Stop JNF from Foresting over Bedouin Villages

Demand that JNF ends its forestation on the remains of demolished Bedouin villages and disputed Bedouin land!

The Jewish National Fund in Israel (KKL-JNF) is best known for planting trees in Israel. We are proud of much of KKL-JNF’s work to grow and develop the modern State of Israel.

Unfortunately, KKL-JNF, as the quasi-governmental forestry department of the State of Israel, has also played a key role in enforcing policies that involve demolishing Bedouin villages in the Negev and replacing these communities’ homes with forests.

KKL-JNF’s activities violate basic human rights and contravene Jewish values by contributing to the forced displacement of Bedouin communities. These actions also threaten the security and moral fiber of Israel by fomenting hostility towards the State among Israel’s Arab-Bedouin citizens.

Additional Background

TAKE ACTION: Demand that KKL-JNF ends its forestation on the remains of demolished Bedouin villages and disputed Bedouin land.

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Subject:

Your Letter:

I write to you as a Jew who is deeply committed to Israel’s safety and survival, and who believes that Israel must live up to the Jewish and democratic imperative to protect the human rights of every person.

I am aware of your deep personal commitments to improving the welfare of Israel’s Bedouin population. I therefore urge you to exert your influence to stop the KKL-JNF’s participation in razing Bedouin villages and foresting over the remains of demolished Bedouin villages and disputed Bedouin land, like KKL-JNF has been doing in Al-Arakib.

At the 2012 Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security, you, Mr. Stenzler, proclaimed, “KKL-JNF works for the benefit of all citizens of the country…We shall never plant a single tree on land that does not belong to the State or to KKL-JNF. The Negev Bedouin are part of the State, and it's important that they should feel this." And in another statement you said "KKL does not plant even a single tree on land that is in legal dispute in court."

At the end of April 2012, KKL-JNF equipment arrived in Al-Arakib and began preparing a plot of land for planting that is currently under legal dispute in the Israeli courts (plot 24). Work continued on plot 24 on May 7, 2012.

This is after KKL-JNF already began work earlier this spring on another plot of land in Al-Arakib that is due to be adjudicated in Israel's High Court in December 2012.

Mr. Stenzler, you previously promised that KKL-JNF would not forest on four specific plots of land involved in legal disputes, including plot 24, and now it seems as though KKL-JNF is changing its tune.

The Bedouin people are being entrenched within cyclical poverty against their will. As they are expelled from land that their families have lived on for generations, they are being forced into urban slums where there are few economic opportunities.

This treatment of the Bedouin population runs contrary to Jewish values. The book of Micah makes the following comment about abusing power to seize property: “And they covet fields, and seize them; and [they covet] houses, and take them away; thus they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” As a nation that knows all too well what it means to be an oppressed minority, Israel has a moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable within its midst.

I call on you to exert your influence to see that KKL-JNF does not plant on disputed land in Al-Arakib before a final decision has been delivered in the Israeli courts. I urge KKL-JNF to find ways to develop the Negev that do not involve foresting over Bedouin villages or disputed Bedouin land.

As you, Mr. Stenzler, affirmed in your speech at the Herzliya Conference, help the Negev Bedouin to feel that they are part of the State - not victims of its strategic policy.

Sincerely,

Efi Stenzler

KKL-JNF in Israel

Jerusalem,
IL

Russell Robinson

JNF-USA
42 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
US

Fax:(212) 570-1673

Additional Background

KKL-JNF is a quasi-governmental body responsible for the development and management of Israel’s forests. The intent behind much of their work in southern Israel is not only to “make the desert bloom,” but also to ensure the maintenance of a Jewish majority in the Negev region.

KKL-JNF promotes environmental sustainability in the Negev, placing a strong emphasis on forestry and ecology. It also advocates for the formation and strengthening of Jewish communities in the Negev region, and has several projects that work for the betterment of the Bedouin population of Israel.

However, when we examine KKL-JNF’s actions in and around the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, as well as in other Bedouin communities, T'ruah, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) in Israel and the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice have found that KKL-JNF and JNF-USA have evaded responsibility for and been dismissive of the suffering caused by KKL-JNF’s complicity with the government in razing homes, burrowing fields, and even uprooting existing groves of trees, all to clear land for KKL-JNF’s planting initiatives.

In March 2012, Russell Robinson, CEO of JNF USA, accused T'ruah (formerly Rabbis for Human Rights-North America) of “publiciz[ing] a picture of a JNF tractor…[saying that] it was knocking down homes when in fact the picture was of a tractor miles away doing no such thing.”

If this is the picture he is referring to, judge for yourself.

In this February 9, 2011 photo, you can clearly see the KKL-JNF logo on the bulldozer as it knocks down a repeatedly demolished and rebuilt temporary Bedouin home in Al-Arakib (video of this event can be found here).

Our advocacy efforts are starting to make some headway though. In the summer of 2011, KKL-JNF World Chairman, Efi Stenzler, stated that KKL-JNF rejected a non-binding request from a judge to refrain from planting in a disputed area of Al-Arakib. But later, in 2012, KKL-JNF told our Israeli colleagues at RHR that they would not plant on four plots of land in Al-Arakib that are involved in ongoing legal disputes over land ownership, and issued a public statement saying that it "does not plant even a single tree on land that is in legal dispute in court."

On April 29, 2012, KKL-JNF equipment arrived in Al-Arakib and began working on one of the plots of land under dispute, plot 24. KKL-JNF's work continued on the disputed plot 24 on May 7, 2012. This action violates what T'ruah, RHR and the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice understood KKL-JNF’s commitment to be. Bedouin residents are fearful that the KKL-JNF's foresting of land still under legal dispute in Al-Arakib will make it almost impossible for the community to be able to return.

Write to Efi Stenzler, JNF’s World Chairman, and Russell Robinson, CEO of JNF-USA, to ask them to stop KKL-JNF’s forestation on the remains of demolished Bedouin villages and disputed Bedouin land.