London Workshop on Stopping the Jewish National Fund

Stop the JNF London Workshop Sun 15th June, 2-5pm P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD
Eurig Scandrett speaking on the Friends of the Earth International Report ‘Environmental Nakba’ - the catastrophic impact on Palestinians of Israel’s occupation, colonisation, and apartheid. Plus documentary, Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the JNF (35 mins) produced by IJAN.
The JNF’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the maintenance of an apartheid residential system has always been supported by great violence against its victims.   The murder of two Palestinian children by Israeli snipers, caught on camera few weeks ago, is an example.  The link between the JNF and Israeli war crimes was highlighted by the visit of Tzipi Livni last month to address a JNF event in London.  Livni was shielded from the possibility of arrest for war crimes by the UK Government’s grant to her of a temporary diplomatic status.  The JNF is an important part of the Zionist network. They are, nonetheless, worried. In the wake of their losing David Cameron and failing to get Miliband or Clegg as Honorary Patrons, a Westminster parliamentary motion condemning the JNF’s activities, EDM 1677, attracted an unprecedented 70 MPs’ endorsement (two MPs signed a related statement).  Worryingly for the JNF, their counter-attack failed to dislodge a single one of the MPs who signed EDM 1677.  Determined opposition to the JNF can defeat this racist organisation.  A vigorous protest greeted the JNF’s London hosting of Livni on Nakba Day, May 15th.  In Scotland, where grassroots opposition has been ongoing over the last decade, the determined protests that accompanied every public JNF event has led to their cancelling all their previously regular fundraisers, from glitzy Glasgow Hilton events with speakers like Bill Clinton and Colin Powell to pro-am golf tournaments sponsored by Lexus. Last September’s report by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), ‘Environmental Nakba’, took the case against the JNF to a new constituency.  It highlights Israel’s colonialism, water apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the role of the JNF in Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians.  Eurig Scandrett of FoE Scotland co-authored the report with Abeer Al Butmah from Palestine FoE and Bobby Peek from FoE South Africa. The international Stop the JNF Campaign was launched in 2010 to build on work already done around the world.  Help us to campaign against the JNF, a pillar of the apartheid system in Israel/Palestine, an active participant in the ethnic cleansing now accelerating there, and a registered charity in the UK (Patrons - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown). Read Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up JNF eBook (Volume 4) Join Stop the JNF Campaign and affiliate our organisation to the Stop the JNF Campaign - Use the Paypal button on the website: www.stopthejnf.org If you prefer to set up a direct debit or use bank transfer, the details are: Stop the JNF Campaign, Account Number: 65476611, Sort Code: 089299. Donations are also very welcome and will help us raise awareness of the role of the JNF in Israeli apartheid, colonisation and occupation: Make a donation. Stop the JNF Campaign, c/o Peace & Justice Centre, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ uk@stopthejnf.org  01501 78 55 63

Stop the JNF: regional workshops

Stop the JNF regional workshops
Eurig Scandrett speaking on the Friends of the Earth International Report Environmental Nakba - the catastrophic impact on Palestinians of Israel’s occupation, colonisation, and apartheid. Plus film premiere Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the JNF (35 mins) Produced by IJAN.
Wed 11th June, 7pm – SHEFFIELD Friends Meeting House, Sheffield.  Supported by Sheffield PSC. Thurs 12th June, 7.30pm – BRIGHTON Friends Meeting House, Ship Street Sun 15th June, 2-5pm – LONDON P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD Thurs 26th June, 7pm – ABERDEEN check Stop the JNF campaign website for details. Sat 5th July, 2-5pm – CARDIFF Media Point, Chapter, Market Road, Canton, CF5 1QE The JNF’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the maintenance of an apartheid residential system has always been supported by great violence against its victims.   The murder of two Palestinian children by Israeli snipers, caught on camera few weeks ago, is an example.  The link between the JNF and Israeli war crimes was highlighted by the visit of Tzipi Livni last month to address a JNF event in London.  Livni was shielded from the possibility of arrest for war crimes by the UK Government’s grant to her of a temporary diplomatic status.  The JNF would seem to be an important part of the Zionist network. In the wake of their losing David Cameron and failing to get Miliband or Clegg as Honorary Patrons, a Westminster parliamentary motion condemning the JNF’s activities, EDM 1677, attracted an unprecedented 70 MPs’ endorsement (two MPs signed a related statement).  Worryingly for the JNF, their counter-attack failed to dislodge a single one of the MPs who signed EDM 1677.  Determined opposition to the JNF can defeat this racist organisation.  A vigorous protest greeted the JNF’s London hosting of Livni on Nakba Day, May 15th.  In Scotland, where grassroots opposition has been ongoing over the last decade, the determined protests that accompanied every public JNF event has led to their cancelling all their previously regular fundraisers, from glitzy Glasgow Hilton events with speakers like Bill Clinton and Colin Powell to pro-am golf tournaments sponsored by Lexus. Last September’s report by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), ‘Environmental Nakba’, took the case against the JNF to a new constituency.  It highlights Israel’s colonialism, water apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the role of the JNF in Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians.  Eurig Scandrett of FoE Scotland co-authored the report with Abeer Al Butmah from Palestine FoE and Bobby Peek from FoE South Africa. The international Stop the JNF Campaign was launched in 2010 to build on work already done around the world.  Help us to campaign against the JNF, a pillar of the apartheid system in Israel/Palestine, an active participant in the ethnic cleansing now accelerating there, and a registered charity in the UK (Patrons - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown). Read Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up JNF eBook (Volume 4) Join Stop the JNF Campaign and affiliate our organisation to the Stop the JNF Campaign - Use the Paypal button on the website: www.stopthejnf.org If you prefer to set up a direct debit or use bank transfer, the details are: Stop the JNF Campaign, Account Number: 65476611, Sort Code: 089299. Donations are also very welcome and will help us raise awareness of the role of the JNF in Israeli apartheid, colonisation and occupation: Make a donation. Stop the JNF Campaign, c/o Peace & Justice Centre, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ uk@stopthejnf.org 01501 78 55 63

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network say Stop the Jewish National Fund

On Nakba Day:

Despite Repression, A Rising Movement!

 

www.isjn.net

Stop the Jewish National Fund

From the BDS Movement Website

On 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan, which if implemented will result in the destruction of more than 35 unrecognized villages in Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. The Prawer plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomizes the nature of Israel’s policy; Israeli-Jewish demographic expansion and Palestinian-Arab demographic containment.

The International community has repeatedly called on Israel to halt the implementation of the Prawer Plan due to its discriminatory nature and the severe infringement it causes on the rights of Palestinian Bedouins in Al-Naqab. The UN committee on the elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed legislation of the Prawer Plan. Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossession.

Injustice, humiliation and forced displacement are a recurring theme in Palestine’s history. This is lesson that we as a group of youth take to the heart. We will oppose, resist and work against the continuous assault that our communities, across Palestine face. Therefore, we launched the “Prawer will not pass” campaign with an eye to preventing this plan to be yet another chapter in Palestine’s long and tragic history.

Opposing the Prawer Plan is to oppose ethnic cleansing, displacement and confinement in the 21st century.
Join us by organizing marches, protests, sending letters to those with positions of influence in your country or community, by doing whatever you can, in order to force Israel to stop the Prawer plan.
Join us on the 30th of Nov. in saying “Prawer shall not Pass”.

For more information, please contact us on:
Email: PrawerWontPass@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prawershallnotpass

This call is available in other languages from https://www.oximity.com/article/Stop-Prawer-Plan-Call-to-action-on-Nov-1

Check PDF Fact Sheet: https://d23ya87silh7sb.cloudfront.net/pdf/000/000/144/940_425926177.pdf

- See more at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/stop-prawer-plan-nov-30-11385#sthash.Dtc4lokY.dpuf

Solidarity with Palestinian Day of Rage - Demonstration in London Today 1 August 2013

Hope you will be able to come to this important protest – the JNF’s (Jewish National Fund) $4 billion "Blueprint Negev" project is central to the Prawer Plan: to ethnically cleanse Palestinian Bedouin from the area. For more on the Stop the JNF Campaign see www.stopthejnf.org. Solidarity with Palestinian Day of Rage against the ethnic cleansing Prawer Plan 1 August, 6pm, the Apartheid Israeli Embassy Kensington High Street, W8 5EDhttps://www.facebook.com/events/499609743448821/ Protest at the London Apartheid Israeli Embassy in solidarity with Palestinians on their next "Day of Rage" against the Prawer Plan to ethnically cleanse them.  On 1st August Palestinians will protest again against this racist plan, which was passed its first reading in the Knesset on 25th June. ·         The Plan aims to: confiscate 800,000 dunums of land in the Naqab desert ·         expel over 50,000 Palestinian Bedouins ·         demolish 35 unrecognized villages ·         confine 30% of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab to 1% of the land
This London protest was at the request of Palestinian citizens of Israel who are organising this day of action: "We call on international solidarity activists to organize demonstrations on the same day in their own cities, and to spread awareness of the biggest impending ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians by Israel since 1948 through writing petitions, sharing information on the Naqab and Prawer Plan, or by any other show of activism." www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/ activism/6787--call-for-action-stop-prawer-plan-.html
On July 15 Palestinians demonstrated from Bir Sabe’ to Jerusalem, West Bank to the Galilee, Haifa to Gaza. Dozens of Palestinians were either injured or arrested since July 15 by the Israeli forces. Throughout the past week protests have been constant within Palestine, with Beirut in Lebanon and Cairo in Egypt also joining in. For further details about the Day of Rage see: https://www.facebook.com/StopPrawerPlan Twitter: #AugustRage #StopPrawerPlan #الغضب_آب  #ريم_لن_برافر For further info on the London protest please contact: 07880 731 865 For further info on the Prawer Plan: "Demolition and Eviction of Bedouin Citizens of Israel in the Naqab(Negev) - The Prawer Plan" http://adalah.org/eng/?mod=articles&ID=1589

JNFUKed as regional chief made redundant

The Jewish National Fund UK seems to be in a spot of financial bother, so much so that it has made its Manchester based regional director, Jo Krasner, redundant following reports of its revenue being cut by half.  I wouldn't know of this if it wasn't for a tweet by Ben White.

After story that @jnfuk has lost "half its revenue" twitpic.com/b5979o, news its regional director is made redundant jewishtelegraph.com/man_1.html
— Ben White (@benabyad) October 19, 2012

Checking out the pic,



I googled "JNF loses half its revenue".  I found the article on Press Display though not in the Jewish Chronicle itself, where it originally appeared.  But Jonathan Hoffman is the gift that keeps on giving.  There he was on his JC blog protesting, "JC leads with crude JNF smear story".

The JC article suggests that funding had dropped because of "politicisation" though how a beneficiary and instigator of ethnic cleansing can avoid politics must be a tricky issue.  But Hoffman doesn't like the allegation:

in the article we got:

The dramatic fall in its revenues has been blamed on a perceived politicisation of the charity by Mr Hayek

Precisely WHO is 'blaming Mr Hayek', we are not told. Or how many people. Or the basis for the statement. Did Simon Rocker conduct an opinion poll? Or (more likely) is the statement simply a smear of the crudest kind...

Ooh, he's getting cross:

Then we get:

A senior communal figure said: ‘This collapse in philanthropic support is the clearest possible signal that the community no longer sees the JNF, under its current leadership, as a credible receptacle for its charitable support for Israel. On the basis of these accounts it is questionable whether the JNF can any longer be described as a major communal organisation. Its long-term sustainability looks uncertain’

So who is this anonymous "senior communal official" pronouncing on what "the community" thinks and why is he scared of commenting on an attributable basis? Is he by any chance the same person who is badmouthing Sam Hayek to Simon Rocker - who then of course reported it as if it is accepted wisdom? And what about the people in Israel whom the JNF is helping - does this "senior communal official" give one jot about them?

Now I don't know about cause and effect here but last year, David Cameron resigned as an honorary patron of the JNF. An excuse was given to the effect that it is too specific to one country rather than the objections to its charitable status, but the section in the Wikipedia entry dealing with his resignation is worth quoting:

The charitable status of the JNF-UK has come under increasing attack.^[61] British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had been Honorary Patrons of the JNF-UK, like all British prime ministers before them since its inception. Confounding expectations, David Cameron resigned as Honorary Patron to JNF-UK in 2011.^[62] According to a spokesman, Cameron's surprise refusal was due to the JNF-UK being an organisation that was specifically focused around work in one specific country, i.e. Israel.^[63] Cameron's decision was interpreted as a snub, in spite of the spokesman's assurances that his decision had "absolutely nothing to do with any anti-Israel campaign". However, campaigners claimed that Cameron's resignation was due to political pressures motivated by the JNF-KKL's discriminatory policies in Israel.^[64] Since then, the JNF-UK's Honorary Patrons include no leader of the main British political parties. An Early Day Motion in the British parliament condemning the JNF and calling for the revocation of the JNF's charitable status in the UK was launched in 2011 and by February 2012 had been signed by 66 Members of Parliament.^[65][66] In 2012 the Green Party called for the JNF to be stripped of its charity status and pledged to sign up to a campaign which calls the charity "racist".^[67]

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to suggest that the JNF's troubles spring from the flight of its high profile political patrons which in turn happened because of campaigning against the JNF's inappropriate charitable status.  So in a way, Hoffman was right.  It's not the politicisation of the JNF that has had funders running for cover but that politicians have been running for cover from their association with the JNF.

Lieberman and the JNF - a racist among racists

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, is paying a visit to the racist Jewish National Fund in London tonight.  That the racist JNF and the racist Lieberman support each other shouldn't surprise anyone.  I am however surprised that the JNF is so open about it.

There is a bright side to this.  The meeting should help those of us who have been trying to expose the inappropriateness of the JNF's charitable status since hosting a foreign politician can hardly be deemed non-political.  Also there is a protest planned and here are the details:

Appeal from Stop the JNF Campaign – UK

PROTEST ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN IN LONDON

Tuesday 22 May 2012

From 6.15pm, The Pillar Hotel, 19 Brent Street, London, NW4 2EU (nearest tube Hendon Central, Northern Line)

Protest at the appearance of the Israeli Foreign Minister at a Jewish National Fund event in NW London tomorrow night and at the decision of the UK government to allow him entry to the UK

Apparently it's not just anti-zionists who are opposed to this visit.  Some zionists are worried about the effect Lieberman might have on hasbara efforts.

Bedouin have to pay Israel for their own ethnic cleansing

From Ynet:

The state filed a law suit on Tuesday against the residents of the Bedouin village Al-Arakib, claiming that razing the illegal outpost multiple times has cost it NIS 1,790,000 ($527,050).

The law suit comes exactly one year after a major demolition operation destroyed the town. The residents have been marking the anniversary with protests and renewed construction.

Well in the past they've paid with absentee property and with lives so now it's hard cash

Stop the JNF

This is from a press release from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network:

National campaign launched against Cameron’s racist charity

A national campaign is being launched today against the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a UK registered charity whose patrons include high profile figures such as Prime Minister David Cameron.

The JNF was created in 1901 by the Fifth Zionist Congress in order to “build a country out of nothing”, according to JNF literature. However, Palestinian civil society organisations say that from its establishment “the JNF has been a chief partner in the Zionist colonial drive to dispossess indigenous Palestinians of their land, culminating in the Nakba of 1948 when Zionist militias and later Israel expelled a majority of the Palestinian population in order to establish a state with a Jewish majority”.

Campaigners claim that the role of the JNF remains unchanged until today and that the organisation, which has para-statal status in Israel, should not benefit from charity status in the UK.

Michael Kalmanovitz of the Stop the JNF Campaign says:

“the JNF controls land either directly or through the Israel Land Authority on which it has majority seats. That’s how it prevents Palestinians from living or working on this Palestinian land. According to the ideology of the JNF and the state of Israel, as a Jewish person, Zionists have given me more legal right to live on that land than the Palestinian people who were born there, although I have never lived there. For example, the Bedouin village of al Araqib in the Negev has been demolished by the JNF twenty one times since July 2010 in order to drive them out.”

“We refuse to stand by while the racist JNF is allowed to operate as a legitimate organisation in this country receiving tax relief and other associated benefits of being a charity. Can we continue to allow racism to be charitable in Britain? Although Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband are not patrons, unfortunately David Cameron has chosen to endorse the criminal activities of the JNF.”

Samuel Hayek, chair of JNF UK, has said that “For over 100 years we have had one mission: to settle and develop the Land of Israel. Today, thanks to the incredible support we receive and particularly our work in the Negev, JNF continues to pioneer this historic Zionist dream in the 21st century.”

The JNF is no stranger to protest. Over the years the Charities Commission has received complaints about the charitable status of the organisation. In December 2009 human rights protestors demonstrated outside the JNF ‘2020 Vision’ conference in Hendon. Their guest speaker, Israeli Minister Tzipi Livni, cancelled her appearance when Palestinian families affected by Operation Cast Lead successfully applied for a warrant for her arrest.

---

Notes for editors/bloggers:

1. The Stop the JNF Campaign launch, Land Day, 30 March 2011:

History of the campaign
The first meeting to build the Stop the JNF campaign was held in Geneva in May 2009, during the World Conference Against Racism/Durban Review and the shadow Israel Review Conference. Plans to build the campaign were started at this meeting with the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC).

In May, 2010, these organizations co-sponsored an organizing meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, for activists and lawyers who were already building campaigns against the JNF in their regions. The goal of the meeting was the development and international coordination of campaigns against the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

What is the campaign to stop the JNF?
Stop the JNF is an international campaign aimed at ending the role of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) (JNF-KKL) in:

• the on-going displacement of indigenous Palestinians from their land
• the theft of their property
• the funding of historic and present day colonies, and
• the destruction of the natural environment.

The JNF (also known as Keren Kayemeth L'Yisrael or KKL) continues to serve as a global fundraiser for Israeli ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid. Despite its role in a State institution of Israel (the Israel Land Authority) and in institutionalized racism and apartheid, the JNF and its affiliate organizations enjoy charitable status in over 50 countries and many also enjoy consultative status with the United Nations.

The Stop the JNF Campaign also launched internationally today, on 30 March, Land Day, which is a day of commemoration for six Palestinian citizens of Israel killed by security forces in 1976 for protesting Israeli government land expropriation and confiscation.


Stop the JNF Campaign
www.stopthejnf.org
gb@stopthejnf.org.uk
Tel 07931200361 or 07816251377

2. Background Paper: The controversial land policies of the Jewish National Fund, by JNews: www.jnews.org.uk/commentary/background-paper-the-controversial-land-policies-of-the-jewish-national-fund

3. Apartheid Israel: The Jewish National Fund, by Professor Uri Davis: www.uridavis.info/jewish_national_fund_apartheid_israel.htm

4. A list of JNF patrons are available here: www.jnf.co.uk/about_executive.htm

5. A statement by the Palestinian civil society organisations, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), 26 March 2011, Occupied Palestine: www.stopthejnf.org/supportingstatements_bnc26Mar2011.html

6. JNF UK History: www.jnf.co.uk/about.html

7. El Araqib Destroyed for 21st time, JNF Changing Facts on Ground: www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3384-el-araqib-destroyed-for-21st-time-jnf-changing-facts-on-ground

8. For Samuel Hayek’s quote see JNF UK Accounts, 31 December 2009: www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ScannedAccounts/Ends10%5C0000225910_ac_20091231_e_c.pdf

9. For a list of cases raised by the Charities Commission as a result of complaints see Appendix 5 in the JNF E-book Vol published in January 2010, ‘Introducing the Jewish National Fund’: http://www.stopthejnf.org/documents/JNFeBookVol1ed2x.pdf

10. Israel confirms U.K. arrest warrant against Livni, published by Haaretz: www.haaretz.com/news/israel-confirms-u-k-arrest-warrant-against-livni-1.2133

11. Jewish National Fund Conference resisted from inside and out, December 2009: www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/12/443416.html

12. Protests at JNF events:

• Goldie Hawn, 2009: www.haaretz.com/news/palestinians-protest-goldie-hawn-appearance-at-jnf-event-1.240993
• Colin Powell, 2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4612560.stm
• Ruby Wax, 2004, and campaigns to challenge the JNF: www.badil.org/en/component/k2/item/1408-napier-macleod-kershnar-jnfcampaigns
• Bill Clinton, 2001: http://news.scotsman.com/news/Protest-over-Clinton-speech.2285143.jp& www.haaretz.com/news/anti-israel-protesters-jeer-clinton-in-glasgow-1.77005

13. History of the Palestinians in Israel, Adalah (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel): www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundhistory.php

14. Palestinian call for a day of action, Land Day, 30 March 2011: http://bdsdayofaction.net/

Fighting BDS ain't cheap

Many thanks to Yael Kahn for posting this Totally Jewish article out.  Apparently there has been quite a ruckus at the top of some Jewish/zionist organisations on account of someone from the Jewish Leadership Council suggesting that some of Israel's actions might not be very nice. The Jewish National Fund (UK) has actually resigned from the JLC over it:

The Israel charity's resignation was confirmed in a statement, which claimed that the Jewish Leadership Council's focus had shifted from its original remit for internal community affairs towards "foreign affairs and particularly in relation to matters of Israeli government policy".


Among "numerous concerns", JNF UK's chairman, Samuel Hayek, also charged that the actions of JLC figures would give ammunition to those pursuing a campaign of delegi-timisation against Israel.

But the JLC thinks it's about money:

But the JLC this week claimed that the reasons given by JNF for quitting were a "smokescreen for failure to pay its way" and that the organisation was informed only after making clear to JNF its policy to suspend or expel those who default on JLC membership fees.

In a strongly worded letter to Hayek, Vivian Wineman, chairman of the JLC's council of membership, wrote on Tuesday that a final demand had been issued early in February for more than 10,000 pounds owed for last year's membership. Although not covered by the final demand, Wineman also writes that the annual subscription of 5,000 pounds to the Fair Play Campaign to tackle attempts to boycott Israel had not been paid by JNF UK for the past three years.

Wow! £5k per annum to fight BDS. That's just from one group. I just looked at the JLC website and they list 19 groups as having membership. That's £95k. And check out the groups. The Union of Jewish Students is there. Is the UJS telling its members it pays £5k to fight BDS? Sad if it is, sad if it isn't.

Anyway, im these hard times it's interesting to know that students have got £5k pa to try and make sure that Israel's crimes go unpunished.

Pete Seeger now supports BDS

I only just noticed this on Quick JSF.  Great news to hear that Pete Seeger has now signed up for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the racist war criminals of the State of Israel.  Here's Ha'aretz:

American folk music legend Pete Seeger on Monday officially joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign - an international movement to pressure and sanction Israel through economic means.

Seeger, 92, one of the fathers of American folk music, is a veteran political and peace activist. In the 1950s he was interrogated by the McCarthyist House Unamerican Activities Committee and two years ago performed for U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration concert.

So what happened?

On Monday, Seeger withdrew his support of a project associated with the Jewish National Fund's American branch, after Israeli and Palestinian activists told him of the JNF's role in driving the Bedouins out of their Negev areas. 

After a meeting with ICAHD coordinator Jeff Halper, Seeger reportedly said his participation in the JNF project had been misunderstood and announced his support for BDS.

Hmm, misunderstood? Ah, now I think I see. If you check out the Jerusalem Post article it looks like he underestimated the role of the Jewish National Fund in an event he participated in and the extent of its role in ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

JNF caught with its hands on the tillers

This is great news. First there was a letter in The Guardian calling on Ed Miliband to distance himself from the ethnic cleansers of the Jewish National Fund. Then there was a letter from the JNF completely misrepresenting what the JNF exists for. Now there are two letters in The Guardian exposing the JNF's denial. Now read on:

If diplomats are virtuous men sent abroad to lie for their country (Henry Wotton), what is Samuel Hayek of the Jewish National Fund's excuse (Letters, 16 October)? The JNF's focus, from the day it was established, was to purchase land for Jewish settlers and to alienate it from the Arab peasants who tilled the land. When Hayek writes that the JNF's work "is not based on any political or religious affiliation", he is either being disingenuous or he has not read the JNF's own entry on the Charity Commission website, which states that its objects include the "such charitable purposes as benefit persons of Jewish religion, race or origin".

When the supreme court ruled in the Ka'adan case that the Israeli Lands Authority (and so the JNF) could not refuse to lease land to non-Jews, the JNF lobbied for a new law, which passed its first reading by four to one in the Knesset in 2007. The bill included a clause stating that "the leasing of JNF lands for the purpose of settling Jews will not be seen as unacceptable discrimination".

Last week the "unrecognised" Bedouin village (Jewish villages are never unrecognised) of Arakib in the Negev was demolished for the seventh time in order that the JNF could begin planting its forests. This is not sustainable development but colonial expansion at the expense of the indigenous populaton. If Hayek doesn't believe the JNF's behaviour is racist, what would he say about a British National Fund that refused to rent or lease its land to British Jews?

Tony Greenstein

Brighton

• Samuel Hayek portrays the Jewish National Fund as humanitarian and politically neutral, supporting incontestably worthwhile projects such as planting trees to develop the environment of Israel. It's true that millions of trees were planted by the JNF in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s using donations from diaspora Jews. The narrative promoted by the JNF was that a barren, rocky land was being turned into a green oasis. As a child in the 1950s, I eagerly contributed to this project, donating my weekly "charity money" to JNF-sponsored fundraising activities at my synagogue school. I have certificates to show that trees were planted in Israel in my name. But when I visited Israel years later, I realised the darker purpose of the massive tree-planting project. I found many wooded parks planted on the sites of Arab villages razed to the ground by Jewish militias in 1947-48.

Mr Hayek is right: JNF-sponsored tree-planting transformed the landscape ecologically. I now know that the programme of tree-planting was used to transform the landscape in a more political and historical sense as well, to render invisible any trace of the previous inhabitants. Mr Hayek's claim that the JNF supports the population of Israel, whatever their background, represents (to use his own words) "a distortion of the truth on the grandest of scales".

Dr Barry Stierer

Brighton

Here's the earlier post when the original letter was published.

Disrupting the Jewish National Thieves in Atlanta

Don't sign up for the JNF, Ed

A lengthy group of names have signed off an open letter in today's Guardian to Ed Miliband, new leader of the UK's Labour Party, calling on him to break with the modern Labour Party tradition of patronising, albeit honorarily, the ethnic cleansers of the Jewish National Fund:

We welcome Ed Miliband's statement that Labour's foreign policy should be "based on values, not just alliances" (Leader's speech, 29 September). For too long Britain has blindly followed the US in supporting Israel, right or wrong. There is one, immediate decision Ed Miliband can make which will show that these are not empty words. Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were patrons of the Jewish National Fund. We urge Ed Miliband to break from this tradition.

The JNF is actively complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. For example, it established the Canada Park in the West Bank on the ruins of the villages of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba. Today in Israel's Negev region it plays a major role in the establishment of exclusively Jewish settlements and the demolition of "unrecognised" Arab villages.

The JNF was founded in 1901 with the aim of purchasing land "for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties". To this day it refuses to lease or rent land to anyone who is not Jewish. In 1953 and 1961, Israeli legislation made the JNF responsible for the land allocation policies of the state itself. In 1995 the Israeli supreme court, in the Ka'adan case, ruled that the JNF's partner, the Israeli Lands Administration, could no longer discriminate against Israeli Arabs by refusing to lease or rent state lands to them. This was held to be equally applicable to the JNF. The response of the JNF was that Israel was first and foremost a Jewish state not a state of its own citizens. Ed Miliband stood as the candidate of change in the Labour party. Now is the time to show that these weren't just words of spin.

Tony Greenstein

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Emeritus Professor Moshe Machover

Michael Mansfield QC

Dr Chris Burns Cox

Professor David Pegg,

Leon Rosselson

Dr Sue Blackwell

Pete Firmin,

Abe Hayeem

Professor Myriam Salama-Carr,

Dr Rumy Hasan

Roland Rance

Dr Monica Wusterman

Deborah Fink

Jackie Alsaid

Ken Baker St Jerome Publishing

Professor Mona Baker

David Bangs

Dr Judith Brown

Ruth Clark

Adam Darwish

James Dickins

Greg Dropkin

Jackie Fearnley

Alf Filer

Naomi Foyle Brighton Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Kenny Fryde

Terry Gallogly

Anne Gray

Cliff Hanley

Rosamine Hayeem

Bob Jarrett

Ros Levy

Kevin Moore

Beryl Maizells

Zoe Mars Chair, Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign

John Metson

Safiya O'Donnell

Nicola Ostreicher

Ernesto Paramo

Dinah Rahman

Roger Reeve

Professor Dee Reynolds

Michael Sackin

Miriam Scharf East London NUT

Michael Shanahan

Ruth Tenne Israeli Human Rights Activist

Yvette Vanson

I gather there were some editing issues.

For more on the JNF see Gabriel's post on the Canadian branch of that racist organisation.