American Taxpayers are Helping to Fund Israeli Settlements, Obstructing the Possibility of Any Two-State Solution, Which Includes a Palestinian Capital in East Jerusalem
You, American taxpayer, are helping to fund Israeli settlements
An American nonprofit is making peace even less likely.At 2 a.m. one day last week, a group of Israeli settlers, protected by riot police, moved into 25 apartments in seven Palestinian-owned buildings in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Some of these apartments were vacant or recently constructed. In other cases, residents were away from home for the night. In one case, a young man had purchased an apartment to move into with his bride following their wedding. Instead, the couple is now enmeshed in a legal struggle with the settlers who have set up residence in their marital home.
The biggest surprise of all? You may have helped fund this takeover.
Elad, the settler group that organized this incursion, raises $6 million a year in the United States through the Friends of Ir David Foundation. As a nonprofit, donations to FIDF are tax deductible; funders can write off their gifts, which means that all of us who pay U.S. taxes helped subsidize the new settlement. That’s in direct opposition to official U.S. policy, which seeks a two-state solution and prohibits American aid to settlements over the Green Line.
Even more directly, if you’ve traveled to Israel (as nearly half of American Jews, and a staggering number of American Christians, have), you may have visited the Ir David archaeological site, which includes Hezekiah’s tunnel and other finds from Biblical Jerusalem. A huge percentage of its 500,000 annual visitors are American, and it’s a hallowed stop on tours organized by synagogues, churches and schools.* That $15 admission fee paid by all those people? Money for settlers. Even the excavation of Ir David has damaged or destroyed Palestinian homes, while infuriating archaeologists who complain that Elad prioritizes politics over responsible archaeology.
Elad has a long history of working to transform Silwan from a Palestinian neighborhood into a Jewish one. The idea is to make “facts on the ground,” in the parlance of the conflict, that will obstruct the possibility of any two-state solution that includes a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. Elad evicts Palestinians from their homes by exploiting legal loopholes or incomplete property records, it builds entirely new settler compounds, it uses archaeological sites to establish Jewish claims to certain strategic parcels of land, and it even erected a new visitors’ center on a contested piece of real estate.
Some, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wonder why Israeli Jews and Palestinians can’t live side by side in Silwan. But anyone who has visited the neighborhood recently knows that what is happening there is not about, say, diversifying the neighborhood. It’s a hostile takeover. New fortified buildings topped by Israeli flags tower over the homes of longtime residents. Settlers walk through the neighborhood carrying guns, accompanied by armed guards. Meanwhile, the municipality virtually always denies Palestinians permits to build new homes or to renovate their old ones. Those Palestinians who dare to build anyway have their homes demolished, and—to add insult to injury—receive bills for the demolition and the cleanup of rubble.
There is a special category in Jewish law for this kind of action. In the Talmud, the students of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai ask why the Torah deals more severely with a burglar than with a mugger. Their teacher’s response: A mugger, who robs face-to-face, fears neither human beings nor God. But a burglar, who sneaks in when no one is looking, is afraid of human beings but shows no fear of God. In its use of subterfuge, shadow companies, and dead-of-night incursions, Elad represents the worst kind of thief.
And Americans, Elad donors and pilgrims to Israel, are, in some indirect but important way, complicit. Jewish law strongly forbids aiding or abetting a thief. In one of the most important guides to Jewish law, Moses Maimonides rules that “It is forbidden to purchase stolen goods from the thief. . . for anyone who does such things or similar ones strengthens the hands of sinners. . . it is [also] forbidden to derive any benefit from a stolen object.” Those of us who donate to Elad, or pay admission to the Ir David archaeological site, aid and abet those who steal homes and land in order to prevent peace. As we ooh and aah over the excavations, we derive pleasure from these thefts.
The good news is that we have the power to prevent these settlers from blocking a lasting peace agreement. This past spring, an Israeli court granted Elad control of Robinson’s Arch—the section of the Western Wall where men and women may pray together—as well as adjoining archaeological sites. T’ruah, the organization I direct, mobilized more than 1,000 rabbis and American Jews to oppose this transfer. The Reform and Conservative Movements of Judaism lodged their own complaints. The Prime Minister’s office responded with a promise to prevent the site from falling into the hands of Elad, and just last month, a judge overturned the earlier decision. Our voices matter.
With its insistence on shoehorning Jewish settlements into longstanding Palestinian neighborhoods, Elad prioritizes its short-sighted political agenda over the long-term security of the State of Israel, alongside a viable State of Palestine. Imagine if instead, U.S. donors invested money in a lasting peace solution that grants both Jews and Palestinians a safe place in Jerusalem; allows Jews, Christians and Muslims to access their holy sites; and ends the decades-old conflict that has already claimed too many lives.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T’ruah, which mobilizes 1,800 rabbis, cantors, and their communities to protect human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. Her most recent book is “Where Justice Dwells.”
Comments from Washington Post:
Rabbi Jacobs, the term missing from your analysis is "Ethnic Cleansing." An act prohibited under International Law. Be safe in your travels to Jerusalem extremists whether Jewish or Muslim may wish you harm. At the end of the day, it is truly pathetic to see extremism of a few in power, like Netanyahu dissipate the good will of the people of Israel. From war crimes: the wanton destruction of civilians by IDF artillery fire, despite the fact the mighty IAF possesses the most sophisticated precision guided weapons and drones to minimize civilian casualties in an urban setting, now to these pathetic ethnic cleanings in Jerusalem. I say to you good people of Israel, what kind of a country are you becoming? Erasing Palestinians from their homes is precisely the very same crime visited on your ancestors. If anything these collective actions by your extremist leadership tarnish Israel's great legacy of the Holocaust. Best wishes on real political change in Israel.
"Compulsory population transfers, including the implantation of settlers are a serious matter, not only because they affect many people, but also because they violate the whole gamut of civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights. Let us remember, human rights are not exercised in a vacuum, but quite concretely where one lives. Expulsion by its very nature deprives victims of the exercise of many rights and is frequently accompanied by physical abuses and even by the ultimate violation of the right to life." [Source]
Christian Zionists are offering apologies for the Israeli confiscation of Palestian owned property. Put yourself in their place. It seems Jews were in their place in the 1930s ini Germany where they had their land confiscated in much the same manner. You have decided to treat them the same way the Jews in Germany were treated. That is beyond contempt. Do you really think that they would not attack Israel with whatever they have available to them? In this case, it is with primitive rockets that rarely cause much damage. I know that is something that really concerns the Israeli citizenry, but let's get real. What is inciting the Palestinians to attack Israel? I say it is the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.
The references to the Torah and the Talmud refer to comportment within the community; but the State of Israel is the Zionist enterprise -- an interplay between the Jewish community and the rest of the world. For that enterprise, the Torah's principles and prescribed practices are found in Deuteronomy 6 and 7 and in Deuteronomy 20:10 et seq.
Netanyahu needs to stop the current settlements until a deal is reached. This is where a little faith needs to come into play and I hate to say this but asking Israel to do this is really hard to swallow. They need to give Palestine a land free of any Israeli rule or military intrusion. Now if Palestine decides to get aggressive from their "new" land free from any Israeli intrusion, then Israel has the right to bombard Palestine to pieces. Hopefully that won't be the case but until it is done Israel will be seen as the worse of two evils. Israel has in the past based their attacks on countries based on what they perceived as a threat (Egypt, Iraq, Syria). In this day in age that isn't pre-emptive striking as Israel likes to always call their attacks, its an act of war.
So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netaynahu LIED on National TV when he appeared on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer when he claimed that these were"additional" and that no homes were being taken from anyone and that the settlement expansion in Jerusalem also included 700 homes for Palestinians ... apparently he meant Palestinians who were not Christian or Muslim. Pathetic that Schieffer would give Netanyahu a pass on his lies and how Americans just accept all the BS that Israel produces through their lobby and PR Machine.
As a die-hard supporter of Israel and someone who believes Palestinians do not now nor ever cared to make peace with Israel, I totally agree with the rabbi's piece. The settlements are a disaster for Israel and they corrode Israeli honor. As a Jew with many dear and close relatives in Israel and as a child of concentration camp survivors I implore Americans to reform our political system so that all forms of money are not so determinative of all our policies, including our middle-eastern policies. I implore Americans to help Israeli society come to understand that its best interests are in getting out of the West Bank and conceding to the Palestinians their right to statehood.
As long as the American government is for sale, it will support Israel. The American people, and many American Jews including me, are tired of the Israeli arrogance and aggression, but our politicians love the campaign donations.
Read Scott Anderson; "Lawrence IN Arabia -- War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making for the Modern Middle East" which details an exactly similar tactic of buying land on the pretext of coexistence with the actual intent of creating an exclusivist state.
Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem was not legal. The blatant attempts to force arabs out of the region by giving building permits only to Jews is pure bullying under a legal pretext. I suppose it was legal for Germany to confiscate Jewish lands because they passed a law?
Palestinian killed reportedly over selling homes to Jews
October 10, 2014i24News - Last month, Jewish settlers seized apartments in E. Jerusalem's Silwan, allegedly sold to them by an Arab man.
An East Jerusalem Palestinian man in his 50s was stabbed to death Thursday night presumably following an argument that broke out between family members over the selling of Arab-owned houses to Jewish families in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday morning. Jerusalem police opened an investigation.
On September 30, Jewish settlers forcefully took over 25 apartments in Silwan, with the new occupants claiming they had legitimately bought the properties.
The incident led to clashes between Arab residents and Jewish settlers in the neighborhood, located outside Jerusalem's Old City near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat blasted the move, saying: “Illegal Israeli settlers protected by occupation forces entered seven buildings in the neighborhood of Silwan.”
He claimed that “a total of seven Palestinian families were left homeless” as a result.
Erekat accused the Israeli government of being run “by the settlers and for settlers. It serves the objective of altering the character of Jerusalem through isolating, containing and confining Palestinian existence, allowing for more Israeli land grabs and attempts at changing the identity and demography of Palestine and particularly of occupied East Jerusalem.”
According to Haaretz, several Palestinian families, who in the past owned the contested property, claimed they had sold the buildings to a man named Farid Haj Yahya.
Yahya reportedly bought the real estate for the rightist Elad organization, which aspires to settle Jews in East Jerusalem.
Haj Yahya, a resident of the Arab city of Taibeh, denied any involvement in selling the properties to the settlers.
“I’ve been in the Islamic Movement for 20 years, do charity work and help people and none of this ever happened. I bought a house in Silwan but nothing beyond that. I didn’t sell it to settlers. If anyone has a document [showing] that I sold one centimeter to settlers, I’m willing to go to Ramallah and face a firing squad.Yahya was at one time one of the leaders of the Islamic Movement’s southern branch. He also once headed the Al Aqsa organization, which is associated with the Islamic Movement.
“I’m surprised my name came up. I’ve built my reputation for 20 years. I bought from an Arab and sold to an Arab, and he didn’t sell to settlers. I wouldn’t endanger my family and children and reputation for real estate or money,” Yahya told Haaretz.
The Islamic movement’s southern branch also denied any connection with Haj Yahya.
“Yahya worked with us for four years but the ties with him were cut off in 2010 and we’ve had nothing to do with him since,” the movement's secretary Dr. Mansur Abbas, said.The White House had charged that Israeli actions over the Green Line in Jerusalem had "poisoned" the atmosphere and distanced Israel even from its closest allies.
Speaking to US cable network MSNBC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the White House statement was "baffling" to him.
"It criticized individual Jews who bought apartments in an Arab neighborhood," Netanyahu said. "Jews buy apartments, private property, in Arab neighborhoods. Arabs buy apartments in Jewish neighborhoods."Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told Israeli Channel 2 that, "Jews can buy apartments wherever they want in Jerusalem, and especially in the City of David, which is the place of ancient Jerusalem 3,000 years ago."
No comments:
Post a Comment