For the winning punters chancing their luck at Hawaiian Gardens’ charity bingo hall in the heart of one of California’s poorest towns, the big prize is $500.
Each play at bingo by the mostly Latino residents of Hawaiian Gardens will helps fund Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in some of the most sensitive areas of occupied East Jerusalem.
The bingo operation, owned by an American Jewish doctor and millionaire has taken on added significance in recent weeks as President Barack Obama has laid down a marker to Israel in demanding an end to settlement construction.
Haim Dov Beliak, a rabbi serving Hawaiian Gardens and one of the Jewish religious leaders in California said: “‘Moskowitz is taking millions from the poorest town in California and sending it to the settlements.”.
Beliak calculates that the foundation has given Jewish settlers well over £100m.