ARE DONORS TO THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND DECEIVED?
Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Dear Friends,
The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Leisrael) is the land purchase and development fund of the Zionist Organization. The JNF is a one hundred and three year-old international environmental organization with more than fifty offices around the globe.
It was founded in December 1901, at the Fifth Zionist Congress at Basle, which resolved: “The JNF shall be the eternal possession of the Jewish People. Its funds shall not be used except for the purchase of lands in Palestine and Syria.” The idea of public ownership of land is based on the Biblical injunction “The Land shall not be sold forever, for the Land is Mine.” (Leviticus 25:23). The JNF protocol specifically prohibits selling land ownership and selling any rights to non-Jews.
It was tradition in many Jewish homes to have a Blue Box, a small tin collection box, in a prominent place. I remember, as a child, my parents encouraging me to put part of my small allowance into this Blue Box to help to purchase land, to plant trees there and to generally build up the Promised Land.
Jews all over the world donate millions of dollars to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). We learn from an article by Helen Freedman, posted on October 18, 2006, that in Jerusalem important strategic portions of that land ends up in Arab hands.
I am reproducing her article in its entirety.
ARABS GRABBING JNF LAND IN JERUSALEM
By Helen Freedman
Generous Jews donated many millions of dollars to the Jewish National Fund/JNF for the purchase of land. What they may not know is that in Jerusalem, a portion of that land ends up in Arab hands. These are some of the very same Arabs that celebrate Israel’s defeats and Arab suicide bombings, and refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Documented facts, supplied by Aryeh King, resident of East Jerusalem, were submitted to Avinoam Binder, Chief Israel Representative for Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Hebrew version of JNF, at his New York office.
Mr. Binder confirmed that large scale give-away of JNF lands to Arabs has been occurring through government decisions, and the failure of JNF to oppose those decisions. Four plots, which make up 772 dunams (approximately 193 acres) near Bethlehem, which had been purchased by JNF, are now unavailable to Jews. Mr. Binder explains that the military status of the area makes this problematic.
In north Jerusalem, the JNF owns an area that is known as Shoafat. Arieh King tells us that the plots were registered as belonging to the State, but they really belong to JNF and were purchased by JNF. Today, the area is the site of hundreds of buildings occupied by Arabs whose Orange ID’s theoretically keep them from entering Jerusalem, however, they live inside Jerusalem. The JNF does nothing to remove the Arab squatters from the land. There is also a “refugee” camp on the site, housing about 10,000 persons. When asked why they are not removed, Avinoam Binder replied,”How could so many be removed and relocated?” I pointed out to him that the government had no problem removing 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and setting them down wherever they might land. He smiled at the impossibility of the thought that Israel would try to do the same thing to Arabs. He agreed that scant attention is paid to the Jewish Gush Katif refugees.
In northern Jerusalem, near the Atarot airport, to which Jews dare not travel today, there are thousands of dunams (calculate approx. 4 per acre) that are owned by the JNF. This land exists between the airport, in the top of the finger of Jerusalem, and the borders of the Jerusalem municipality. Avinoam Binder shrugs his shoulders helplessly when questioned as to why this land is being sold to Arabs.
The ghastly wall that scars its way through Jerusalem is also leaving huge tracts of JNF land on the “Arab” side. Once again, JNF looks at this as a decision by the government of Israel, and one they refuse to appeal.
JNF donors, who were under the impression they were reclaiming holy Jewish land through their generosity, will be dismayed to learn that NO land was purchased by JNF in Jewish east Jerusalem in the past twenty years. And with the above information as evidence, land that was purchased for Jewish use has been released into Arab hands.
JNF donors should be outraged by this situation. Questions should be asked whether similar situations are occurring throughout Israel. Is JNF land in the Galilee and the Negev falling into Arab hands? If you are a donor operating on the premise that JNF money is going into Jewish projects protected by that organization, you should immediately request an accounting.
Write to Avinoam Binder at Jewish National Fund, 42 East 69th Street, New York, NY 10021; abinder@jnf.org; www.jnf.org to register your protest. RESOLVE NOT TO GIVE ANY MORE MONEY TO JNF UNLESS THERE CAN BE A GUARANTEE THAT ARABS WILL NOT PROFIT FROM YOUR GIFT. SEND THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS AND RADIO STATIONS. TAKE PART IN ALERTING GENEROUS JEWS TO THE DECEPTION PERPETRATED UPON THEM. Contact Arieh King in Jerusalem for more details – kingshir@bezeqint.net – 011-972-54-550-1182.
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Dear friends, who made this Arab land-grab possible? There is evidence that points to the conclusion that Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert are responsible.
The Israel Land Administration (ILA) is the official government agency responsible for managing the land of Israel. (By the way, half the land used by Israeli Arab farmers is directly leased to them by the ILA).
During the premiership of Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert was Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor. On May 2, 2004, Olmert appointed the GADISH COMMITTEE to investigate essential ‘reforms’ to the ILA. There is no doubt that Sharon endorsed Olmert’s appointment of this committee. Why did Sharon and Olmert find it necessary to reform the Israel Land Administration?
ONE OF THE MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE GADISH COMMITTEE WAS THE EXCHANGE OF LANDS BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE JNF, ACCORDING TO WHICH THE JNF WOULD CONCEDE LANDS IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF ISRAEL TO THE STATE, IN EXCHANGE FOR LANDS IN THE ‘NATIONAL PRIORITY AREAS’, SUCH AS THE GALILEE AND THE NEGEV.
Now it becomes clear to us that large scale give-away of JNF land in Jerusalem to Arabs has been occurring through government decisions, specifically inspired by the partnership of Sharon and Olmert. Unfortunately, the Jewish National Fund has not appealed these decisions, thereby failing to carry out the intentions of their contributors, that Jewish land be bought only for the Jewish People.
We have now arrived at an incredible situation where an Arab has been appointed to the board of directors of the Jewish National Fund (Haaretz News, July 14, 2006). The JNF board approved the appointment of Raadi Safuri, an Arab from the village of Kfar Kana. Safuri was Meretz chair Yossi Beilin’s candidate and had the backing of Yeheil Leket of the Labor Party.
World Likud Chairman, Danny Danon, called Safuri’s appointment “a disgrace to the Zionist movement”, and said that the “Jewish National Fund’s purpose is to redeem lands from Arab hands, not to appoint Arabs to its institutions”.
It is imperative that all of us who love Israel show our outrage at the perfidy of the Olmert government, which transfers ownership to Arabs of land purchased by contributions to the Jewish National Fund. Don’t fail to follow the suggestion of Helen Freedman in the last paragraph of her article. Alert donors to the Jewish National Fund to the deception perpetrated upon them!
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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