The Jewish National Fund and World Zionist Organization: The Hidden Faces of Israeli Racism

By Maureen Meehan

In technical terms, Israel is an apartheid state, according to Israeli author and activist Uri Davis, co-author with Walter Lehn of the book The Jewish National Fund.

"In Israel, discrimination is regulated in law," Davis says during an interview on the patio of his small home in the Arab village of Sahkneen, in northern Israel.

"The classic racist example is South Africa, which is why the Jewish state avoided it and took a different route so as not to lose international support and sympathy and not to flaunt the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights," says Davis. "The ideological predisposition of the Zionist leadership was to pursue rights for Jews only—but it needed to appear democratic while making sure discrimination was not immediately visible on the surface." Davis notes that the policy of ethnic cleansing began in 1948, under the veil of what Israel calls its "War of Independence."

However, with the establishment of the state, Israel still had the problem of "how to square the circle." Enter the World Zionist Organization, Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, founded at the beginning of this century. The WZO is at the top of the pyramid and has branches all over the world. The JNF and Jewish Agency are part of what Davis calls the "corporation." Each group has a constitution and board of governors, and the intent of these bodies is to provide exclusive privileges to the Jewish population, basing the benefits solely on national origins.

With the creation of the state of Israel, the country's Knesset vested extraordinary powers in these organizations, to the point of making them the sole administrators of the land in Israel. Currently 93 percent of the land in Israel is in the hands of one of these organizations or the state. The Israeli Lands Administration, an official body, also participates in land ownership and development. The charters of these organizations state that land in Israel cannot be owned by anyone, because it belongs to God, but that it can be leased for periods of 49 years, then renewed successively—but only to Jews.

A recent case, known as the Katsir case, is about to test, or expose, the rhetoric which Israel routinely uses to buttress its claim to be the only democracy in the Middle East.

Several years ago Adel Qa'adan, resident of the Arab village of Baka el Gharbiye, saw an ad in one of the local Hebrew-language newspapers announcing an opportunity to buy and build in the nearby town of Katsir. Adel is a nurse at a local Israeli-run hospital. Adel's wife, a university graduate, currently is staying home with their three daughters.

The Qa'adans discussed the possibility of moving into the mostly Jewish town of Katsir with its vastly superior education system, vastly superior infrastructure and municipal benefits, and with the added advantage of being closer to the hospital where Adel works.

Katsir is one of the many Jewish towns established jointly with the Jewish Agency and the state of Israel. It is a new community that sits on state-acquired [read: confiscated] land and is built next to several small Arab villages.

"We saw the ad in the paper and decided to look into it," said Adel, who adds that he was aware that Katsir is a primarily Jewish town but that it didn't bother him in the least. "In addition to having Jewish friends, I work with Jews," he explained. "In fact I take care of them at the hospital...their lives and health are often in my hands."

However, the Katsir local council did not see it that way. After the Qa'adans had complied with all the procedural requirements for the purchase of the plot of land to build a house in Katsir, the council refused to accept them. The council initially explained that, according to internal regulations of the Jewish Agency, it is not allowed to sell houses or land in Katsir to non-Jews.

The Qa'adans proceeded to file a petition against the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency in the Supreme Court challenging the refusal of their application to buy land in Katsir. Their petition argues that since the land is defined as "state land," the government should not allow the Jewish Agency and its representative bodies to discriminate against a group of citizens based on national origin.

Dan Yakir, Qa'adan's lawyer at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, says ACRI is attempting to persuade the Supreme Court, where the case now rests, to invalidate the land leasing procedures that permits the JNF, ILA and Jewish Agency legally not to lease land to Arabs.

"When Adel went to Katsir, he was handed forms to fill but told there was no point in filling them out because they don't accept Arabs in their community," said attorney Yakir, adding that "the Katsir brief states, on the record, that Jews and Arabs cannot live together, that it is not feasible for a host of reasons that mostly involve the fact that they are of different religious backgrounds and would not celebrate the same holidays, share the same values, et cetera."

Yakir explained that the Israeli Supreme Court justice is clearly reluctant to make a judgment on this case in that it will have such far-reaching ramifications. "Chief Justice Barak is begging everyone involved to please settle out of court," Yakir said. "He told us that this is the most difficult decision he has faced in his whole career."

Meanwhile, as the case drags into its fourth year, the Qa'adans are furious but still living their lives. "There are Arab villages that are being denied basic services like electricity and water...we are not one of them but you can see that our town is underfunded in all areas," said Iman Qa'adan, who naturally wants her daughters to have the best education possible. "But we are seeking to keep the lights on inside our hearts and minds and that is something that seems to really bother the Israelis."

World chairman Shlomo Gravetz of the JNF does not deny that the land in Israel does and should continue to belong to the Jewish people. "This land and our souls are inseparable," he says. "It gives us a sense of freedom and liberty. It belongs in Jewish hands. It is our rule, our mission and our historical duty."

He added that "Arabs should not forget that this is Jewish land and they are a minority. We deserve it after what happened 50 years ago. We hope the minority Arabs will internalize it and understand it. After all, they are only 20 percent of the population, so they shouldn't try to force us to change."

Gravetz insisted that Arabs would be wise to "adjust to the system which is a Jewish state" and not "dare to doubt Jewish sovereignty over it." He hastened to add, however, that Israel is a liberal and democratic country that is "providing all the elements of a free society to all its citizens."

Uri Davis does not buy Gravetz' harsh rhetoric, and believes that soon fewer and fewer people will, as de-classification of Israeli state archives, after 30 years, begins to reveal the truth of the "ethnic cleansing and expulsion" that went on during the formation of the state.

Apart from the truth having been kept so hermetically sealed from the 1950s through the 1980s when, with the intifada, the "Zionist armor started to crack," Davis rejects what he calls "intellectual, political and emotional blackmail based on spurious claims of collective guilt over what happened during WWII."

"For many years, they successfully manipulated the guilt and they were successful because people are receptive to this type of blackmail," Davis says. "But the intifada helped diminish it, although it has taken many years for the truth to come out."

Maureen Meehan is a free-lance journalist based in the West Bank.