

Dan Leon

Dan Leon is a long-time peace activist, former senior editor of New Outlook and a former co-managing editor of PIJ. His last book was Who’s Left in Israel? (Sussex Academic Press, 2004). By

1 This was the next to the last Congress presided over by Theodore Herzl, who founded the Zionist movement in 1897.

2 In this context, the JNF, though not a religious organization, was perceived by some supporters as comparable to the Muslim religious endowment the Waqf, whose property is also not subject to any inheritance or sale. The Basic Law on Israel Lands (1960) holds that land is not sold but rather leased for a period of 49 years.

3 An opponent of Zionism like Noam Chomsky wrote in 1960 that the kibbutzim "the most advanced socialist form in existence... were constructed on lands purchased by the Jewish National Fund and from which Arabs were excluded in principle"- see his Peace in the Middle East.

4 Haaretz, 23.2.05, 23.7.05, though various figures are quoted.

5 A History of Israel by Howard M. Sachar.

6 Simpson spoke of some 30 percent of the fellahin but the British authorities subsequently agreed that this was an exaggeration. See Israel and the Arab World by Aharon Cohen. Abraham Granott, one of the heads of the JNF, wrote in his book Agrarian Reform and the Record of Israel (1952) that 27 percent of JNF land was purchased from fellahin, and 57 percent from large Arab landowners, and that the JNF's "far-seeing policies" determined the borders in the 1947 Partition Plan in contrast to those in the 1937 Peel Plan. Walter Lehn, not a friend of the JNF, thinks in "The Jewish National Fund," Journal of Palestinian Studies, summer 1974, that 9.4 percent of the fellahin were ejected.

7 "Laundering the land," Haaretz, December 4, 1998.

8 Visitors to the Canada park, with its archeological sites, scenic lookouts and hiking trails, read signs about Jewish, Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman history but without mention of the thousand-year Arab presence there.

9 The director-general and a former chairman recently sued each other for libel after an exchange of remarks in the JNF Audit Committee. Legal expenses of over US $60,000 were paid by the JNF, prompting the judge to remark that "the blue box was being used as a cash box (for) the well-being of JNF officials and their self-perpetuation, rather than for the redemption of the land." See Yediot Aharonot, March 11, 2004; Haaretz,.February 23, 2005).

10 Amiram Barkat describes Himnuta as follows in Haaretz, February 28, 2005 under the heading "State-Funded yet Private": "While it is a division of the JNF, it is a private company whose dealings go largely unsupervised. It neither issues financial statements nor publicizes information on its business deals. Though financed in part by state funds, it is not subject to oversight by the State Comptroller or the High Court of Justice. It can buy lands as an investment, or exchange them, with Arab dealers, both of which are forbidden to the JNF. It is useful for buying lands from Arabs who are reluctant to sell directly to a Jewish national institution."

11 New York Times, February 20, 1973.

12 "And the Fund Still Lives" by Uri Davis and Walter Lehn, Journal of Palestine Studies, summer 1978.

13 Joseph Weitz: My diary and letters to the children, 1965.

14 Estimates of land thus acquired by the state from Arab citizens who remained in the country vary, with some claiming that as much as 40 percent of this land was expropriated. See "Early state policy toward the Arab population 1948-1955" by Don Peretz in New Perspectives of Israeli History edited by Laurence J. Silberstein. Of the present 1.1 million Israeli Arab citizens, 25 percent were the victims of expropriation of their land or property and over 15 percent were displaced from their original towns and villages, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in a Palestinian Media report of May 15, 2005).

15 "Buying the State of Israel" by Amiram Barkat, Haaretz, February 10, 2005.

16 In 2005, there were over 250,000 of these internally displaced people living in Israel, Haaretz, May 13, 2005.

17 "JNF Land," The Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2005.

18 The Declaration of Independence, with all its unique historical importance, is not a law but the principle of equality has been endorsed by the Knesset in the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.

19 The Palmach, a voluntary armed striking force, was disbanded by Ben-Gurion in May 1948, with the establishment of the state. Its people, including a young officer named Yitzhak Rabin, were integrated into the newly formed IDF. In the eyes both of its adherents, and later of historians, this did not make the Palmach's contribution to the creation of the state any less important. The same would be true were the JNF to transfer its functions to the state, in accordance with the precept that changing times demand abandoning outdated thinking.