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A pro Israel organization is suing the IRS after it claims it was targeted by the IRS for being connected to Israel, according to a new lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania court.
“Z STREET was informed explicitly by an IRS Agent on July 19, 2010, that approval of Z STREET’s application for tax-exempt status has been at least delayed, and may be denied, because of a special IRS policy in place regarding organizations in any way connected with Israel, and further that the applications of many such Israel-related organizations have been assigned to a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies.
"These statements by an IRS official that the IRS maintains special policies governing applications for tax-exempt status by organizations which deal with Israel, and which requires particularly intense scrutiny of such applications and an enhanced risk of denial if made by organizations which espouse or support positions inconsistent with the Obama administration’s Israel policies, constitute an explicit admission of the crudest form of viewpoint discrimination, and one which is both totally un-American and flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” Z STREET stated in the lawsuit.
“This is the most outrageous IRS policy ever. This is extremely discriminatory and anti-Semitic. The IRS should be severely sanctioned by the court for having such a policy,” Cora Summers, 54, of Olympia, Washington told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the Z STREET lawsuit.
“On July 19, 2010, Z STREET’s corporate counsel called again, and this time spoke with IRS Agent Gentry who advised Z STREET’s counsel that she had two concerns regarding the Application. One is the advocacy activities in general, and secondly the IRS's special concern about applications from organizations whose activities are related to Israel, and that are organizations whose positions contradict the US Administration's Israeli policy,” Z STREET also said in its lawsuit.