Today, JNF embodies both heart and action; our work is varied in scope but singular in benefit. In recent years, JNF has delivered on its bold and unprecedented vision in the One Billion Dollar Roadmap for the Next Decade, an innovative plan for Israel’s future. JNF’s Blueprint Negev initiative has transformed Israel’s Negev Desert, making the Southern Israel an attractive place to live and work. Similarly, Go North initiative has begun to provide new economic development opportunities to grow tourism, increase employment, offer educational and housing options and make Israel’s north a desirable place to both visit and live.
JNF remains unique among Jewish charities as its long-term vision has grown to include building new communities in the desert, expanding the scope of river rehabilitation and water research, exploring energy production, increasing population in northern Israel, making all parks and playgrounds accessible to people with special needs, bringing thousands of people to Israel every year on missions and trips, and growing future leadership in our youth community through the Alexander Muss High School in Israel and Zionist education and advocacy programs.
WHAT WE DO
JNF strives to bring an enhanced quality of life to all of Israel’s residents and translate these advancements to the world beyond. JNF is “greening” the desert with millions of trees, building thousands of parks across Israel, creating new communities and cities for generations of Israelis to call home, bolstering Israel’s water supply, helping develop innovative arid agriculture techniques and educating both young and old about the founding and importance of Israel and Zionism. JNF is the single largest provider of Zionist programs in the U.S. Its work is divided into seven program areas: Forestry & Green Innovations, Water Solutions, Community Building, Zionist Education & Advocacy, Research & Development, Heritage Sites, and Disabilities & Special Needs.
SINCE 1901, JNF HAS:
• Planted more than 250 million trees
• Built over 250 reservoirs and dams
• Developed over 250,000 acres of land
• Created more than 2,000 parks
• Provided the infrastructure for over 1,000 communities
• Connected thousands of children and young adults to Israel and their heritage
JNF prides itself on honoring the pioneers of the past and celebrating their spirit by continuing the pioneering tradition in the areas of technology, environmental progress, community development, water renewal and building the land of Israel for many years to come.
JNF affirms the bonds of the Jewish family with their strength of unity, the understanding that each member can make a difference and the collective power to build prosperity, develop innovative solutions and promote the greater good.
OUR CREDENTIALS & PARTNERSHIPS
A registered 501(c)(3) organization, Jewish National Fund is recognized as a 4-star organization by Charity Navigator, America’s leading independent charity evaluator, for its sound fiscal management, accountability, and transparency. JNF has also been rated a top charity by the American Institute of Philanthropy and meets the 20 rigorous standards of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance, and the transparency standards of Tzedakah, Inc. No other Jewish organization meets all these standards.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
JNF believes in the endurance and prosperity of the Israeli homeland, the defense, and enrichment of its soil, the rejuvenation of its deserts and the security of its people. JNF’s mission is the invention of tomorrow. When you donate to JNF you become an integral part of Israel’s future and, in turn, play a role in whole-world growth.
JNF directs every dollar to where it is needed most and provides donors with the ability to know what they are supporting with full transparency. Donors are able to direct their support to fund program areas and projects specific to their passions and interests. Focused efforts within these areas include: alleviating Israel’s water shortage; promoting education; maintaining more than 250,000 acres of forests; providing safety equipment and new trucks for Israeli firefighters; building playgrounds, synagogues and day care centers; providing affordable housing solutions for young families, immigrants, seniors and Israelis leaving military service; offering therapeutic and rehabilitative services to people with special needs; and promoting tourism and recreation experiences and economic growth by creating parks, forest and recreation areas and preserving and developing historic sites.
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ABOUT JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
”In the 1880s, Jews, predominantly Ashkenazi,[2][3]
In yet another attempt to legitimize the Israeli take-over of Palestine, it was put forward by advocates of Israel that Palestinians had simply sold their land to the Zionist movement. Later, after witnessing how these lands were transformed into a paradise, Palestinians came to regret their decision and claimed that Israel stole their land. This conveniently ties together multiple Zionist myths and talking points into one neat package.
While this fairytale would certainly appeal to anyone trying to morally absolve themselves from the implications of their expropriation of large swathes of territory, unfortunately for them, detailed land purchase records exist. I’m sure you can already tell that these records dispel this ridiculous assertion.
The British were meticulous record keepers, and we have detailed numbers of the land purchased by the various Zionist organizations:
For reference, Mandatory Palestine as a whole had a territory of 26,625,600 dunams. The most generous estimations of Zionist land holdings were 2,000,000 dunums by 1948. For reference, a dunam is 1000 square meters. An acre is four dunams.
As you can see, at most the combined Zionist purchasing power could barely acquire 5-7% of the land, depending on source. Needless to say, huge swathes of it being strewn around the entire territory and being non-contiguous. Due to the ease with which this talking point can be debunked, it gradually fell out of favor -relatively speaking- among Israelis. However, it has since seen a resurgence among Arab Zionists desperate for normalization with Israel. In their eyes, this myth needs to be true so that they can blame the Palestinians for their own dispossession and legitimize their cynical political maneuvering.
THE GREAT THEFT
This talking point is further undermined by Israel’s own legislation and policy following the Nakba [You can read more about this here]. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine would not stop after the war of 1948, Palestinians in the Naqab, as well as those close to the ceasefire lines would continue to face mass expulsions into the 1950s. In the same period, Israel issued the infamous Absentee’s Property Law. This law was instrumental in systematically seizing the property of all the refugees it had created, this included their homes, farms, land and even the contents of their bank accounts. Through this law, the state took control of everything remaining behind when the refugees were expelled, and if not contested or claimed, they would then become the property of the state, free to be utilized in any way it saw fit. Given the fact that any refugee attempting to return was shot, you can see how this law served merely as a fig leaf to legitimize what can only be described as naked theft. A step which would be unnecessary had the Zionists actually purchased the land on which Israel was erected, as some ridiculously claim.
This in conjunction with the Land Acquisitions Law allowed for the mass transfer of the entire Palestinian economy to the Israeli state. Practically overnight, the state gained control of over 739,750 agricultural acres, vast majority of which were of excellent quality, 73,000 houses, 7800 workshops and 6 million pounds. This dropped the cost of settling a Zionist family in Palestine from 8000$ to 1500$, effectively subsidizing the creation of the Israeli state and kickstarting its economy.
So, while we have already shown that the record shows no such large-scale purchase of the land as asserted, let us take a deeper look at these smaller purchases and discuss their implications.
First, it is important to note that the majority of the land purchased by Zionists were not sold by Palestinians, but rather by large absentee landlords, living mostly in Lebanon and Syria. Khalidi estimates that a little over the third (of the 5-7%) were sold by absentee landlords of Palestinian origin. And only 6% of the (5-7%) were sold by local landlords or peasants. These estimates are mostly corroborated by Walter Lehn and based on reports from the Jewish Agency that confirmed that the majority of land purchased was from large absentee landlords.
There is also evidence that suggests that these local sellers did not always wish to sell their land. For example, one mode of land extraction was when the Jewish National Fund gave loans to farmers with the precondition that their land would be used as collateral, and when the farmer ultimately defaulted on their payments, they would take possession of the land. In other cases, these peasants thought they were simply selling land to new neighbors. They did not know that they were selling their land for the erection of a new foreign colonial state that sought to dispossess them.
Furthermore, even if the percentage of the territories purchased by Zionist settlers was higher, this would not entitle them to sovereignty over it.
Ultimately, the question of Palestine is not about property rights. It is about settler colonialism and the attempted ethnocide of an entire people. Palestinians deserve to return to their homes and live in dignity, regardless how much private property they lost or didn’t lose.
FURTHER READING
- Bisharat, George E. “Land, Law, and Legitimacy in Israel and the Occupied Territories.” Am. UL Rev. 43, 1993: 467.
- Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian identity: The construction of modern national consciousness. Columbia University Press, 2010.
- Shaw, John. A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquir, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991.
- Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. Metropolitan Books, 2020.
- Khalidi, Walid (ed.), Sharif S. Elmusa, and Muhammad Ali Khalidi. All that remains: The Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
The Rothschild family, which issued loans to major governments and dominated the world, also wholeheartedly supported the dream of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine
The Ottoman government took certain measures against this movement, which threatened its territorial integrity. It feared that the law of 1869, which allowed foreigners to buy land in the Ottoman country, except for the Hijaz, on condition of reciprocity, would be abused. In 1871, 80% of Palestine was turned into state land. At that time, several thousand Ottoman Jews were living in Palestine.
Operation Rothschild
In 1881, the Jews who faced the pogrom in Russia wanted to immigrate to Palestine en masse, and they wanted world-famous people of Jewish origin to finance it, like the Rothschild and Hirsch families. This is called aliyah in Zionist literature.
In response, Sultan Abdülhamid II issued an edict banning Jews from resettling in Palestine in April 1882. It allowed them to settle anywhere else in the empire, though no more than 150 families. He then started to buy strategic lands in Palestine through his personal treasury called the Hazine-i Hassa.
From 1882, the Rothschilds began to buy land in Palestine on behalf of others. The Rothschilds, who had international power as they lent money to all governments, wanted the refugee Russian Jews to be allowed to settle in these lands. The embassies intervened. The Ottoman government was confused as to what to do. The first Jewish colony was established in Jaffa that same year, despite not having been granted permission. By 1918, one-twentieth of Palestine’s fertile lands belonged to the Rothschilds.
The dismissed grand vizier
In 1891, when Russia increased pressure on the Jews, refugees began to settle in Palestine using unofficial and illegal methods, aided by societies in Europe. Bribing local officials and using fake passports, identity cards and title deeds were the main ways this was done. For example, Tunisians in Tunis, occupied by France in 1881, were considered citizens by the Ottoman government. Jews entered the Ottoman country using fake documents and settled in Palestine with the status of Tunisian citizens.
Some 440 Jews who applied for citizenship in an attempt to settle in the Palestinian town of Safed were turned down on the basis that the Ottoman state was not to be resided in by those deported by the Europeans. Many edicts were issued one after another, drawing the attention of the provinces, and the negligent officials were ordered to be punished. Ottoman archives are full of correspondence on this subject.
Red Permit
Despite this, Jewish immigration to Palestine could not be prevented. Believing he could not prevent it, Grand Vizier Cevad Pasha came to an agreement with the Rothschilds and turned a blind eye to the settlements in exchange for a promise to not bring in more refugees. Subsequently, the sultan dismissed the grand vizier in 1894 and exiled him to Damascus where he remained until his death. In addition, two governors and some civil servants were dismissed and punished.
In 1900, conditions for entry to the holy land were introduced. Accordingly, every Jewish individual visiting Palestine was required to carry a letter or passport to show their occupation, nationality and reason for visiting. This “Red Permit” carried by Jews was checked and recorded by the official authorities when they arrived in Palestine. They were then deported after the 30-day period expired.
The Ottoman government also made an effort to prevent the local Jewish population from being influenced by the Zionists. Not all Jewish people were Zionists. It was important not to disturb the Jews who opted to live a more simple life and not engage in political issues. This required a delicate balance.
Herzl and his attractive offer
Meanwhile, Theodor Herzl from Budapest, the leader of the Zionist movement, wanted to meet with Sultan Abdülhamid II. When his request was declined, he made an offer in May 1901 through his Polish friend Phillip Newlinsky, who was also acquainted with the sultan. In return for opening Palestine to Jewish immigration and the establishment of an autonomous Jewish homeland, Ottoman foreign debts would be paid and propaganda in the sultan’s favor would be circulated to sway European public opinion.
The sultan refused this offer. Herzl was unable to make the agreement, and he repeated the offer the following year. Fearing what happened to the autonomous Ottoman province of Egypt due to debt, the sultan welcomes Herzl’s consolidation offer, viewing him as an intermediary in the matter. However, Herzl’s idea was the acceptance of the colonization proposal. (Britain invaded Egypt in 1882 on the pretext of not paying the debts taken for the construction of the Suez Canal.)
Struggle for virtue
The claim that the government allowed the Rothschilds to borrow money and buy a place in Palestine in return is a complete fabrication. The unpaid debts to foreign bankers, including the Rothschilds, for the financing of the 1854 Crimean War were restructured during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II. There was no need for him to engage in such acts for the sake of borrowing anyway. By establishing the Duyun-i Umumiye administration, he got the foreign debts under control and increased the credibility of the state. The small-scale foreign borrowing during his reign was also spent on high-cost zoning activities.
Those who believe the imaginary statement repeated by conservatives that Sultan Hamid lost his throne for not giving away Palestinian land are mistaken. It is possible that the
Ottoman government was unable to prevent the process because it at times acted incorrectly or was incapable. But it is absurd to claim that the Ottoman government condoned it in return for a loan.
If it were true, he would have agreed with the Rothschilds or Herzl and retained his throne. Moreover, the sultan prioritized preserving his throne over debt. But the Ottoman sultans’ mission was a struggle for virtue. In a letter written in 1913, he wrote to Mahmud Efendi, saying the main reason he lost his throne was for not agreeing to the demands.
Things getting out of control
The Young Turks, who dethroned Sultan Abdülhamid II and seized power, first nationalized the treasury lands belonging to the sultan. To please the Zionists who supported them, they allowed Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Even though they realized the gravity of the incident immediately after and banned the sale of land to foreigners in Palestine, things were already out of control. Between 1908 and 1914, the Jews bought 50,000 acres of land and established 10 colonies. In 1913, the Rothschilds bought the treasury lands.
According to the Ottoman censuses, the number of Jewish people living in Palestine was 9,500 in 1881, 12,500 in 1896, 14,200 in 1906 and 31,000 in 1914. In 1917, the Zionists came to an agreement with the British foreign minister, Arthur Balfour. Britain, which was greedy for Jewish capital, promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine with the Balfour Declaration. When the Syrian front collapsed, Palestine was occupied by British forces.
A grave mistake!
During the British Mandate of Palestine, Jewish immigration increased steadily despite obstacles. Nazi repression also fueled this migration. The Jews in Palestine could now own land as they pleased, by restoring unclaimed land but also by purchasing it from the government or individuals.
The Arabs were forced to sell their lands after being put in a difficult situation economically. For example, ships loaded with wheat that docked at the port at harvest time caused the price of wheat to fall. When this incident happened again the following year, the peasant, who mortgaged his land the year before, was then forced to sell his land.
During the Ottoman period, the villagers used tactics in order to pay lower taxes, such as registering the land under another person’s name or providing an underestimation of the area. These lands also passed into the hands of the Jews through purchase. By 1948, more than half of the Palestinian population was Jewish and more than half of the land belonged to them.
Jewish gangs compelled the British to evacuate the district with their terrorist acts. Deceived Britain declared in 1939 that the Balfour Declaration had been a grave mistake.
END
”Although he remained separate from the Zionist movement, and “rejected institutional and ideological Zionism,” The Baron Rothschild became an avid supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine financing the site at Rishon LeZion.[6] In his goal for the establishment of Palestine as a home for Jewish settlement, he promoted industrialization and economic development. In 1924, he established the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA), which acquired more than 125,000 acres (50,586 ha) of land and set up business ventures.”
WIKIPEDIA
EDMOND JAMES DE ROTSCHILD/ZIONISM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
ORIGINAL SOURCE
WIKIPEDIA
EDMOND JAMES DE ROTSCHILD