News, October 2007
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Legislator Hanna Suwaid challenges Israeli Jewish-only land policy
Wednesday October 24, 2007 09:05 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC saed at imemc dot org
Israeli parliament (Knesset) member Hanna Suwaid has begun a database of Palestinian-owned land in Israel, as part of a campaign to oppose the Jewish National Fund Bill.
That bill, which was approved as a first reading in July, calls for the ownership of lands under the Jewish National Fund to be allocated to Jews only. The bill passed by a majority of 64 -16 members of the Knesset.
Ronald Lauder, the head of the Jewish National Fund, stated after the passage of the bill, “We are gratified that the government of Israel…recognized that the land purchased (distortion - as most of the land was taken by force from the Palestinian people in 1948) by the Jewish people for the Jewish people should remain in the hands of its rightful owners.”
Currently, 93% of the land inside Israel (by the 1967 border known as the 'Green Line', although Israeli illegal settlements continue to be built beyond that border) is owned by the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency or the government. The charters of these organizations state that land in Israel cannot be owned by anyone, because it belongs to God, but that it can be leased for periods of 49 years, then renewed successively—but only to Jews. Any Jewish person from anywhere in the world can lease the land under leases from the Jewish National Fund.
A recent poll by the Jerusalem Post found that 81% of Israelis want Jewish National Fund land to remain 'Jewish-only'.
There is some dissent, however, among Israelis and the Jewish population internationally. Jewish anti-Zionist blogger Jerry Haber stated, “It has been argued in defence of the amendment that the lands owned by the Jewish National Fund were purchased by Jews for the express purpose of Jewish settlement, and that to use it for other purposes would be to violate the wishes of the donors.
This argument is invalid for two reasons: First, the vast majority of land owned by the Jewish National Fund was not purchased by Jewish individuals but rather was expropriated by the Israel Government in the early years of the state from absentee Palestinian owners and transferred to the Fund so that the Israeli government could not itself be accused of discriminatory land leasing – a legal fiction of dubious morality. Second, no parallel mechanism for the settlement needs of Arab citizens was ever established. On the contrary, as the Or Commision set up after the Israeli Arab protests in 2000 noted, 'Arab settlements have been surrounded by security zones, Jewish district councils, national parks, nature reserves, and highways, that prevent or inhibit the possibility of future expansion.'”
MK Hanna Suwaid is attempting to build a database of Palestinians living inside what is now Israel who have had land confiscated by force or coercion for inclusion in the Jewish National Fund. Swaid stated, "Not all the lands in Israel are owned by the Jews and the database will help prove that."
He called on any Palestinians who believe that land owned by their families was taken by the Jewish National Fund to come forward and present the ownership papers. But the database in its current form only includes those Palestinians living inside what is now Israel, not the Palestinians who were evicted from their homes inside what is now Israel to the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere. Over three million Palestinians are classified by the United Nations as refugees (who still receive assistance) -- the children or grandchildren of the 750,000 Palestinians forced to flee during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, or those who fled during the 1967 war or afterwards. (However, Palestinian refugees and their descendants who do not receive assistance constitute about seven million more people in and outside Palestine).
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