50. Restore Augusta Victoria’s Tax-Exempt Status

Augusta Victoria Hospital is the largest and most prominent institution in the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, and the only hospital serving Palestinians equipped to provide cancer treatment to residents of the West Bank and Gaza. It faces financial pressures, partially because it lost its tax-exempt status in 2018 in Israel as part of the Lutheran World Federation and now must make VAT payments to Israel. Given the importance of Augusta Victoria for humanitarian assistance to Palestinians and its prominence in the U.S.—signified by President Biden’s visit to Augusta Victoria in July 2022—Israel should restore the hospital’s tax-exempt status irrespective of any larger issues with the Lutheran World Federation, enabling Augusta Victoria to stop spending millions of sparse funds in annual tax payments.