The charity status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) UK is again being challenged, this time by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). It’s over its involvement in, and funding of, illegal settlements – and complicity in Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.
‘Some of the most serious crimes under international law’
ICJP has written to the Attorney General – the overseer of the charity sector in the UK – asking him to investigate JNF UK, and consider revoking its charitable status.
The letter states that “JNF UK’s activities implicate some of the most serious crimes under international law” and accuses it of:
funding the Israeli military, supporting Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and partnering with Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Israel – an organisation which has been involved in the ongoing displacement of Palestinians and property theft in the oPt, as well as destruction of the natural environment.
Mira Naseer, Legal Officer at ICJP, told the Canary:
There has been a long campaign (by Stop the JNF) and complaint files to both the Charity Commission, here in the UK, and the fundraising regulator, which clearly show JNF UK’s fundraising practices are deceptive, and that its charitable purpose don’t align with the public interest.
In light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, I think it is particularly horrific that it’s still fundraising and operating as a charity in the UK. From publicly available information, it’s very clear that this so called charity should be under government scrutiny and yet, time and time again we have seen regulators and officials just dismiss the facts presented to them.
Activism against JNF Canada pays off
Last month, after more than a decade of grassroots activism the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked the charity status of JNF Canada, after finding it had violated tax laws by raising money for a foreign army- the Israeli Defence Force, and this has given renewed hope to activists, that the same can happen to JNF UK.
Mick Napier, a founder member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which helped launch the Stop the JNF campaign more than a decade ago, told the Canary:
It’s a great breakthrough, and quite remarkable, because the Canadian government is one of the most pro-Israel governments on the planet. Our efforts against JNF UK, in England and Wales with the Charity Commission, and in Scotland, with the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) have, so far, been uniformly bleak, despite all sorts of efforts.
Beginnings of a racist and colonialist organisation
Established in 1901 by the World Zionist Organisation, the purpose of the JNF is, and always has been, to acquire land to establish and develop ‘a Jewish state for the benefit of Jewish people’ from anywhere in the world, by the colonisation of Palestinian land and the expulsion of Palestinians.
A 1940 diary extract from Joseph Weitz, director of the JNF’s Lands Department and, in 1948, leader of the ‘transfer committee’, confirms the JNF’s objective of ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism. He wrote:
There is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Arabs of] Bethlehem, Nazareth and Old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one [Bedouin] tribe. And only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist. There is no other solution.
Initially, the JNF raised funds in the Jewish diaspora, and bought only small areas of land, but this changed during the creation of Israel in 1948, when it played an essential role in the dispossession of Palestinians, and seized vast amounts of land.
Zionist militias violently expelled around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, and destroyed hundreds of towns and villages, while Israel’s Absentee Property Law – which is still in use today – ensured the state gained ownership of any land from which Palestinians had fled.
The JNF is now the largest single land owner in Israel, controlling large areas belonging to millions of Palestinians, but barring them from leasing, building on, managing or working their own land.
JNF UK enjoys tax exemption and gift aid, but helps fund Israel’s crimes
The organisation is active in more than 55 countries and has fundraising branches and offices around the world, including Scotland and England. These branches operate behind a corporate veil so generally deny they are part of the same organisation, although acting as fundraiser and publicist for their parent organisation (the JNF) in Israel.
Almost all are registered for charitable or tax-exempt status, even though the JNF is complicit in ethnic cleansing, occupation, and apartheid. Donations to JNF UK are also eligible for Gift Aid, so our government tops up donations by adding its own 25% contribution.
JNF UK claims that ‘every penny raised by JNF UK is sent to a project in Israel’.
‘British Park’ is one such project, the JNF UK’s branch financed and developed in the 1950s, and continues to develop today. This 10,000 acre recreation area and forest was created over the remains of seven Palestinian villages, the largest of which was Ajjur, home to a population of more than 3700 until a series of military attacks, in 1948, led to the violent expulsion of its residents.
‘Memorials’ show people and organisations in the UK who have financed the land-grab:
Palestinian refugee Kholoud Al-Ajarma is an anthropologist and film maker. She was born and brought up in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem, after her family was driven out of Ajjur in 1948. Their lands now lie under ‘British Park’.
She told the Canary:
Ajjur was attacked by Zionist militias. They occupied the mosque, the highest building in the village, and started shooting randomly. The men stayed to try and fight, and the women and children left in a hurry, taking only essentials. They thought they would return, but it didn’t end up like this. When money ran out, my family heard there was somewhere to live in tents, and ended up in Aida. They still live there.
Tree planting used to hide war crimes
According to the Palestine Land Society, the refugee camps of the West Bank and Jordan alone hold around 170,000 Palestinians whose lands were seized to create British Park:
British Park is just one of many developed on stolen Palestinian land to hide war crimes carried out by the JNF – the destruction of homes, schools, religious and cultural institutions, and archaeological sites, and the often violent dispossession of Palestinians from their land:
JNF has planted more than 240 million trees, mainly the Australian Eucalyptus – which is fast growing but highly dependent on water – and the Aleppo Pine – renamed by Zionists as the ‘Jerusalem Pine’. This native species, which uses a lot of water and is very prone to disease and forest fires, naturally occupies sparse hilltop ecosystems and was not suited to the forestry projects of the JNF. Forest fires are now a common sight in Israel as a result of their planting.
These forests serve several purposes.
They make Palestine look more like the Northern and Eastern European landscape, where the early settlers primarily came from. When planted over the ruins of destroyed villages, which more than two-thirds of JNF forests are on, they also hide evidence of ethnic cleansing, stop Palestinian refugees from ever being able to return to their villages, and also help erase Palestinian history.
After 1948, the JNF repackaged itself as an environmental organisation and is now registered as an environmental NGO with the United Nations. Eurig Scandrett was part of the Friends of the Earth International Delegation to Palestine in 2012, and co-author of its report Environmental Nakba. He says nothing is further from the truth:
The JNF is not an environmental organisation, but a racist one, trying to cover its crimes through greenwash. In all its guises – as an adjunct of the state of Israel or as a charity in Britain – its purpose remains the same: an instrument of ethnic cleansing. It is an utter disgrace that its offices in England and Scotland have charitable status and are subsidised by UK taxpayers.
Its projects of displacement and forestation continue today, particularly in the Naqab (Negev), where the JNF UK is currently focused.
A major JNF ‘development’ is underway to transform the Naqab into ‘the national engine of growth’ and a military and high-tech hub by 2040.
This plan requires the forced displacement of Bedouins to make way for exclusively Jewish settlements, complete with parks and forests, for the one million Jewish people who will be settled into the area.
As Israeli citizens who are non-Jewish, most Bedouins have their basic rights violated on a regular basis and many live in villages unrecognised by the state. There are many ongoing land ownership disputes and long-standing attempts by Israel to displace the Naqab’s Bedouin, but many refuse to leave as they see their land as an integral part of their identity and heritage.
In 2022, widespread peaceful protest by Bedouin communities against JNF tree planting projects resulted in police repression and brutality.
JNF UK complicit in erasure of Bedouin villages, culture, and heritage
While JNF boasts of ‘making the desert bloom’, the Bedouin see this as an attempt to erase their villages and make the surrounding land inaccessible to former inhabitants – a means of asserting state control and forcibly displacing them from their ancestral lands – as much of JNF’s afforestation here occurs on land still legally disputed, such as in the ‘unrecognized’ village of Al-Araqib, which has been demolished over 220 times since 2010 to make way for a JNF forest.
Haia Noach, director of the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), an organisation advocating for the rights of the Negev’s Bedouin, told the Canary:
In the Negev, we have encountered the JNF, during the demolitions in Al-Araqib, where on one occasion, a JNF tractor even participated in the destruction. Although the organisation presents its afforestation efforts – which it was quick to carry out around the village – as combating desertification, they are more about controlling land. These forests take over areas that could be used for grazing, and restrict the development of Bedouin’s towns and villages. They don’t hide the preference for displacing communities to plant forests or establish Jewish-only settlements. This is unjustifiable racism.
Aziz, a Bedouin from Al-Araqib village, says:
A lot of damage has been done to us. The JNF is an organization that has destroyed the seasonal crops in our village. It has erased the borders between the plots of land. It has wiped out the seasonal vegetation that grows in the area. It is erasing our history. The JNF is a dispossessing organization.
Residents of Umm al-Hiran have been told their village will be demolished in two months, to make way for a Jewish settlement called Dror but, as yet, they have not been provided with a clear relocation plan, so many still remain on their land.
Umm al-Hiran resident Rahad Abu Alkeyan told the Canary:
KKL (JNF) is building the infrastructure for the new settlement ‘Dror’ which pushes us from our home and will lead to the destruction of our homes and our dispossession to the city of Hora. Solutions must be found, and there must be dialogue with the residents. Destroying the villages is not the solution – only full and equal citizenship is the answer.
These demolitions are a violation of International law, and UN experts have stressed that the Bedouin must be allowed to stay on their land.
JNF is also called into question about the environmental effects of its afforestation of the Naqab.
Plants, animals, and birds, many of which are specifically adapted to this environment, are now seeing their habitat destroyed by encroaching trees. There is also the added problem of irrigation of the region, which involves the diversion of water from the Jordan River, using the National Water Carrier.
Scandrett said:
They have been extracting water for decades and, as a result, the River Jordan’s flow is about 4% of what it was during British mandate times. The primary impact of this National Water Carrier, has been massive devastation to the River Jordan. The water is now almost gone.
JNF branches around the world ‘vulnerable like never before, to organised campaigning’
The JNF uses environmentalism as a cover for ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and occupation, and there should be no place for an organisation such as this in our society.
By giving its fundraising branches, such as JNF UK, charitable status, and refusing to revoke this – when there is clear evidence of wrongdoing – our government and other governments around the world make us complicit in what the JNF does.
In addition to pressurising our regulatory organisations-which are government agents, campaigners say we need to continue raising awareness of the role the JNF plays in ethic cleansing and environmental destruction.
Stop the JNF campaign, is gathering pace around the world, and has already had considerable success in Napier’s native Scotland, where JNF stopped its on the ground fundraising more than a decade ago.
Napier concluded:
In Scotland, they used to do big glitzy fundraising affairs, with some Hollywood A listers, at golf clubs and at the Hilton, but that’s all stopped, since 2014, because we always gave them a hard time and held a protest. Given the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the plausibility of Israeli genocide, its fundraising arms around the world are vulnerable like never before, to organised campaigning. Help us spread awareness of the JNF’s history and ongoing involvement in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Support us at www.stopthejnf.org
Featured image and additional images via Kholoud Al-Ajarma
