An Overview of JNF Aims and Activities
1) As Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has noted, "Founded in 1901, the JNF was the principal Zionist tool for the colonization of Palestine. It served as the agency the Zionist movement used to buy Palestinian land upon which it then settled Jewish immigrants" (2006, p. 17). Crucially, all lands purchased by the JNF in Palestine were to be held for the exclusive use of Jews. Against the wishes of the indigenous Palestinian population, the state of Israel was established in 1948 on their territory through the use of force. The properties of Palestinians who were driven into exile (approximately three-quarters of the population) were confiscated, while many of those who remained as internally displaced persons in Israel were also dispossessed of their lands, homes, and businesses. Fearing the return of refugees, Israel set out to physically erase evidence of Palestinian villages. Furthermore, "Maps were changed too: over the course of several years a Jewish National Fund committee replaced Arab names with Hebrew ones, often claiming as justification to have 'rediscovered' biblical sites" (Cook, 2008, p. 30). This renaming of places went hand in hand with settling Jewish immigrants on land where Palestinian villages had existed before their destruction.
The removal of Palestinians from their lands had been forcefully advocated by Yossef Weitz, longtime head of the JNF's Land Settlement Department. Indicative of his views is this diary entry from 1940:
"Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country...We shall not achieve our goal of being an independent people with the Arabs in this small country. The only solution is a Palestine, at least western Palestine (west of the Jordan River), without Arabs...And there is no other way than to transfer all of them: Not one village, not one tribe, should be left" (Lehn, 1988. p. 338) (Emphasis in original)
Pappe reports that 3.5 million dunams of Palestinian rural land were confiscated by Israel in the 1948 war, and of that 1.25 million dunams were sold to the JNF (2010, p. 7). Today, roughly 13% of Israel's land is owned by the JNF, and it leases this land to Jews only. Thus, Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise roughly 20% of that country's population, are denied access to any of this land - most of which previously belonged to Palestinians - because they are not Jewish.
Responding in December 2004 to a petition (Challenging the Prohibition of Arab Citizens of Israel from Living on Jewish National Fund Land) brought before the Supreme Court of Israel by Adalah (The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), the JNF argued:
"JNF trusteeship is not given nor can it be given to the entirety of the Israeli public. The JNF was established and functions solely for the benefit of the Jewish people. Any attempt to impose upon the JNF an obligation to allocate its properties to those who are not Jews amounts to the abolition of the JNF, as well as the Jewish state's turning its back on its donors in the Diaspora and Israel." (2004, p. 90)
Further on in its response to the petition, the JNF stated:
"As a landowner, the JNF is not a public body which acts on behalf of all citizens of the state. Its loyalty is to the Jewish people and its responsibility is to it alone. As the owner of JNF land, the JNF does not have to act with equality to all citizens of the state." (2004, p. 92)
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, monitors states' adherence to legal obligations derived from having ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 1998, with reference to Israel, the committee stated:
"The Committee notes with grave concern that the Status Law of 1952 authorizes the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency and its subsidiaries, including the Jewish National Fund, to control most of the land in Israel, since these institutions are chartered to benefit Jews exclusively. Despite the fact that the institutions are chartered under private law, the State of Israel nevertheless has a decisive influence on their policies and thus remains responsible for their activities. A State party cannot divest itself of its obligations under the Covenant by privatizing governmental functions. The Committee takes the view that large-scale and systematic confiscation of Palestinian land and property by the State and the transfer of that property to these agencies constitute an institutionalized form of discrimination because these agencies by definition would deny the use of these properties to non-Jews. Thus, these practices constitute a breach of Israel's obligations under the Covenant." (1998, p. 3)
2) The Canadian branch of the JNF bears a particularly heavy ethical burden for its role in the creation and financing of Canada Park (renamed Ayalon Canada Park), established for Israelis on the ruins of two West Bank Palestinian villages, Imwas and Yalo, demolished during the 1967 Six-Day War. Although these villages were razed and their populations expelled (or killed in some instances), "The JNF Brochure for Canada Park described the park as 'a proud tribute to Canada and to the Canadian Jewish community whose vision and foresight helped transform a barren stretch of land into a major national recreational area for the people of Israel.'" (Reynolds, 2007, p. 29) (Emphasis added) Reynolds further points out that "The JNF also refused to include any mention of the Palestinian villages of Imwas and Yalo in the signs they erected in the park which detailed the history of the area and the land on which the park was built. From Roman times through the rule of the Hasmoneans, the Byzantines and the Ottomans, the land's past was chronicled, but no reference was made to the generations of Palestinians who populated the area for centuries before 1967." (2007, p. 30) Signs noting the existence of Imwas and Yalo were only erected following a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice by Zochrot, an Israeli NGO.
In its publication Where Villages Stood: Israel's Continuing Violations of International Law in Occupied Latroun, 1967-2007, Al-Haq (the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists) maintains that Israel has committed war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Latroun area of the West Bank, where Imwas, Yalo, and a third village - Beit Nouba - stood. With regards to one specific crime, Al-Haq argues that "The displacement of the Palestinian population of Latroun, which the JNF of Canada is helping to perpetuate through its sponsorship of Ayalon/Canada Park is a clearly illegal activity." (2007, p. 67). (Emphasis added) Furthermore, "the JNF as a third party actor is also operating contrary to basic principles of international law in general, such as respect for human rights and equality, and the specific provisions of international humanitarian law in relation to its actions in Latroun" (2007, p. 68).
3) The JNF represents itself as an environmental organization devoted to "reclaiming our homeland," which is achieved in part by forestation projects in Israel. As with Canada Park however, the JNF has planted forests over many destroyed Palestinian villages, covering up evidence of the people who previously lived there. An ongoing struggle exists in the Negev (Naqab) region of southern Israel between Bedouin Palestinians, and the Israeli state and Jewish settlers. The JNF is also an active player in this conflict.
Bedouin, who numbered about 100,000, were by far the largest population group in the Negev when Israel was created in 1948. However, the newly established state did not recognize Bedouin ownership rights to the land they had occupied for generations, and instead nationalized most of their territory for eventual Jewish settlement. Yeela Raanan has pointed out that:
"The government of Israel is utilizing the JNF to inhibit use of Naqab lands by the Bedouin in two major ways: first by transferring land to the ownership of the JNF, thus limiting the ability of the Palestinians in the Naqab from ever having access to this land, and second by planting JNF forests on land in the Naqab...In effect, the vast tracts of land that it will take control of will be transformed into lands that are inaccessible to the indigenous people of the area." (2010, p. 36)
Raanan emphasizes that:
"..the cynical use of forestation to eradicate any possibility of returning the land to its original Palestinian owners is an act of political violence, using brute force to squelch the Palestinians' rights. Over the past few years the practice of planting trees in the Naqab in order to create a fait accompli regarding land ownership claims has intensified. The three (unrecognized) Palestinian-Bedouin villages most affected by this are Twail Abu Jarwal, Al-Araqib, and Karkur." (2010, p. 36)
The case of Al-Araqib is particularly instructive. On July 29, 2011, Amnesty International reported that this village, which residents claim rests on their ancestral lands, was destroyed by Israeli authorities at least 28 times over the previous year. On July 27, 2010 for instance, "They razed at least 46 homes and other structures, including animal pens and water tanks, as well as olive trees." (2011)
As Amnesty International pointed out on April 11, 2011:
"This is being done to make way for a forest, while some 250 Bedouin men, women and children face permanent forced eviction from their homes and land to which they have a long-established claim. Now they cannot even access the land on which they used to live, grow their crops and keep their livestock, and their olive and fruit trees have been uprooted to enable the planting of a new forest which will not benefit them." (2011)
The new forest is being planted by the JNF on land cleared of the people of Araqib, their homes, their animals, and their crops. With maturity, it will serve as a recreation area for Jewish settlers that the JNF is helping relocate to land claimed by the residents of Al-Araqib. (Manksi, 2010)
Bibliography
Amnesty International. (2011). Israel Sues Bedouin Villagers For Cost of Repeated Evictions. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/ israel-sues-bedouin-villagers-cost-repeated-evictions-2011-07-29
Amnesty International. (2011). Stop creating forests that are destroying Bedouin lives. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stop-destruction-bedouin-village-and-its-inhabitants%E2%80%99-livelihoods-5
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (1998). Consideration of Reports Submitted By States Parties Under Articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant: Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Israel. Author.
Cook, J. (2008). Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair. London: Zed Books
Lehn, W. (1988). The Jewish National Fund. London: Kegan Paul
Manski, R. (2010). Blueprint Negev. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/blueprint-negev.html
Pappe, I. (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: One World
Pappe, I. (2010). Introduction. In JNF eBook (Vol 1) (pp. 5-11). Edinburgh: Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Raanan, Y. (2010). The Role of the Jewish National Fund in Impeding Land Rights for the Indigenous Bedouin Population of the Naqab. Al-Majdal, 43, 34-38
Reynolds, J. (2007). Where Villages Stood: Israel’s Continuing Violations of International Law in Occupied Latroun, 1967-2007. Ramallah: Al-Haq
The removal of Palestinians from their lands had been forcefully advocated by Yossef Weitz, longtime head of the JNF's Land Settlement Department. Indicative of his views is this diary entry from 1940:
"Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country...We shall not achieve our goal of being an independent people with the Arabs in this small country. The only solution is a Palestine, at least western Palestine (west of the Jordan River), without Arabs...And there is no other way than to transfer all of them: Not one village, not one tribe, should be left" (Lehn, 1988. p. 338) (Emphasis in original)
Pappe reports that 3.5 million dunams of Palestinian rural land were confiscated by Israel in the 1948 war, and of that 1.25 million dunams were sold to the JNF (2010, p. 7). Today, roughly 13% of Israel's land is owned by the JNF, and it leases this land to Jews only. Thus, Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise roughly 20% of that country's population, are denied access to any of this land - most of which previously belonged to Palestinians - because they are not Jewish.
Responding in December 2004 to a petition (Challenging the Prohibition of Arab Citizens of Israel from Living on Jewish National Fund Land) brought before the Supreme Court of Israel by Adalah (The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), the JNF argued:
"JNF trusteeship is not given nor can it be given to the entirety of the Israeli public. The JNF was established and functions solely for the benefit of the Jewish people. Any attempt to impose upon the JNF an obligation to allocate its properties to those who are not Jews amounts to the abolition of the JNF, as well as the Jewish state's turning its back on its donors in the Diaspora and Israel." (2004, p. 90)
Further on in its response to the petition, the JNF stated:
"As a landowner, the JNF is not a public body which acts on behalf of all citizens of the state. Its loyalty is to the Jewish people and its responsibility is to it alone. As the owner of JNF land, the JNF does not have to act with equality to all citizens of the state." (2004, p. 92)
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, monitors states' adherence to legal obligations derived from having ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 1998, with reference to Israel, the committee stated:
"The Committee notes with grave concern that the Status Law of 1952 authorizes the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency and its subsidiaries, including the Jewish National Fund, to control most of the land in Israel, since these institutions are chartered to benefit Jews exclusively. Despite the fact that the institutions are chartered under private law, the State of Israel nevertheless has a decisive influence on their policies and thus remains responsible for their activities. A State party cannot divest itself of its obligations under the Covenant by privatizing governmental functions. The Committee takes the view that large-scale and systematic confiscation of Palestinian land and property by the State and the transfer of that property to these agencies constitute an institutionalized form of discrimination because these agencies by definition would deny the use of these properties to non-Jews. Thus, these practices constitute a breach of Israel's obligations under the Covenant." (1998, p. 3)
2) The Canadian branch of the JNF bears a particularly heavy ethical burden for its role in the creation and financing of Canada Park (renamed Ayalon Canada Park), established for Israelis on the ruins of two West Bank Palestinian villages, Imwas and Yalo, demolished during the 1967 Six-Day War. Although these villages were razed and their populations expelled (or killed in some instances), "The JNF Brochure for Canada Park described the park as 'a proud tribute to Canada and to the Canadian Jewish community whose vision and foresight helped transform a barren stretch of land into a major national recreational area for the people of Israel.'" (Reynolds, 2007, p. 29) (Emphasis added) Reynolds further points out that "The JNF also refused to include any mention of the Palestinian villages of Imwas and Yalo in the signs they erected in the park which detailed the history of the area and the land on which the park was built. From Roman times through the rule of the Hasmoneans, the Byzantines and the Ottomans, the land's past was chronicled, but no reference was made to the generations of Palestinians who populated the area for centuries before 1967." (2007, p. 30) Signs noting the existence of Imwas and Yalo were only erected following a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice by Zochrot, an Israeli NGO.
In its publication Where Villages Stood: Israel's Continuing Violations of International Law in Occupied Latroun, 1967-2007, Al-Haq (the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists) maintains that Israel has committed war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Latroun area of the West Bank, where Imwas, Yalo, and a third village - Beit Nouba - stood. With regards to one specific crime, Al-Haq argues that "The displacement of the Palestinian population of Latroun, which the JNF of Canada is helping to perpetuate through its sponsorship of Ayalon/Canada Park is a clearly illegal activity." (2007, p. 67). (Emphasis added) Furthermore, "the JNF as a third party actor is also operating contrary to basic principles of international law in general, such as respect for human rights and equality, and the specific provisions of international humanitarian law in relation to its actions in Latroun" (2007, p. 68).
3) The JNF represents itself as an environmental organization devoted to "reclaiming our homeland," which is achieved in part by forestation projects in Israel. As with Canada Park however, the JNF has planted forests over many destroyed Palestinian villages, covering up evidence of the people who previously lived there. An ongoing struggle exists in the Negev (Naqab) region of southern Israel between Bedouin Palestinians, and the Israeli state and Jewish settlers. The JNF is also an active player in this conflict.
Bedouin, who numbered about 100,000, were by far the largest population group in the Negev when Israel was created in 1948. However, the newly established state did not recognize Bedouin ownership rights to the land they had occupied for generations, and instead nationalized most of their territory for eventual Jewish settlement. Yeela Raanan has pointed out that:
"The government of Israel is utilizing the JNF to inhibit use of Naqab lands by the Bedouin in two major ways: first by transferring land to the ownership of the JNF, thus limiting the ability of the Palestinians in the Naqab from ever having access to this land, and second by planting JNF forests on land in the Naqab...In effect, the vast tracts of land that it will take control of will be transformed into lands that are inaccessible to the indigenous people of the area." (2010, p. 36)
Raanan emphasizes that:
"..the cynical use of forestation to eradicate any possibility of returning the land to its original Palestinian owners is an act of political violence, using brute force to squelch the Palestinians' rights. Over the past few years the practice of planting trees in the Naqab in order to create a fait accompli regarding land ownership claims has intensified. The three (unrecognized) Palestinian-Bedouin villages most affected by this are Twail Abu Jarwal, Al-Araqib, and Karkur." (2010, p. 36)
The case of Al-Araqib is particularly instructive. On July 29, 2011, Amnesty International reported that this village, which residents claim rests on their ancestral lands, was destroyed by Israeli authorities at least 28 times over the previous year. On July 27, 2010 for instance, "They razed at least 46 homes and other structures, including animal pens and water tanks, as well as olive trees." (2011)
As Amnesty International pointed out on April 11, 2011:
"This is being done to make way for a forest, while some 250 Bedouin men, women and children face permanent forced eviction from their homes and land to which they have a long-established claim. Now they cannot even access the land on which they used to live, grow their crops and keep their livestock, and their olive and fruit trees have been uprooted to enable the planting of a new forest which will not benefit them." (2011)
The new forest is being planted by the JNF on land cleared of the people of Araqib, their homes, their animals, and their crops. With maturity, it will serve as a recreation area for Jewish settlers that the JNF is helping relocate to land claimed by the residents of Al-Araqib. (Manksi, 2010)
Bibliography
Amnesty International. (2011). Israel Sues Bedouin Villagers For Cost of Repeated Evictions. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/ israel-sues-bedouin-villagers-cost-repeated-evictions-2011-07-29
Amnesty International. (2011). Stop creating forests that are destroying Bedouin lives. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stop-destruction-bedouin-village-and-its-inhabitants%E2%80%99-livelihoods-5
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (1998). Consideration of Reports Submitted By States Parties Under Articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant: Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Israel. Author.
Cook, J. (2008). Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair. London: Zed Books
Lehn, W. (1988). The Jewish National Fund. London: Kegan Paul
Manski, R. (2010). Blueprint Negev. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/blueprint-negev.html
Pappe, I. (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: One World
Pappe, I. (2010). Introduction. In JNF eBook (Vol 1) (pp. 5-11). Edinburgh: Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Raanan, Y. (2010). The Role of the Jewish National Fund in Impeding Land Rights for the Indigenous Bedouin Population of the Naqab. Al-Majdal, 43, 34-38
Reynolds, J. (2007). Where Villages Stood: Israel’s Continuing Violations of International Law in Occupied Latroun, 1967-2007. Ramallah: Al-Haq