Last week we ran a piece by Liz Shulman describing her progress on the Israel/Palestine issue after a Zionist youth that included collecting money for the Jewish National Fund to expropriate Palestinian land. She follows up.
Last night I went on ebay to see if I could buy a Jewish National Fund box and there were only three for sale. One was from 1947 (and therefore said Palestine on it) and was $250! I bought one for $65.
Not sure what I’ll do with it, but it’ll be next to my certificate of planting a tree in 1976. If I still smoked I’d use it as an ash tray.
The genuine original costs too much, so the next best thing is a cheaper replica.
Yes. That’s a metaphor.
In fact, that should be Israel’s motto, We steal and then sell it to you at a cut-throat price….literally.
(Sorry)
If I still smoked I’d use it as an ash tray.
ashes. hmm.
btw, i had never even heard of these boxes til i read about them on this site a couple years ago. it would be an interesting series hearing about others relationship to them and how they shaped the minds of other children.
thanks for the followup liz.
Those boxes represent the building of a state for refugees post-Holocaust.
Any analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict that ignores that basic fact is incomplete, callous, and intellectually lazy.
The Jewish National Fund is called Keren Kayemet le-Yisrael in Hebrew – another example of the way in which the secular-nationalist Zionist movement co-opted Jewish religious language and associations. Keren means capital or principal, and kayemet means existing, lasting or perpetual. The “capital” in the original context (see below) is entirely spiritual, and lasting means “everlasting” – the only true wealth one may ever acquire. In the Zionist context, it becomes a monetary fund for the acquisition (“redemption” in Zionist parlance) of land at all ethical costs, with a borrowed aura of spirituality.
The Mishnah in the Tractate of Pe’ah (1,1) reads as follows: “These are the things that bear fruit that a man benefits from in this world and their principal remains (ve-ha-keren kayemet) for him in the world to come: honouring one’s father and mother, performing acts of kindness and charity, bringing peace between man and his fellow – and Torah study is equal to all of these things together (because study leads to action – Maimonides).”
Take back the words. Use the box to honour your parents, to perform acts of kindness, to bring peace between people and to study what these things mean and how you can accomplish them.
They make good tissue boxes