Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
פורום דו-קיום בנגב לשוויון אזרחי
منتدى التعايش السلمي في النقب من أجل المساواة المدنية

An Open Letter to Effie Stenzler, Chairman of the Jewish National Fund Directorate

02.02.2013

February, 2013

 

Dear Mr. Stenzler:

Over the last few years, during your term of office as Chairman, the Jewish National Fund (JNF/KKL) has energetically undertaken a variety of land deals throughout the Negev with the State of Israel, intending to prepare more and more land for forestation.  Over the last three years, JNF/KKL has planted tens of thousands of trees over an area of thousands of acres.  Most of these deals and forestry activities have taken place on privately owned land belonging to Bedouin residents of the Negev, most of whom live in unrecognized villages and, since the 1950’s, have been dispossessed and driven off their ancestral lands.

During the 1970’s, claims were lodged with the courts in relation to regulating the ownership of these lands.  The majority of these claims have not yet been clarified by the courts, nor have claims determining questions of ownership.  Unfortunately, JNF/KKL is acting as a full partner in the process of dispossessing Bedouin of their lands and unjustifiably appropriating these lands.

For the last two years, massive forestation has been conducted on the lands of the historic village of Al Arakib, as well as on the settled land of Al Arakib.  The development of infrastructure and tree plantings were posed by the JNF/KKL as the justification for brutal demolitions of the villagers’ homes, demolitions repeated more than 30 times since July 2010, and the uprooting of life. In the preparatory stages of the JNF/KKL’s forestation projects, the organization destroyed olive and fruit trees to make way for sterile, thorny trees.

One year ago Judge Netzer determined that the State and JNF/KKL should NOT make adjustments to the land in the village of Al Arakib, where land claims are still before the courts.  At the end of January of this year, a JNF/KKL work site was established south of the village, and workers began to mark out territory and bulldozers began to flatten the area. Since then, no work has been carried out on the territory of the Al-Turi family, but instead JNF/KKL has carried out flattening and forestry works on the territory of the Al-Okbi and Al-Farih families (though their claims to ownership are still being discussed before the courts).

At the same time that we see JNF/KKL advertisements promising socially conscious plantings and the ‘social forest’ initiative, JNF/KKL is busy dispossessing the Negev Bedouin. A few contributions to the welfare of the community do not make up for the involvement of JNF/KKL in dispossessing  Bedouin of their lands.

We demand JNF/KKL desist with its active contribution to the expulsion and dispossession of citizens from their lands. We wish to warn against JNF/KKL’s perverse actions in the Negev, the result of which will endanger all the residents of the Negev—Jew and Arab alike.

 

Mr. Stenzler: stop the bulldozers before disaster strikes!

 

Update from the initiators of this letter: After we wrote the above letter, JNF/KKL announced that they would not plant trees in areas where there are legal disputes regarding ownership.  While we welcome this development, the developments carried out a week ago (Feb 2012) at Al Arakib continue, contrary to information published by the media.  JNF/KKL has not responded to our requests for clarification regarding the contradiction.

We expect that JNF/KKL will declare explicitly that it will refrain from carrying out preparatory developments and plantings on all the land where land ownership claims/or claims to regulate land ownership of Bedouin are still before the courts. The Israel Lands Authority (ILA) has declared, for its part, that it is determined to continue with the forestation programme on the ruins of Al Arakib, as well as on other extensive lands belonging to Bedouin residents of the Negev. ILA and JNF/KKL are partners in these acts of dispossession and simply transfer responsibility from one to the other, according to need.

Sincerely,

Rabbis for Human Rights. Recognition Forum

Women’s Coalition for Peace

Hithabrut–‐Tarabut–‐Jewish–‐Arab Movement for Social and Political Change

The Negev Forum for Coexistence and Civic Equality