Nov 7, 2013
“Connecting for Tomorrow” is the title of the congress which is to take place on Sunday 10th November 2013 from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. in the Berlin Congress Centre (BCC), Alexanderstr. 11, in the centre of Berlin. The aim of the Congress is to intensify the relations between Israel and Germany and is the 3. Israel Congress of this series. The previous two congresses were held in Frankfurt-am-Main, but from now on they are to be hosted in Berlin. More than a thousand (1000) guests have been invited both from inland and abroad. The Lufthansa is offering visitors from Israel cheap flights.
The reasons as to why Berlin is not able to look forward to hosting the congress and its guests, and why the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost e.V.), together with many other organisations, warn against unreflecting words of welcome, are set out in this leaflet.
We protest against the Israeli government occupation policies of the past 46 years. This occupation not only represents the longest period of occupation in world history, but is equivalent to an expansion of the State of Israel on Palestinian territory, and contrary to International Law. This year the EU passed its Guidelines with regard to the illegality of the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
We protest against the settlement and land expropriation policies of the State of Israel towards the Palestinian population both inside and outside Israel’s borders, and especially against those Zionist organisations, which further and implement these policies of “ethnic cleansing” – also called “the Judaization of the earth”.
We raise our voice against the “strategic partnership” of the Congress organizers with the Jewish National Fund (henceforth called the JNF), which as sponsoring organisation of those illegal and racial policies has reserved for its provocative “Green Oasis” 100 square metres of floor space, thereby covering the whole Level B of the BCC, in order to present itself as “Bridge to Israel”.
Under the pretence of being part of the alternative ecological peace movement, the JNF presents its inhuman networks and projects as exchange and cooperation “covering green industrial interests”. No mention is made of the fact that its activities concentrate entirely on the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The Jewish Voice knows that it acts in agreement with many other NGO’s in Israel (Regional Council of Unrecognised Villages, Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity, ICAHD – The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), in the USA (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and in Europe (Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) (UK), as well as with the international campaign ”Stop the JNF”, when in German-speaking countries it has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that since the founding of the State of Israel the policies practised by the JNF/KKL have been incompatible with human rights and must be morally and ethically condemned. (Please refer www. Juedische-Stimme.de). Together with the Palestinian people on Land Day we commemorate every year the violent suppression of the Arab demonstration in 1976 against the systematic robbery and expropriation of thousands of hectares of land, during which six Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded. “The Land Day” has become a symbol of common resistance for all Palestinians both in and outside Israel against repression, expropriation and expulsion.
The planning and above all the expropriation of Arab land – often carried out with violent methods and disregard of human rights – is the responsibility of the Land Appropriation Authority, the KKL. This national organisation was founded by the Zionist Movement in 1901 as the Keren Kayemet L’Israel (KKL), translated literally as Existing Fund for Israel, in the first instance in order to purchase land for the Jewish settlement of Palestine. In international common usage this organisation is correctly known as the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
Apart from its extensive appeals for donations in all Jewish communities and, particularly in Israel, the established forms of contribution to the JNF, the organisation has declared an annual international “Green Sunday” – also therefore in Germany – on which people are called on to donate money to “plant trees in Israel”, in order to make the country green and wooded.
Making the Negev Desert green has been one of the major JNF projects for the past few years. In February 2011 the Bedouin settlement Al Arakib was destroyed for the eighteenth time. The bulldozers which brought about this suffering on its inhabitants were plainly visible as being the property of the JNF. Al Arakib and other Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert, but also in other parts of Israel, have been destroyed in order to make room for the JNF’s tree-planting projects. During the Berlin Israel-Congress, in the “Green Oasis”, many of these projects will be euphemistically described and promoted as being an attractive investment for the future. Recreational parks and similar attractions in the Negev Desert are also to be included within the framework of this programme, not only for Israelis, but especially for tourists, too. This means that the traditional homeland and environment of the Bedouin people is being subjected by the JNF – with the political and legal support of the Israeli government – to a process of enforced evacuation and cleansing, with the unequivocal aim of establishing Jewish settlement in this territory as well.
In the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem the JNF under the name of Himanuta carries out the expropriation of private land estate and property as well as the evacuation and destruction of apartments, houses and whole residential areas belonging to the Palestinian population, in order to hand over these “cleansed” neighbourhoods to Jewish settlers, some of whom are new immigrants. The organization Himanuta, founded in 1938 with the aim of furthering Jewish immigration and colonisation of Palestine, which at that time was under British Mandate, is owned exclusively by the JNF. After 1967 the Himanuta extended its “business activity” to include the colonisation of the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day-War, in order to protect the KKL alias the JNF, from charges of violating International Law by taking possession of occupied land. So the cooperation between the Himanuta and extreme right-wing settler organisations such as ELAD (David-Town-Foundation) will hardly come as a surprise.
The examples given above are characteristic for the whole history of the JNF from its first beginnings until the present day.
Many people here make generous donations to the JNF. The Fund is officially recognized as a non-profit-making organization which plants trees in order to make Israel green and fertile. For this reason the donations are tax-free. Presumably most of the donors do not know that the JNF withholds precise information about the uses their money is being put to. They probably do not even suspect that their money is indirectly being used in order to expel the original non-Jewish population of Israel and the Occupied Territories. The statutes of the Jewish National Fund provide for land to be sold, leased and rented only to Jews. Such an organisation should not and cannot represent the whole “Jewish people”.
We are Jewish European men and women. The State of Israel does not represent us. We condemn the amoral practice of expropriation and the deprivation of the rights of Palestinians.
It is being committed NOT IN OUR NAME!
We protest against the strategic partnership of the Congress with the JNF and declare:
The policies of the JNF, to”judaize” Palestinian land both within Israel and in the Occupied Territories, that is to declare them as an exclusively Jewish-Israeli colonial area and to resettle them only with Jews, must be denounced as racial and be prevented.
We emphatically do NOT welcome the JNF!
Come to our protest demonstration on 10th November from 9.30 -12.00 at the BCC, Alexanderstr. 11
Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost e.V. Berlin, November 2013
(Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East)
This declaration is supported by the following organisations:
AK Nahost Berlin, Aktionskreis Palästina FFM, Arbeiterfotografie, Bundesverband, Arbeitskreis Palästina Tübingen, Erhard Arendt, Dortmund, BDS Berlin, BDS Schweiz, Dr. Rüdeger Baron, Röthenbach, Winfried Belz, Heidelberg, Deutsch-Palästinensischer Frauenverein e.V., Deutsch-Palästinensische Gesellschaft (dpg), Flüchtlingskinder im Libanon e.V., Frauen in Schwarz München, Frauen in Schwarz (Vienna), FrauenWegeNahost, Annette Groth, MdB Die LINKE, ICAHD Deutschland, Institut für Palästinakunde e.V., Bonn, Matthias Jochheim (IPPNW), Kölner FRAUEN IN SCHWARZ, Kritische Jüdische Stimme (Austria), Helge Löw, Ehrenvorstandsmitglied im Weltfriedensdienst, Nahostkomitee in der Berliner Friko, Ökumenisches Zentrum für Umwelt-, Friedens- und Eine-Welt-Arbeit, Palästina/Nahost-Initiative Heidelberg, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart, Palästina-Solidarität Region Basel, Palästina-Forum-Nahost, Frankfurt/M, Palästinensische Gemeinde Deutschland / Berlin, Palästinensische Gemeinde Deutschland e.V., Jörg J. Rieche, Annerose Schulz
The following organisations declare their solidarity with the criticism of the JNF: Jüdische Stimme für einen gerechten Frieden zwischen Israel und Palästina (Switzerland), AG Al Arakib (Switzerland)
Oct 30, 2013
Open letter to the executive boards, October 28, 2013
Barbara Unmüßig and Ralf Fücks, Heinrich-Boell-Foundation
Kurt Beck and Dieter Schult, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation
Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering, Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation
Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Hans Zehetmair, Hanns-Seidel-Foundation
Professor Dr. Helmut Schwarz, Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation
We, a group of organizations and individuals from Germany, Israel and other countries, are concerned about your organization’s decision to support the 3rd Israel Congress (Berlin, Nov 10), a morally and politically problematic event. Under the guise of a scientific event, the conference is promoting right-wing elements in Israel and generating legitimacy to the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory.
The congress presents itself as a respectable and scientific event, but a careful look at the congress’s program reveals that it is indeed a very one-sided political event, which promotes a right-wing ideology.
Among the Israeli speakers who are invited to open the congress with their greetings are Israeli Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni [1], who is accused of war crimes and had to cancel a trip to the UK for fear of being arrested, because of her involvement in the unlawful attack against the Gaza Strip in December 2008-January 2009, during which chemical weapons were used and over 1,400 Palestinians were killed, most of them non-combatants. Another speaker is Minster of the Development of the Negev and Galilee Silvan Shalom, who plays a key role in the Israeli government’s efforts to “Judaize” the Negev, through the deportation of tens of thousands of Bedouins by force. [2] Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat, who has dedicated his time in office to a rapid and forceful expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, also appears in the program.
The purpose of the congress is to promote Israeli “Hasbara”, (public diplomacy). [3] Israel is, however, justly criticized for discriminatory policies, for the ongoing occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory, for an inhuman siege on the Gaza Strip, the mass deportation of indigenous Bedouins from their homes in the south of Israel [4], for over 50 laws [5] which discriminate non-Jewish citizens of Israel. In response to this criticism, the Israeli government adopted a strategy of public relations, instead of reforming its own policies. This congress is one of the elements of this strategy!
It is not only failing to mention Israel’s unjust and illegal policies, but also seeks to justify them by legitimizing the organizations which enact these policies such as the JNF and the Jewish Agency (see below).
The keynote-speaker Yossi Vardi is indeed an expert of ‘Hasbara’ and advised the Israeli military in a ‘Hasbara’ panel in February 2011 [6]on how to flood the internet with pro-Israeli content, in order to avoid the embarrassment caused when the truth comes out about abuses committed by Israeli soldiers.
Supporting the congress is akin to a statement that Israel does not need to act to ensure the full rights of the population under its control.
In accordance to the European Union Guidelines [7] regarding Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East-Jerusalem, European institutions are instructed not to promote or fund projects which include components in the territory illegally occupied by Israel.
The 3rd Israeli Congress is funded by both the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund [8] two organizations which are deeply involved in colonization activities in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention (e.g. Canada Park [9], Silwan [10], Jordan Valley [11]). The Jerusalem Foundation, for example, which prides itself in promoting ‘co-existence’, has funded a Jewish school in the illegal settlement of Gilo in East Jerusalem, which children from the adjacent town of Beit Jala are prevented from attending [12].
Indeed, the European Union guidelines will only come into effect in January 1st, 2014, but we believe that their moral message of rejecting a military occupation is true today as it will be next year.
In addition to the organizations funding the event, the event proudly mentions the organizations which support it, including Taglit – Birthright Israel. This is an organization which offers free trips for Jews to visit Israel, telling them that the country belongs to them (including the illegal colonies), but not to the Palestinian refugees who were forcefully deported from these same areas.
The political nature of the event is apparent from the choice of the Israeli representative for the congress’s ‘political lab’. Former Knesset member Yohanan Plesner has been selected to exemplify Israeli politics. In June 2nd, 2010, MK Plesner verbally abused MK Hanin Zoabi (Palestinian citizen of Israel), and shouted at her “I wish that you will go to Gaza for at least a week, and we’ll see you talking about women rights there, on civil rights. One week in Gaza and we will see what will happen to you. One week in Gaza, a single 38 year-old woman we will see how you will be treated there! So you, you are the last who can preach to us about morality.” [13] This chauvinistic and racist statement would be unacceptable, even if it was not uttered in defense of the killing of nine unarmed civilians on board the Mavi Marmara in May 2010 (where Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi was aboard). Having Yohanan Plesner invited as the speaker in the political workshop is a worrying statement by the conference organizers, who accept this kind of political perspective and allow him to promote his hateful politics in the conference’s ‘political lab’.
Inviting people who are possible war criminals like Tzipi Livni or organizations who are involved in the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population like the JNF, German Politicians and organizations instead should uphold International Law and Human Rights. There is a Call of the Palestinian civil society from 2005 [14] that asks for implementing this and to pressure the Israeli Government through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). A growing international support for the BDS movement shows that more and more people in the world understand that this kind of pressure is needed. We further ask you to pay attention to the call for academic and cultural boycott from 2004. [15]
The congress’s political lab is a site for right-wing ideologies of the Likud and Kadima parties, with no representation for a left-wing party. Even the so-called academic speaker Prof. Shlomo Avinery is a former CEO of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a clear representative of the Israeli institutional elite and one of the people who have made the occupation of the Palestinian territory for so many decades possible through his work in justifying Israel’s policies. The political lab discusses matters which are conveniently chosen in such a way that ignores the difficult questions of the Israeli illegal and ongoing occupation, the support given by the German government to this occupation and the arms trade between the two countries, including the controversial supply of nuclear weapons-capable submarines to the Israeli navy.
The science lab has the least amount of text in it. Clearly science is not one of the important elements of this congress.
The religion lab merits a particular mention – in the discussion of the religious matters between Israel and Germany, there is no mention of the Islam and no Muslim speaker. The choice to focus on Judaism and Christianity demonstrates that this congress represents the political ideology of organizations such as Pro-Deutschland, or the Israeli right-wing.
The list of supporters and friends of the congress offers the final and conclusive proof that this congress is in fact a pro-settlement congress. The prominent role of the JNF (including the opening greetings by Efi Stenzler, president of the JNF) cannot be concealed, as is the involvement of the Jewish Agency and the Jerusalem Foundation. The Hebrew University, itself built on 3,000 dunams of occupied Palestinian land, and the three Israeli banks who sponsor the event: Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi and Mizrahi-Tfahot[16], all banks which are part of the occupation economy and profit from the occupation – all accumulate to a clear picture that this conference is a pro-settlement conference. Not a single organization which works to end the occupation, not a single organization that represents the Palestinian citizens of Israel or political party, is represented.
In situations of conflict, it is our moral duty to listen to the victims. As Noble Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa) said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” [17]
Please take a stand!
Be on the side of the oppressed and withdraw your support of the Israel Congress 2013!
• AKtion Gerechter Frieden Nahost (Göttingen)
• Alternative Information Center (AIC)
• Bay Area Women in Black (USA)
• BDS Berlin
• Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit (Bad Ischl, Austria)
• Berlin Academic Boycott (BAB)
• Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (Israel)
• Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine (Strasbourg-France)
• Femmes en noir (Strasbourg- France )
• Frauen in Schwarz (Vienna)
• Handala e.V. (Marburg)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
• Kritische Jüdische Stimme (Austria)
• Palästinakomitee Stuttgart
• Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC)
• Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP)
We will gladly address any questions or comments.
Contact: bdsmovement-berlin@web.de
References:
[1] https://www.israelkongress.de/de/kongress/programm/
[2] http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/3803-negev-conference-told-settlement-expansion-will-follow-displacement-of-arabs
[3] http://forward.com/articles/2070/israel-aims-to-improve-its-public-image/
[4] http://adalah.org/eng/?mod=articles&ID=1589
[5] http://adalah.org/eng/Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database
[6] http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000621589
[7] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:205:FULL:EN:PDF (English) and
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:205:FULL:DE:PDF (German), C 205/9 ff
[8] http://www.jnews.org.uk/commentary/background-paper-the-controversial-land-policies-of-the-jewish-national-fund, http://www.juedische-stimme.de/?p=1015 (English follows German), http://www.juedische-stimme.de/?p=672
[9] http://electronicintifada.net/content/canada-park-and-israeli-memoricide/8126
[10] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-office-minister-jerusalem-decision-is-provocative-and-deeply-counter-productive
[11] http://www.tarabut.info/en/articles/article/JNF-in-the-Jordan-Valley/
[12] http://www.shalomlife.com/news/12812/clashes-leading-to-fight-in-knesset-podium/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ykEdzR_lM
[13] http://www.jerusalemfoundation.org/he/about.aspx?MID=764&CID=772
[14] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
[15] http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869
[16] http://www.whoprofits.org/sites/default/files/WhoProfits-IsraeliBanks2010.pdf.
[17] http://www.tutufoundation-usa.org/exhibitions.html
Download:
131028_Open letter 3. Israel Congress _CEOs foundations
Jun 10, 2013
“The JNF is not welcome on West Coast native land,” said Cynthia Taha of the Wet’suwet’en nation on Sunday, June 9, as Palestinians and their allies in Vancouver protested across the street from Schara Tzadek synagogue, where the Jewish National Fund was holding its annual gala; this year, the banquet honoured the Israeli military, featuring guest speaker Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani and the “IDF Chorus” as entertainment.
The Canada Palestine Association protests the gala annually. The Jewish National Fund is the subject of a Palestinian and international campaign to expose its activities, its deep connections to Israeli apartheid and racism, and challenge its tax-deductible, charitable status in Europe, Canada, the US and other countries.
In Canada, Yves Engler, Ron Saba and others have documented the Canada Revenue Agency’s continuing protection of the JNF’s charitable status and tax-deductibility, despite challenges from advocates for Palestinian rights.
The JNF is one of the founding institutions of the State of Israel – as Stop the JNF notes, “at the forefront of the colonial project of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.” The JNF directly owns 13% of the lands in Israel, and appoints 6 of 13 members of the Israel Lands Authority, which governs 93% of all land within the “green line” or 1948 armistice line. These lands are forbidden from being transferred to non-Jews. As Engler describes,
Shutting out Israeli Arabs, JNF lands can only be leased by Jews. A 1998 United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights found that the JNF systematically discriminated against Arab Israelis. According to the UN report, JNF lands are “chartered to benefit Jews exclusively,” which has led to an “institutionalized form of discrimination.”…JNF Canada officials are relatively open about the discriminatory character of the organization. In May 2002, JNF Canada’s executive director for eastern Canada, Mark Mendelson, explained: “We are trustees between world Jewry and the land of Israel.”
Among other projects, the JNF is responsible for building “Canada Park,” while enjoying exemption from Canadian taxation. This park was built on the ruins of three Palestinian villages, Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu, occupied, bulldozed and demolished in 1967, and bears the name of Canada Park to this day.
The Vancouver protest began with an introduction by Taha, who said that what Palestinians are facing today is the same thing that the native peoples of this land have faced for hundreds of years, expressing her solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association discussed the connection between settler colonialism in Canada and Palestine and highlighted the expressed support of Canadian officials such as John Baird, Foreign Affairs Minister, for the JNF and the Israeli state.
Khaled Barakat of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network said that “Israel and peace don’t go together. Zionism and peace don’t go together,” calling for Israeli officials to be tried for war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Other speakers included Martha Roth of Independent Jewish Voices – Vancouver, Nino Pagliccia of Gaza’s Ark and Charlotte Kates of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign. The protest began with a “people’s gala” of stuffed grape leaves, manakeesh, and bannock, combining Palestinian and Indigenous foods, as protesters carried Palestinian flags, a large banner emblazoned with “The Jewish National Fund is a Racist Organization” and signs highlighting the JNF’s complicity in Israeli Apartheid.
Chants of “Stop the JNF! Stop funding racism!” and “Israeli Apartheid – No! Right of Return – Yes!” were heard loud and clear as the affluent JNF supporters arrived at the banquet, guided by valets and private security and overseen by Vancouver police. Gala attendees yelled at and raised their middle fingers toward protesters as they entered the event.
The protest was sponsored by the Canada Palestine Association and endorsed by the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Gaza\’s Ark, Independent Jewish Voices – Vancouver and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC.
May 20, 2013
Stop the JNF Media Release
20 May 2013
On March 21st the Stop the JNF campaign made an application to the Charity Commission for the removal of Jewish National Fund charities from the UK register of charities. The application gave evidence that the JNF is racist, complicit in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and, according to one of its own former directors, an obstacle to peace. The Stop the JNF application demonstrated that the purpose of the JNF is contrary to the requirement of public benefit and does not qualify the organisation for charity status. Over 500 people have also written individual complaints to the Charity Commission.
The Stop the JNF Campaign argues that the primary purpose of the JNF has always been to remove Palestinians from their land and replace them with Jewish only settlements. As such, the JNF does not act for public benefit, which is a requirement of all charities in the UK.
Furthermore, the JNF promotes racism through Zionist education, and is a ‘para-statal’ organisation, recognised in statute as part of the State of Israel.
The JNF is involved in the administration of 93% of land in Israel, directly controlling 13%. The remains of Palestinian villages are still visible under JNF ‘Parks’, examples are the village of Ajjur in the JNF British Park and Imwas village in JNF Canada Park, while Israel denies the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land. Today, Palestinian Bedouins, who are citizens of the state of Israel, are being ethnically cleansed from the Negev (Naqab) to make way for a JNF forest.
The JNF is openly racist. This is what it said to an Israeli Court “the JNF is not the trustee of the general public in Israel. Its loyalty is given to the Jewish people in the Diaspora and in the state of Israel… The JNF, in relation to being an owner of land, is not a public body that works for the benefit of all citizens of the state. The loyalty of the JNF is given to the Jewish people and only to them is the JNF obligated. The JNF, as the owner of the JNF land, does not have a duty to practice equality towards all citizens of the state.”
In a reply dated May 15, the Charity Commission refused to remove JNF charities from the register of charities. It has however decided to investigate whether the discrimination practised by the JNF is lawful under the Equalities Act 2010.
Sofiah Macleod, from Stop the JNF said that “we are glad that the Charity Commission is at last looking at the JNF’s systematic racist discrimination. There is enough evidence to show that JNF UK and JNF Israel are so tied together that they cannot be described as separate organisations. Yet the Charity Commission shows a wilful blindness on this issue. We very much look forward to hearing how the JNF will attempt to explain that its discrimination is for the public benefit. The Stop the JNF Campaign will be seeking to make the necessary legal challenges to force the Charity Commission to do its job, to remove the JNF charities from the register”.
END
Download copy of Charity Commission letter to Stop the JNF UK
Apr 22, 2013
Palestinian boycott activists are calling on the Netherlands’ Prince Willem-Alexander to reconsider his decision to lend his name to a water project undertaken by the Jewish National Fund Netherlands in the Naqab/Negev desert in the south of present-day Israel. The project is in honor of the prince’s inauguration as king later this month.
Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and a founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, told The Electronic Intifada: “The [JNF] has played a key role in the dispossession of the Palestinians and in colonizing their lands. Today, [the JNF] continues its explicitly racist practices against Palestinians and rejects any notion of equal rights for all. Palestinian civil society appreciates the prominence that equality and non-discrimination have in the Dutch constitution and based on this, appeal to Prince Willem-Alexander to reconsider his decision to lend his name to a project of the JNF.”
Jamal Juma’, director of the Stop the Wall campaign, commented in an email to The Electronic Intifada: “For Palestinians, the JNF is not only one of the key material agents that implement Israeli policies of discrimination and dispossession on either side of the Green Line. The JNF is one of the most striding symbols of apartheid and the Israeli ideology of racial supremacy. The King of the Netherlands accepting as a gift a ‘civilizing’ project by a colonial agency in a country that is not his brings us back to the darkest days of colonialism when the white people where convinced they could dispose of territories and the people living there at their whim and pleasure. I urge the Netherlands to instead valorize the tradition of tolerance, equality and respect for human rights they are known for today and to ensure this gift will be rejected.”
The Service and Research Center Palestine (docP), an organization which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in the Netherlands, wrote to The Electronic Intifada that it supports the call on the prince to not lend his name to the water project.
JNF Netherlands
A press release from the Jewish National Fund-Netherlands falsely claims that the JNF-NL’s core business is the development of the land of Israel and making it habitable for the benefit of all its inhabitants. In reality, the organization’s work contributes to the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the entrenchment of Israel’s apartheid system. The JNF-NL charter mentions the Jewish people as the beneficiary of its aim and activities, explicitly excluding the indigenous Palestinian population, which makes up 20 percent of the total population in present-day Israel.
In 1992, the JNF-NL adopted a new charter which shows it operates as a branch of JNF Israel, also known as Keren Kavemeth LeIsrael (KKL). The Electronic Intifada obtained a copy of this charter, which is written in Dutch. It is still valid because no changes were registered by the Chamber of Commerce while foundations have the duty to report changes in their governance to this body.
The aim of the JNF-NL is to “bring the land into Israel inalienable property of the Jewish people and enabling the development and afforestation of land in Israel in the interests of the Jewish people” (Article 2).
The charter shows that KKL actually controls the governance of the JNF-NL. KKL headquarters needs to approve the nomination of the members of the Dutch board of directors and will appoint new members when the board has no members. Furthermore, the JNF-NL board has to consult with KKL on the appointment, dismissal and salary of the director, and the JNF-NL board needs the approval of KKL if it wants to change its charter. All revenues of the JNF-NL will be transferred to KKL, unless otherwise has been expressly stipulated.
JNF Israel
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 with the primary objective to “purchase, take on lease, or in exchange, or receive on lease or otherwise lands” in Palestine and the surrounding areas for the purpose of “settling Jews on such lands.”
Following war and the establishment of Israel in 1948, the JNF took control of most of the land which had been confiscated from Palestinian refugees. In the 1950s, the JNF became a quasi state organization when Israel formally linked the private fund to the state under the World Zionist Organization – Jewish Agency (Status) Law and the Keren Keyemeth LeIsrael Law. With these laws, the Israeli government decided that the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and their affiliates, including the JNF, were to be treated as part of the State of Israel, and as institutions empowered to carry out public functions. Subsequently, the JNF joined the Israel Lands Administration (later renamed Israel Lands Authority), which is the public authority managing approximately 93 percent of all land in Israel.
According to Ilan Pappé, the JNF directly owns 13 percent of the land, and through its influential position in the Israel Lands Authority has a stronghold over 93 percent of all land in Israel.
According to the JNF charter and the “Basic Law: Israel Lands,” the JNF may exchange and lease land only to Jewish legal persons, to the state and the government-controlled Development Authority, writes Palestinian refugee rights organization Badil.
The funds collected by the JNF-NL are transferred to and spent by the Israeli para-state organization JNF-KKL.
Institutional discrimination
In 2004, the rights group Adalah in Haifa challenged at the Israeli high court the Israel Lands Authority’s policy to open tenders for JNF lands only to Jews. Adalah demanded that the ILA, as a public agency, respect the principles of equality, just distribution and fairness, and cease acting as a sub-contractor for discrimination on the basis of nationality. In its response to the high court, the JNF underscored its special role “as the owner of an eternal possession of the Jewish people.” It argued that the allocation of JNF lands to non-Jews will be “extreme damaging, retroactively, to the rights of the JNF and of the Jewish people.” JNF writes:
Israel’s Knesset and Israeli society have expressed their view that the distinction between Jews and non-Jews that is the basis for the Zionist vision is a distinction that is permitted and is not discriminatory, at least in regard to resources held by the Zionist movement. [Emphasis added in original letter]
The JNF’s response reveals a determination to continue its discriminatory marketing of land, stating the “JNF is not a public body which acts on behalf of all the citizens of the state. Its loyalty is to the Jewish people and its responsibility is to it alone.”
The JNF’s discriminatory practices against 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel were addressed by several UN bodies. In 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged Israel to ensure that the JNF is bound by the principle of non-discrimination in the exercise of its functions.
In 1998, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted with grave concern that the JNF is “chartered to benefit Jews exclusively” and called on Israel to remedy the problem.
In 2007, the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) rejected the JNF-USA’s application for consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. The JNF-KKL’s violations of the principles of the UN Charter, which emphasize respect for human rights and equality, was one of the main reasons for the rejection, according to Adalah. Furthermore, the committee was unable to distinguish between the activities of the JNF-USA and JNF-KKL, contrary to the JNF-USA’s claim it was an independent non-governmental organization.
JNF present no crown jewel
Citizens expect their king to show respect for the core values as laid down in the kingdom’s constitution. The principle of non-discrimination is crucial in Dutch values as it is the very first article of the Constitution of the Netherlands. However, JNF-NL operates as a branch of the JNF-KKL, an Israeli para-state organization that carries out essential government functions and discriminates on the basis of religion and ethnicity at the expense of the rights of the indigenous Palestinian population.
Mar 31, 2013
On Tuesday, 16 April 2013, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) will make a present for Israel’s 65th Day of Foundation. The SPD has already called for donations for a “Forest of the SPD” for months. The money for this so called “social action” will go to the JNF. See the Petition “No support of the Jewish National Fund by the SPD!”
