Green Sunday Melbourne
A handful of protesters disseminating pamphlets condemning the Jewish National Fund (JNF) attracted a fair amount of attention but failed to make a significant impact on the organisation’s annual fundraising campaign on Sunday.
Happy phoners
JNF’s Green Sunday telethon, which was held at Beth Weizmann, raised funds for the ‘Beer Sheva Green Belt’ project that supports communities in Israel’s South who have come under rocket fire from Gaza.
Elizabeth Miller MP (Member for Bentleigh), David Southwick MP (Member for Caulfield), Mickey Sahar (JNF Victoria Executive Director and Jerusalem Emissary), Simone Szalmuk Singer (JNF Victoria President) and Helen Shardey (JNF Victoria Board Member)
The seven protesters, all of whom were Jewish, accused the environmental organisation of displacing Bedouin from their homes in the Negev, and of causing environmental damage through planting non-native species such as pine trees. Further, in their pamphlet they called upon members of the community not to donate money to an organisation that “co-opts Jewish values to justify social and environmental injustice”.
But the protesters appeared to have little impact on Green Sunday, with JNF General Manager David Beder reporting that “hundreds of volunteers” came to man the phones and solicit donations.
“I don’t think our volunteers were intimidated by the demonstration,” he said. While it was too early to conclusively determine the day’s success, Beder believes that for the most part the volunteers were well received by the community.
The protesters were initially rumoured to be from the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS), although this was refuted by AJDS co-President Harold Zwier. “I know there were some AJDS people who may have taken part in it but it wasn’t an AJDS event,” said Zwier.
Dr Jordy Silverstein, a historian and executive member of AJDS, was one of the organisers of the protest and said that they were not an official group but a group of people who are concerned about the actions of the JNF. She denied any affiliation with international group Stop the JNF, although the latter is referred to in their pamphlet as source of further information, along with the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality and Rabbis for Human Rights.
“We’re all Jewish and some of us have been to villages in Israel and seen the destruction caused by the JNF. We just thought the people who got the flyer might want to find more information,” she said.
Dr Silverstein added that people had generally been quite happy to take their flyers, but that one individual had called them “anti-Semites” and “kappos”, and said they should be shot. She added that she felt their efforts had been successful.
JNF Federal president Michael Naphtali told J-Wire.
“This is not a new story. No Bedouin has been displaced.No tree planted is not on crown land and the Government of Israel tells JNF where it can plant trees. We live with a covenant that certain land in Israel is for Jewish people. I agree there are matters wsuch as Al-Ariqib which are disputive but those are currently under consideration. JNF Australia plants nothing outside the Green Line.” He added that pine trees are indigenous to Israel but agreed that non-native species had been planted. He added: “but that was in 1950s and 1960s and the practice was stopped when it was realised that it might prove harmful”.
The JNF will publish a Q&A on its web site
How sad that professional activist Jews – usually affluent, with time on their hands – spend their time denouncing Israel and Jews generally, going along with the propaganda spouted by Islamists whose aim is to kill all Jews – YES, even leftie ones!
Why don’t these Jews instead turn their attention to the terrible injustice done to Jews from Islamic countries – Morocco, Egypt, Lybia, Yemen, Iraq, Iran etc.Many of these Jews, or at least the remnant who survived terrible persecution, found refuge in Israel, and had to leave their land and other property behind.
Instead of wringing their hands over the invariably trumped up loss of Arab lands to Jews in israel, how about agonising about the real loss of Jewish land in Islamic lands. Maybe an evening spent watching “The Forgotten Refugees” would be more instructive than harrassing those Jews who support self-determination for Jews in their ancestral homeland.
there are activists working on Morocco, Iran, Libya as well. Would you go and suggest to them that should work on Palestine ?
The JNF has done a wonderful job for the Jewish people and the global environment, for over a century. It deserves all the support we can give it.
Shame the ‘enemy within’ don’t get it Steve
I hope any of my donations to JNF only go towards purchasing Land for Jews just as Diaspora MUslims would only want their donations to go towards their fellow Muslims and Islamic causes.
I’m 100% sure any donations the Islamic Council of Victoria send to Islamic countries would not be going towards Jews or Christians and I do not see that as racist .
The Palestinian elected leadership Hamas in their charter call for an ‘ Islamic State of Palestine” which would make it the 58 th member state of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation is this racist or are Muslims exempt from Leftist Jewish worldly Views ?
If all these guys have nothing else to do with their time but hand out anti- Zionist propaganda on behalf of the Palestinians ,I think Barnett, Stillman and Herschel should get a life,.
I’d love to see these guys dare hand out anti- Palestinian propaganda outside the offices of the Islamic Council of Victoria , they wouldn’t be so brave !
Burdy
Last time I checked – the acronym “JNF” stood for the JEWISH NATIONAL FUND whose objectives include the redeeming of the ancient and biblical homeland of the Jewish people for the benefit of all its citizens – be they Jews or Arabs.
The JNF has been the world leader in environmental programs of afforestation and water conservation.
The loonies at the AJDS have been sucked in to a campaign designed to besmirch and denigrate the JNF as part of a Jew hating campaign designed to ultimately eradicating the State of Israel as the Jewish National Home.
16 million Jews around the world and in Israel have one Jewish home – and it is there to stay for succeeding generations of Jews.
These protestors have swallowed the bait – hook line and sinker.And so have the Rabbis for Human Rights and the New Israel Fund.
I urge you all to attend the two timely meetings being held at Central on 25 February at 8pm and South Head on 27 February at 8pm to hear the truth of what is happening in the Negev – admission $10.00
You should read the history of the JNF. It bought land exclusively for Jewish use, Arabs , non Jewish Arabs, were prohibited from owing or leasing JNF land.
BEN
NO ONE can own or leasing JNF land.
Maybe you should start lobbying Government here, after all we can’t lease or own National parkland.
Ben Eleijah
There was nothing hidden in what the JNF was set up to do – raising money to purchase and redeem land in Mandatory Palestine to be used by Jews returning to settle in their biblical and ancient homeland.
I wonder why the Arabs did not learn from the JNF and set up a similar institution. Their answer to selling land to Jews is to kill the Arab vendors who do so.
You might like to consider the following extract from Wikipedia:
“The Jewish National Fund (Hebrew: קרן קימת לישראל, Keren Kayemet LeYisrael) (abbreviated as JNF, and sometimes KKL) was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine (later British Mandate for Palestine, and subsequently Israel and the Palestinian territories) for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organization. By 2007, it owned 13% of the total land in Israel. Since its inception, the JNF has planted over 240 million trees in Israel. It has also built 180 dams and reservoirs, developed 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of land and established more than 1,000 parks.”
These facilities have benefited all Israel’s population – Jews and Arabs.
Any organization is free to raise money for specific purposes as set out in its Constitution. If you don’t agree with the aims and objects then don’t contribute.
I prefer to support the JNF which is building up the Jewish State – to giving my money to the New Israel Fund which has embroiled itself in financing non- government organizations that are trying to destroy the Jewish State and denigrate the JNF in the process.
Make your choice.
Hello david
Nowhere did I suggest that there was anything hidden in JNF colonisation. In fact the opposite of it is true, right from herzel Zionists did not conceal their colonial aims. The historical concealment started much latter. And the Arabs did not have an European presence or wealthy Eurpean backers with imperial connections such as Herzel and Rothschild. The JNF purchases and Rothschild estates only served as footholds for the latter terro and expulsion of Palestinians through the Palmach, Irgun, Lehi and latter by the armed wings of the Israel. The elementary aparthied here was that the land, often purchased by displacing tenant farmers with centuries of occupancy, through documents from absentee landlords, served to deny employment to the Arabs in favour of colonisers from Europe.
You are a mouthpiece for the Arab propaganda machine or have been brainwashed by it.
Using the term “Colonisation” and “colonial aims” for an Organization that was buying land for the benefit of a people making its way home after centuries of dispersion is a dead giveaway .
You got one thing right – the Vendors were in many cases rich absentee landlords in Lebanon and Syria who sold out at top prices to the JNF after having ruthlessly mistreated and abused their fellahin workers for generations.
Are you suggesting they had no right to make a killing by selling their land?
Like any property transaction anywhere in the world – the rights of tenants or occupants are limited. Blaming the Jews for the sin of redeeming the land of their ancestors is a joke.
Close settlement of the land by Jews – not Arabs or anyone else – was to be encouraged under the Mandate.
The Mandate never even spoke of Arabs but only the “existing non- Jewish communities”. The term “Palestinians” never existed. Just more propaganda from you.
The Arabs did quite well with the carve up of the Ottoman territory captured by Britain and France in World War 1. The Arabs ended up with 99.99% and the Jews were promised .01%. 78% of that was taken away from the Jews.
If you had your way – the Jews would be sent packing from the small piece of land the League of Nations unanimously agreed should be returned to Jewish ownership.
You are in good company with the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah and a myriad of other terrorist organisations that continue to pursue that objective.
Enjoy the association.
Hello David
Thank you for the entirely expected response ans smear. Since you have responded I can support my claim with evidence. here is one “….Zionist colonisation, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population. This colonisation can therefore, continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population – an iron wall which the native population cannot break through/ This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it in any other way would only be hypocracy…..” ( Vladimir jabotinsky, the forthright Zionist who carried out the project – in The Iron Wall (We and the Arabs). 1923).
I am confident you can acquire a copy of the entire article. Will be happy to prove further documents from Herzel and others.
Ben Eleijah
Jabotinsky also said – and I would have expected you to include- the following statement:
“I understand as well as anybody that we have got to find a modus vivendi with the Arabs; they will always live in the country, and all around the country, and we cannot afford a perpetuation of strife”.
He said a lot of other wise things that I am more than happy to post if you want to continue this discussion.
It is a pity the Arabs could not come to such the modus vivendi Jabotinsky advocated- instead of
(i) engaging in rioting, attacking and killing Jews in 1921 before Jabotinsky had uttered your quoted remarks in 1923 and continuing such attacks in Hebron in 1929 and for three years between 1936-1939
(ii) refusing a state of their own when recommended by the Peel Commission in 1937 and the United Nations in 1947 or in the nineteen years between 1948-1967 when they chose to unify the West Bank with Jordan rather than create an independent state.
(iii) refusing Israeli offers in 2000 and 2008 of more than 90% of what they said they would accept.
Had the Arabs come to terms with a Jewish State as unanimously sanctioned by the League of Nations in 1922 – which was the context in which Jabotinsky made his 1923 remark quoted by you – all the kerfuffle going on today would have never arisen and I would never have heard of you or you of me.
What a delight that would truly have been.
How many bites of the apple can your Arab mates refuse to accept until there is nothing left for them?
Hello David
Thank you for the reply. Now if the siste can publish the full text of the article I had cited and the source you have not perhaps the truth will be out. Jabotinsky’s liberalism was conditioned on reducing the Palestinians to a small minority in their own country and enclosing them in an iron wall with no hope of escape. Whne they give up the fight and hope of freedom then the negotiations on freedom and rights begin.
Jabotinsky had the virtue of being honest in his aims and carrying them out openly, unlike Zionist hasbara that follows him.
Another thought
I wonder what the reaction would be from ‘these people’ if squatters decided to build dwellings on Crown Land here would be.?
I refer to Herschel Landes comments above. “Land in Israel is for Israelis”. JNF land was purchased up to 100 years ago for the specific purpose of establishing Jewish communities, not “for Israelis” that didn’t exist at that time. As that land was bought for that speciic purpose then, it is not possible for others, now, to start demanding otherwise. Thus there is no problem stating “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people” by definition and Israeli courts have backed this.
So the JCA in Australia is discriminatory because it only supports, helps and provides for Jews?
The JNF is an organisation established to purchase land for Jews. Israeli Arabs can buy land in Israel if they wish and which they do, in competition with the JNF but not with its money which is provided by Jews like me. If they wish, other Jews are free to contribute funds for the purchasing of land for Israeli Arabs. Just not with my contribution.
To find out more about the war being fought in the Negev and the Galil against illegal Israeli Arab and Bedouin creeping occupation of Jewish land, hear Ari Briggs of Regavim and Ygal Shapir of JNF, in Sydney: Central Synagogue 8pm Feb 25; South Head Synagogue 8pm Feb 27.
The JNF was raising funds to support communities in Israel’s South who have have been suffering under rocket fire from Gaza for months if not years, and the aim of this rabble was to stop people turning up to contribute to this mighty cause!
Shame on you, you misinformed, ignorant spoilt Australian youth who’ve never lived in Israel, know nothing about living with the sounds of sirens going off every day, losing your loved ones in a never-ending war with a bunch of warring nations that live kilometres from your home, who want nothing more than to throw you into the sea.
And you take up ‘arms’ against the JNF which for years has provided support to our fellow Jews who choose to live in Israel despite all the dangers, keeping it safe for us. SHAME ON YOU.
Everyone has to realise that the ‘performance’ at the JNF offices, by this dreadful group, was a temper tantrum over the fact that they couldn’t get a letter published. I might add a very inaccurate letter, ahead of a major fundraising drive by the JNF.
Their comment on their website “Once again, the Australian Jewish community is being hindered from hearing other voices by a media outlet which considers itself inclusive and authoritative.”
Maybe Larry they don’t like publishing lies and they don’t like people who vilify the State of Israel.
You say in that dreadful letter, which you say no one would give you air space for –
“the JNF charter prohibits the sale or renting of land to non-Jews”
If that is so, how come then that with only 14% of land in Israel being private land that Arabs own 67% of it.?
On one hand you say non-Jews cannot buy land and yet Arabs don’t seem to have a problem on that score. So unless of course, as with everything else, you are blinded by the truth and class Arabs as Jews.
Another point is where is your condemnation for the Catholic Church which buys land for Catholics use only. Same for the Anglican Church and no doubt all other religions. Oh, but then, sorry I forgot, they aren’t Jews so they can do it.
In view of this vile demonstration by a handful of ideologues who simply cannot get their minds around the truth that the Jewish people are also entitled to liberty, democracy and self determination, and especially at a time like now, it behoves us all to make a special effort to support the JNF this year.
Nothing has changed . These people have always been among us. They provide us with the boundaries of the definition of cowardice.
I am amazed that any organisation claiming to be Jewish would have the unmitigated gall to call on Jews to hurt a Jewish organisation. And base its call on half-truths and falsehoods.
The Bedouin are nomads. They have no traditional lands. The Jewish state offerred to settle them and they rejected that. Now, as part of the radicalisation of Bedouin, as seen in the terror activities in the Sinai, the ones in Israel are settling on state lands illegally. And they are left in place by the same Jewish state that uproot unauthorise Jewish settlements. Their settlements now surround and IAF base in the Negev and they whine that they have no facilties on lands that were not planned for servicing the multiple wife family grouping making clan claims to lands they never considered as their own.
It is false and laughable to mock Israeli democracy when elections have just been held and all Israelis had the right to vote. Only inhabitants of fantasy land would make such patently anti-intellectual comments.
The JNF is a world leader in afforestation. Israel is th only country which had more trees at the end of the last century than at its start. If the plant pine trees and not eucalypts, they do it for a good reason, which has nothing to do with politics, or academic navel-gazing. The JNF and Israel are world leaders in drip irrigations and critics of Israel’s greening methods engage only in drip techniques of repeated denigrations.
Further, the JNF is a Jewish organisation. It exists to develop land for Jews and that has nothing to do with democracy. When I donate to my shul, I do not expect any part of those funds to go to the local churches of mosques. To criticise the JNF for not developing land for mohammedans is a low form of deception. The Arabs of any tribal grouping can apply to develop lands like any other Israeli.
For any poster to claim that Rabbis for Human Rights is a respectable group shows contempt for the intelligence of posters on J-wire; they are a far left anti-Israel mob. To not that Bedouin radicalised by “activists” thank Aussies, admit that that is what that mob would say and then act on what is suspected to be the “true” situation with regard to JNF’s activities, demonstrates hostility to Israel and the JNF as well as a someone out of touch with reality, driven by conspiracy theories and blind bias.
Why criticise the democratic Jewish polity which has never in its existence known peace nor imposed martial law or suspended freedoms Westerners take for granted, when atrocities occur daily in nations next to if can be taken as nothing other than antisemintism. Shame on the AJDS!!
I wonder if Mr Barbett, MR Stillman and other ”Jews for Palestine ”would have the balls to hand out anti- Palestinian leaflets outside the Islamic Council of Victoria.
I wonder if Mr Barnett a Gay activist would be welcome in Gaza Hamasastan, or for that matter in any of the Arab spring countries.
I wonder if there is a Gay Mardi Gras in downtoen Gaza like there is in Tel Aviv Mr Barnett?
What value to peace in the Middle east is there with Jews trying to intimidate and vilify other Jews and Jewish organizations.
I have read all that Israel, Zionist bashing stuff on Barnett and Stillman’s blog sites if only Palestinians and Arabs would have their own kind fighting so virulently for Jews, some how I doubt it.
The number of Jewish Palestinian useful idiots is growing by the Day .
Burdy
I am not a “Jew for Palestine” Michael.
What I am is a person who does not believe some people should have more rights than other people. All people are equal and all people deserve equal rights.
If you believe some people are more entitled to certain rights than other people then justify your rationale and explain why those deserving of lesser rights are so unworthy.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for an answer based on a rational thought process.
Michael.
MR Barnett,
Its good to see we CAN agree on some things I agree for instance that all the Jews none of them treated equally who had to flee or were driven out of Arab lands after they started their 1948 War against the Jews should be compensated and treated equally.
I believe Jews should be allowed potions of power and to share power in Arab/ Islamic countries politics .
I also believe Christians and non Muslims should be treated fairly and equally and i’m sure you and your fair minded friends would have been demonstrating many times outside the Palestinian representative offices in Canberra and embassies of Saudi Arabia, UAE , QAtar, Syria and the other 57 members on the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation for the rights of non muslims.
Lastly I agree with you that Gays should be treated with respect and equality in places like Gaza, Palestinian terror- tories , Syria, Iraq, Iran and all other Islamic/ Arab countries and I’m sure there would have been many Jewish Gay demonstrations once again by you and your friends outside these countries embassies in Canberra .
Isn’t it Gaza that has the yearly Gay Parade and considered one of the most tolerant Gay friendly cities in the world… I’m sure it was a City somewhere in the Middle East ??
Thanks for your relpy
Burdy
I think we have differing understandings of what “equal rights” means. To me it means that any two people, irrespective of where they live, what they believe in or how they look, are able to access the same rights and protections under the law. I may be mistaken but I think you don’t subscribe to that notion.
J-Wire why are you giving air space to these ‘enemy within’, who complain on their Facebook page they are denied their ‘freedom of speech’ by this very site.? This anti-Israel group who denied me my rights of Freedom of Speech today.
Quoting Rabbis for Human Rights and Magazine 972 does you no justice. Both loony left groups doing their best to bring discredit to Israel.
To those of the ‘enemy within’ who would criticise Israel, I say you have no rights to do so
If you have issues with Israel, go there to live.
I’d also like to add to my comments–people can give to whom they want, but they should “do no harm” to people, animals, the environment. This is a fundamental ethical question , The key question with activity supported by the JNF is –does it do harm? This is what needs to be asked. There will certainly be many projects that the JNF supports which are laudable, when it goes to the abrogation of non-Jews’ rights, but consistent questions arise about what the JNF is doing both within Israel and the occupied territories. I think it is an artificial division to not associate the JNF with the West Bank–look at the map of Israel that features on the Blue Box and elsewhere. This is the ‘Greater Israel’ which most countries in the world, including Australia, do not recognize.
the internet reception on the Golan Heights is pretty poor this morning..sorry about the repetition and also note the typo- * “NO longer approapriate”..the NO is missing. HL
Herschel Landes my response to j wire:
I refer to the above comments by JNF Federal president Michael Naphtali in particular ” We live with a covenant that certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”. Excuse me, land in Israel is for Israelis. Israelis comprise of many demographics. It is longer appropriate for such a statement that “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”. I believe The Israeli courts would not agree with the the JNF in any case. In the meantime, last week I saw Israeli Arab families enjoying a bar b que picnic in the pines over looking the Kinneret. How wonderful, that Israel is about Israel and Israelis. If JNF which to add to this work, wonderful, but the days of “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”, is finished.
State land is not for people to live on. It is just that STATE LAND
I refer to the above comments by JNF Federal president Michael Naphtali in particular ” We live with a covenant that certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”. Excuse me, land in Israel is for Israelis. Israleis comprise of many demographics. It is longer appropriate for such a statement that “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”. I believe The Israeli courts would not agree with the the JNF in any case. In the meantime, last week I saw Israeli Arab families enjoying a bar b que picnic in the pines over looking the Kinneret. How wonderful, that Israel is about Israel and Israelis. If JNF which to add to this work, wonderful, but the days of “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people”, is finished.
It’s a great pity that the report implies that there was “intimidation” at the protest yesterday. Far from it. There was no chanting, no blockading, nothing other than offering leaflets to people, though people arriving were forbidden to bring leaflets into the building (I did not know that print on paper can contaminate in such a way or corrupt people’s minds).
But of more concern was the attempt to involved the police (and the waste of tax payer’s money) by the calling of two groups of police by people involved at Beth Weizman, as well as more private security.
It appears to me that it was claimed to police that we were engaged in racial vilification (nice try). The senior officer asked us about this, and very quickly make it clear that we had the right to peaceful protest, and this was made clear to the security people there.
But more significantly than how the JNF regards dissident viewpoints in Australia , the JNF, regrettably, takes a view that could never be countenanced in a country like Australia–that people can be kicked out of their homes or land, one particular ethnic group, whether inside the Green Line or in the Occupied Territories.
The JNF’s ‘covenant’ is to act as the agent of the state that “certain land in Israel is for Jewish people” (to quote above) –however unethical and discriminatory that activity is. Remember, it is constantly claimed that Israeli is a democracy–as we were reminded by a JNF representative yesterday. Yet land covenants of this type are not the sort that could be countenanced in this country or any other Western country.
Consequently, an organisation such as Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel (and a clearly Zionist organisation), sees the JNF as complicit in the eviction of Palestinians and Bedouin from their property through unscrupulous means.
It is dissimulation to claim, as Michael Naftali does, that no Bedouin are being displaced. Israel has a real problem with its attempts to ‘resettle’ Bedouin, that are fraught with the same problems that have occurred with indigenous communities in Australia. Australian money should not be part of this. Bedouin communities reject forcible resettlement. See http://972mag.com/revisions-to-prawer-plan-for-negev-bedouin-expose-the-farce-of-law-in-israel/65324/
As recently as yesterday, I received messages from a Beersheva Bedouin and local Israeli activists in Beersheva thanking us for our concern. Of course, one could take the view that “they would say that, after all”, but I suspect they are much more in touch that local JNF spokespeople about what the JNF is up to when it comes to acting as the state’s agent with some of the poorest people in Israel or in the Occupied Territories.
Larry Stillman revealing his ignorance yet again in the following comment: “…takes a view that could never be countenanced in a country like Australia–that people can be kicked out of their homes or land, one particular ethnic group…”
What a joke! What did the Australians do to the Aborigines, you child of the 90’s who knows nothing about Aussie history? The whole tribe of Tasmanian aborigines was not only kicked out of their homes – they were slaughtered, to the very last man, woman & child.
So don’t talk to me about what this “country like Australia” will or won’t do to one particular ethnic group.
It concerns me that Victoria Police were called to this peaceful protest. On what grounds did those who called the police feel that they were under any form of threat? It is normally not “the done thing” to call police to attend to people handing out pamphlets in a peaceful fashion, especially when they are Jewish and the organisation calling the police is also Jewish.
Details of this on the Jew on This blog:
http://jewonthis.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/time-to-talk/
Michael.