The Jewish National Fund is a linchpin of the system that enforces superior rights for Jews over Palestinians, whether inside Israel or in the occupied territory. A recent JNF decision to start publicly funding projects in the West Bank just makes that role more clear. Now the question becomes — will its international supporters stand by the organization?
The Jewish National Fund has been “redeeming” Palestinian land by giving it to Jews for 100 years, but liberal Zionists are alarmed by a new plan to buy up Palestinian land in the West Bank to bolster illegal Jewish settlements.
Despite criticism from liberal Zionists, the Jewish National Fund is moving ahead on a plan to buy Palestinian lands in the West Bank for Jewish settlement expansion. The JNF says it has been acquiring Palestinian land for Jews for decades so what’s the problem?
Avraham Duvdevani has spent his long career supporting illegal Israeli settlements and promoting Palestinian dispossession. In his new role as global chairperson of the Jewish National Fund, he will be doing much the same.
Liz Rose reflects on Rosh Hashanah: “We made the desert bloom,” my mother said when I was ten years old. “How did we do this,” I asked, “from the other side of the world?” My mother pointed to the blue JNF box full of loose change. “That’s how.” And then I felt a selflessness in me, learning to give to others who required help, like Israel, who I believed–because my mother believed–needed money to help make the empty forest grow.
The Jewish National Fund is a thriving relic of Europe’s colonial past, even if today it wears the garb of an environmental charity. As recent events show, ethnic cleansing is still what it excels at.
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is the target of a $90 million lawsuit that accuses the group of engaging in environmental terrorism. “The lawsuit is a ludicrous abuse of U.S. courts to silence calls for Palestinian freedom,” says the Center for Constitutional Rights Deputy Legal Director Maria LaHood.
Last week the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Canada Revenue Agency, under pressure from Palestine solidarity activists, began an audit of the Jewish National Fund over projects linked to the Israeli military.