Dear Friend, As a child I thought the Jewish National Fund was doing good. Like so many of us, I put coins into a JNF blue box. I brought my dimes an

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Dear Friend,

As a child I thought the Jewish National Fund was doing good. Like so many of us, I put coins into a JNF blue box. I brought my dimes and quarters each week to fill a JNF card in Hebrew school and felt proud to be planting trees in the Land of Israel. However, as an adult living in Israel, I saw with my own eyes that the JNF was not what I believed it was. And now I’ve learned that the JNF is helping settlers evict Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and taking lands lived on by Bedouin citizens of Israel for generations. It’s time we send a message to JNF Canada demanding they stop collaborating with the settlers.

Silwan evictions for JNF Settlers

Reason to Resign: The JNF helps Jewish settlers evict Palestinian families and take over their homes in East Jerusalem (1). Seth Morrison, a JNF board member quit over the issue.

The JNF tells us it procures land and promotes development in Israel for Jews. I didn’t know what that really meant. Now I know that the Israeli military has been destroying Bedouin villages in the Negev so the JNF could plant a forest in the desert that they advertize as ecologically "green". In past years, when I answered the JNF's call and "planted a tree in Israel", I never imagined it would be by demolishing people’s homes and taking their land.

Others who have supported the JNF are also learning, heeding their consciences and ending their support. JNF Washington, DC, director Seth Morrison learned about the JNF's collaboration with Israeli settlers to evict and take over Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. Morrison resigned, saying “the JNF is a force in preventing long-term peace.” (2). Last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron stepped down from his honorary JNF position for similar reasons (3). JNF 2011 donations in Britain were only 50% of what they were in 2010.

It’s nothing new for the JNF to bury and hide destroyed Palestinian villages. After the 1967 war, JNF Canada built Canada Park, a leisure area for Israelis and tourists that covers over the ruins of three razed Palestinian villages in the West Bank where the inhabitants were forcibly driven out and their homes demolished.

I have no doubt that the JNF’s donations funding come from good, well-meaning people who believe their money goes to ethical development - not violent evictions based on the families' ethnic background (4).

al-arkih-village2

The Israeli Bedouin village of Al-Araqib has been destroyed dozens of times to clear space for a JNF forest (6). Join our Israeli and Palestinian allies in helping the villagers protect their homes from the JNF's so-called "green development".

One more thing I’ve learned is that even though I’ve stopped donating to the JNF, all Canadians’ tax dollars still support the JNF because it’s a tax deductible charity. We can’t let Canadian’s tax dollar subsidize the JNF’s dirty work in violation of Canadian law (5). Please send a message to JNF Canada now and ask them to stop destroying Bedouin villages and lives.

We Canadian Jews are the JNF Canada’s natural constituency. It is our responsibility to turn the JNF into an organization which acts in accord with age-old Jewish and universal values. If we don’t do this, who will?

Tell JNF Canada to stop evicting Palestinian families, taking their land and creating even more barriers to a just and lasting peace.

Le-shalom,

Close up  face David Mivasair
David-Signature

Rabbi David Mivasair
Independent Jewish Voices

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p.s. I know you might have more questions about the JNF. Please check out our video on the JNF.
References:
(1) Rabbis for Human Rights, July, 3, 2012: “In East Jerusalem, only Palestinian property seized as ‘Absentee’”
(2) Jewish Daily Forward, , December 23, 2011: JNF Board Member Quits Over Evictions
(3) The Jerusalem Post, 2 June 2011: Cameron denies political pressure led to JNF resignation -
(4) The Electronic Intifada, 22 May 2012: "I want to live in a state that’s not racist;" a Bedouin keeps fighting for his people’s rights
(5) Canadian Government Heritage web page: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(6) Haaretz, Nov. 11, 2010: Green extremism threatens Israel's future in the Negev

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