http://youtu.be/Tjuxcbd4fMA
The Jewish National Fund has a long history of displacing Palestinians and Bedouins in Israel and erasing the remains of their destroyed villages.
Precis
On Sunday, December 1st, hundreds protested in Toronto, Canada. The demonstrators gathered in freezing weather outside the Metro Toronto Convention Center where thousands attended the JNF honoring dinner for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper has been one of the most fervent supporters of Israel. Under his leadership military and financial relations with Israel tightened. Meanwhile in Israel, a creative protest group created a parody of the Jewish National Fund, calling itself "The New JNF", which vowed to stop erasing Palestinian history and displacing Bedouins in the Negev Desert. The Real News' Lia Tarachansky spoke to Noga Kadmon, an Israeli historian and the author of the renown book Erased From Space And Consciousness.Transcript
LIA
TARACHANSKY, PRODUCER: On Sunday, December 1, hundreds protested in
Toronto, Canada. The demonstrators gathered in freezing weather outside
the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where thousands attended the JNF
honoring dinner for Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister.~~~PROTESTER:
We're here because we know that just behind these walls, Stephen Harper
is supporting Israeli policies. And what we want Stephen Harper to know
is that Palestine will be free! So Harper, Harper, you will see!
Palestine will be free! Harper, Harper, you will see!CROWD: Palestine will be free!~~~TARACHANSKY:
The mega fundraising event, organized by the Jewish National Fund,
attracted Canadian public officials and major donors to Israel and the
JNF. David Koschitzky, the chair of the Centre for Israel and the Jewish
Affairs, said this was an opportunity to thank the prime minister for
his steadfast friendship and support over the years. A recorded message by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was screened at the dinner.BENJAMIN
NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: You've chosen wisely. Stephen Harper
has proved to be a real leader. And a real leader doesn't follow the
herd. A real leader doesn't go by existing fashions. That's not to lead.
That's to follow. But Stephen leads. And he has stood up for Israel and
he's stood up for the truth time and time again.TARACHANSKY:
At the luxurious dinner, where tables cost as high as $100,000, the JNF
announced a bird sanctuary in northern Israel will be built and named
after Stephen Harper. In return, Harper performed his own surprise for the crowd.STEPHEN HARPER, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER (SINGING): Hey Jude, don't make it bad.TARACHANSKY:
Harper has been one of the most fervent supporters of Israel. Under his
leadership, military and financial ties with Israel tightened. His
administration stood behind Israel on all diplomatic fronts as well. In
the UN, Canada was one of only nine countries who stood against 138
others, when it refused to support the symbolic upgrade of the
Palestinian Authority to the status of an observer state. More recently,
Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird announced Canada will not lift its
sanctions on Iran, despite last week's Geneva agreements. The
Jewish National Fund, or the JNF, is a registered charity in Canada
known mostly for planting trees in Israel. While it positions itself as a
green organization, it was started over 100 years ago for the purpose
of purchasing land in historic Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF
has played a vital role in Israeli politics, in the distribution of land
after the state was created, and, as some claim, in the erasure of
Palestinian history from its landscape.NOGA KADMON,
HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): The JNF has existed many
years, even before the state, and has a part in the erasing of the
[destroyed Palestinian] villages. It started, physically, when leaders
in the JNF supported and tried to convince the government to demolish
villages and erase their remains, and continued when the JNF planted
groves, also on those village ruins, to hide the remains that survived.TARACHANSKY: Noga Kadmon is a historian and the author of the renowned book Erased from Space and Consciousness,
where she carefully documents the first years of the Israeli state
following the 1948 War, during which two-thirds of the Palestinians were
made refugees.KADMON: Planting trees in Israel has many
ramifications beyond greening and creating shaded spots. And in each
place we must look at the history and what was there before and what the
grove covers up and what it prevents, such as development for the
people who live nearby or who owned the lands until [the destruction].
Of course, sometimes the JNF plants a grove and it benefits everyone,
but in many places JNF plants groves on destroyed Arab villages or next
to existing villages, thereby preventing their expansion.TARACHANSKY:
Protests against the JNF have led to a worldwide movement in recent
years. In Israel, activists in a group calling itself the New JNF handed
out flyers in central Tel Aviv last week. The group's name is a parody
and has no links to the actual organization. The activists claimed this
New JNF has learned its lesson, and even decided to change his position,
admitting its forests cover up some of the hundreds of villages
destroyed in '48.TEXT ON SCREEN: Look for us under the forests! The New JNF is online and on Facebook.MEMBER OF THE NEW JNF (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We are the New JNF. That's our new logo. People
have never known the names. They know the new, Zionist names of these
forests, but not what's underneath them. So the New JNF is here to
educate people about them.TARACHANSKY: The fliers the
activists gave out in Tel Aviv include a link to a fake blog, where Rafi
Shtendel, claiming to be the chairperson of the New JNF, writes about
the role the company has played in the erasure and destruction of
Palestinian history. The author's name is but a slight alteration of the
JNF's actual chairperson, Efi Stenzler. On this fake blog, Rafi writes:
"Sixty-five years ago there was an entire culture here that we have
destroyed to establish a Jewish State, whose ruins are covered by KKL
[JNF] forests." In the blog, Rafi documents several places where through
signage and afforestation the JNF erased local Palestinian and Muslim
history. On the real JNF's website, a different kind of
letter, by its real chairperson, tells another story. Here Efi Stenzler
writes, "Over the years, we have developed thousands of projects that
have changed the face of the country. KKL-JNF forests are vital to
Israel's landscape and environment." In its mandate, the JNF writes
simply that its work is aimed at "the benefit of the Jewish people" and
not all the citizens of Israel. But receiving millions of dunams of
state lands give it the status of a semi-governmental body. Even
today, JNF forests are being used to dispossess the indigenous Bedouin
in the Negev Desert, as the The Real News has documented in recent
years. It is after this dispossession that the dinner in Toronto was
named. Despite The The Real News's repeated attempts to solicit a response, the JNF refused to comment. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post,
the organizers of Sunday's dinner called the protest an attempt to
delegitimize Israel, saying the JNF and its supporters all over the
world will continue to strengthen the state of Israel with all of its
strength and will act fearlessly to reinforce it. Simultaneously,
Stephen Harper announced he will visit Israel in January. For The Real News, I'm Lia Tarachansky in Tel Aviv.
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