. "Israel is an important market for MasterCard," Louise Herbert, a representative of MasterCard Europe, told The Media Line. "MasterCard branded cards [are] issued in the country by all three major card companies IsraCard, LeumiCard and CAL through all leading Israeli retail banks."

Isracard's representative stated that the company saw no reason to refuse the advertisement. "The City of David National Park is a site which belongs to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority - an official body of the State of Israel supervised by the Ministry of the Environment," Ran Rahav, a spokesperson for Isracard, told The Media Line. "We do not see any obstacle to cooperating with this site, as we do with hundreds of other Parks Authority sites throughout the country."

In a letter to Gush Shalom, a copy of which was obtained by The Media Line, Isracard accused the organization of threatening the company and causing it "immense damage."

The letter also carried a veiled threat of legal action against Gush Shalom. "This letter does not conclude our claims against you and does not in any way constitute a waiver of a claim and/or a legal demand from us to you. We hold you responsible for any damage that is caused or will be caused as a result of your actions," the Isracard executives wrote.

Gush Shalom rejected the depiction of the City of David as a normal government park. "It is true that the City of David is officially a government park," Keller said. "But unfortunately the the government is an absentee landlord and has given complete authority to run the park to an extreme right wing settler organization which indoctrinates anyone who visits it."

"We accept that Isracard and MasterCard did not know, but now that we have told them, we expect them to take responsibility for what they are doing," Keller added. "But they just say this is a national park at that's all they know and care to know."

Silwan sits on slopes just east of Jerusalem's Old City and the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site. Since Israel took control of east Jerusalem in 1967, the government has used the Absentee Property Law to evict Arab residents as Israelis have attempted to reestablish a presence in the neighborhood, parts of which are believed to be within the historic City of David.

Elad has been accused of using various methods to force out Silwan's tens of thousands of Palestinian residents in the course of its efforts to reestablish a Jewish presence in the neighborhood. The group was recently given protected tenant agreements and control over archaeological excavations in the area.

(c) 2009. The Media Line Ltd. All Rights Reserved.