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Reform Slams Knesset Plan for JNF Land
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More in NewsAmerica’s largest Jewish denomination is issuing calls for the Israeli Knesset to reverse course on a controversial piece of legislation declaring that Jewish National Fund lands can be leased only to Jews.
The legislation, introduced by three Israeli Knesset members, passed last week in a vote of 64-16 in its first reading. In order for the bill, which would bar JNF lands from falling into Arab hands, to officially become law, it needs to come before the Knesset two more times.
This week, the Reform Movement joined a growing chorus of calls from left-wing Jewish groups roundly condemning the bill as racist and undemocratic.
“It’s very hard to imagine any circumstance where a Jewish minority in any Diaspora country would accept with equanimity a bill that would forbid Jews from purchasing land,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “Therefore it is essential that when the Jewish majority in Israel exercises power, it extend to others the rights it always demanded for itself when we were in the minority.”
Yoffie also expressed concern that if the bill were to pass, it could have far-reaching implications for Israel’s image on the global stage. “You can’t pass a bill that in democratic circles around the world will not be understood, and will bring condemnation on the heads of the Knesset and Israel leaders,” he said.
The JNF, a quasi-governmental body founded more than a century ago as a central Zionist state-building institution, owns 13% of Israeli lands. Historically, Diaspora Jews have contributed funds to JNF — often dropping pennies in their iconic blue tin collection boxes — in order for it to purchase Palestinian lands, often owned by absentee landlords, to create a Jewish homeland. In 1962, JNF reached an agreement with the State of Israel, allowing it to lease its land to Jews through the government’s Israel Land Authority.
In 2005, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled in favor of a preliminary court decision mandating that the ILA cannot discriminate against Arab citizens by leasing only to Jews. The court hearing was a response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a legal group that defends civil rights in the Jewish state.
The recent Knesset bill is widely viewed as a means of circumventing the attorney general’s previous decision. It also may serve as a way of pre-empting an upcoming September court hearing on ACRI’s 2005 petition, according to the group’s chief legal counsel, Dan Yakir.
“If the petition passed, it would force the Israel Land Authority to market JNF land to Arabs as well as Jews,” Yakir said. Yakir explained that the court’s previous ruling was not binding, and the forthcoming decision would mark a final ruling.
Despite the outcry from liberal groups — including the New Israel Fund and Ameinu, the American affiliate of the World Labor Zionist Movement — JNF is standing by the Knesset bill.
“We were founded to create a Jewish state, and the lands that we bought were part of our covenant with the Jewish people to protect and care for the land in perpetuity,” said Jodi Bodner, a spokeswoman for the JNF in America. “We need to protect the dollars and pennies of those who sacrificed themselves.”
Comments
"...to purchase Palestinian lands." It sounds as if the Forward is a newspaper totally detached from the Jewish legacy. Perhaps, it is the passage from a Yiddish-language newspaper to an English-language newspaper that is at fault. In other words, it is a passage from a Jewish-centered world to a world centered in the cultural perspective of others. Anyway, I find it very strange to read that the little blue box was a source of money for purchasing "Palestinian lands". I'm quite certain that during the first half of the 20th century, a Diaspora Jew was donating money for the purchase of land in Eretz Yisrael. It's quite normal for a person to have a point of reference that comes from within one's own narrative and to use vocabulary that has meaning for Jews - even if one's native language is American English!
The Mission statment of the JNF is " Jewish National Fund is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners - Jewish people everywhere". In other words for the past 100 odd years all the Jews around the world have owned a piece of land in Israel and JNF is holding it in trust for them. It is because of that profound responsibility that JNF has continued to operate so successfully. We tamper with that role at our peril.
I find it most amusing that people like me, who oppose this undemocratic legislation, are described as "left-wing". That is very far from the truth and seems to be just a tactic to delegitimize opponents of this discriminatory action. I am old enough to remember a time when Jews were not so welcome in many areas, and I think it ill behooves us to lend any comfort at all to what JNF wants to do.
If the land was public and bought with tax dollars, I would agree that all Israelis should have equal access. However, the JNF land was bought with private donations for the expressed purpose of housing Jews. Many US colleges have women only dorms. Many US congregations offer housing to their rabbis, priests, and ministers (jobs that few Muslems get hired for). There are cases where private discrimination is justified.
The Union for Reform Judaism should foccus more on US laws that create housing segretation here. Most suburban towns have buidling restrictions that make it illegal to build affordable multistory apartment buildings. This ends up segregating towns buy income. We should fight injustice in our neighborhoods before criticizing what other neighborhoods do.
I have told many people and I have written letters not to give another dime to the JNF. WHAT PART OF THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND. MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE CALLED THE ARAB NATIONAL FUND AND ASK THE ARABS TO GIVE YOU MONEY AND THEIR LAND. I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR HOW MANY DONATIONS YOU WOULD GET.
Israel is the homeland of the Jews and should have priority in buying the land of their ancestors. Where is the outrage at the fact that Jews are barred from buying land in all Arab countries which make up 98% of the Middle East? Where is the outrage that this is happenning despite the fact that Arab countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria are occupying Jewish land? Where is the outrage that Arabs are prohibted by law to sell land to Jews and will be killed if they do? Radical liberal "Jewish" groups are fronts for terrorist groups like the Plo and their goal is to destroy Israel. We should all support the Jewish National Fund.
On behalf of the many progressive Zionist Jews in the U.S., I urge all American Jews who care for Israel's future as a democratic Jewish state to sign the petition Ameinu has created protesting this discriminatory Knesset bill. The petition can be signed at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/PROTESTJNFBILL Gidon (Doni) Remba, Executive Director, Ameinu (www.ameinu.net)