Cameron drops Israel 'racist' charity
27 May 2011
Stop the JNF Campaign: Media Release
Prime
Minister David Cameron has quietly terminated his status as an
Honorary Patron of the controversial Jewish National Fund (JNF). His
office confirmed he had “stepped down”. For many years leaders of all
three main political parties became Honorary Patrons of the JNF by
convention. According to Dick Pitt, a spokesperson for the Stop the
JNF Campaign, “Cameron was the only leader of the three major parties
remaining as a JNF Patron. This decline in political support for the
JNF at the highest levels of the political tree may be a sign of the
increasing awareness in official quarters that a robust defence of the
activities of the JNF may not be sustainable.”
The news of Cameron’s move has reached Palestinians in refugee
camps, people whose land is under the control of the JNF. Salah Ajarma
in Bethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp was “delighted to hear the news that
the British Prime Minister has decided to withdraw his support for this
sinister organisation involved in ethnic cleansing. My village, Ajjur,
was taken by force from my family and given to the JNF who used money
from JNF UK to plant the British Park on its ruins. For the
Palestinians who were evicted from their villages and have been
prevented from returning, Cameron's withdrawal is another victory on the
road to achieving justice and freedom for the Palestinians".
The JNF chairman Samuel Hayek defends the work of the
organisation saying, “for over 100 years we have had one mission: to
settle and develop the Land of Israel” as pioneers of the “historic
Zionist dream”. The registered charity claims their work, especially
in the Negev region of Israel, deals with “the rising demographic
challenges faced by Israel”. In recent months the JNF’s activities in
the Negev have received extensive international media coverage, linking
them to the demolition of Palestinian Bedouin villages and confiscation
of the land of the village. Campaigners report that “even Israeli
courts have criticised the JNF as an organisation that discriminates
against non-Jews and there is mounting evidence of the JNF’s
involvement in Israel’s programme to change the ethnic composition of
areas inside 1948 Israel as well as in Jerusalem and the Occupied
Territories. It is not acceptable that such an organisation is allowed
to operate in the UK, much less to enjoy charity status”.
Michael Kalmanovitz, UK co-ordinator of the International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network, said “Cameron’s patronage of the JNF lent
parliamentary credibility to a criminal organisation backed by a
highly-equipped occupying army and masquerading as a ‘humanitarian
charity’. Now parliamentarians who are ‘Friends of Israel’ must
consider how much longer they can defend Israeli apartheid and worse.“
Pressure has been mounting on Cameron and the JNF. An Early Day
Motion in the Westminster Parliament highlighted the Prime Minister’s
status as honorary patron and claimed that “there is just cause to
consider revocation of the JNF's charitable status in the UK”. UK and
international JNF fund-raising events increasingly face protests due,
campaigners argue, to “a shift in public opinion on Israel generally”.
In 2007, the American JNF application for consultative status on a key
UN committee was rejected because delegates were unable to distinguish
between the activities of the US Branch and those of the JNF in Israel
whose activities the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination expressed concerns about.
The Stop the JNF Campaign has workshops planned in
London on 4 June 2011 and protests against JNF fundraising activities
will be organised throughout the coming year.
ENDS
Notes for editors:
1. The Stop the JNF Campaign 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 landthe
theft of their propertythe funding of historic and present day colonies,
andthe destruction of the natural environment.
The JNF 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.
For further information, contact g...@stopthejnf.org, 07931200361
Website: www.stopthejnf.org.uk
2. Email from Prime Minister’s Press Office, Thu, 26 May 2011
Following the formation of the Coalition Government last year, a review
was undertaken of all the organisations and charities the Prime Minister
was associated with. As a result of this review, the Prime Minister
stepped down from a number of charities - this included the JNF. A full
list of all the charities and organisations the Prime Minister and Mrs
Cameron are associated with is published on the Cabinet Office website.
Prime Minister's Press Office
10 Downing Street
SW1A 2AA
3. ‘Cameron Becomes New JNF Patron’, TotallyJewish.com, 2nd February 2006
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=2661
4. Extract from ‘The British Park’ by Uri Davis, JNF e-book volume 1, p21
“The JNF-UK, as in other countries in Europe and the
Americas, is a registered charity. The planting of the British Park
over the lands of destroyed Palestinian villages, including Ajjur and
Zakariyya, can in no way be described as ‘charitable’. Rather it ought
to be classified as an act and as a policy of complicity with war
crimes. The British Park and the recreational facility developed in the
shade of its forest trees serve to veil from critical public view war
crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army in the course of, and in the
wake of, the 1948 war. This policy of
complicity with war crimes has been maintained by subsequent
Israeli Governments, underpinned by Acts of Parliament such as the
Jewish National Fund Law of 1950 and the Covenant signed between the
JNF and the state of Israel in 1961.”
http://www.stopthejnf.org/documents/JNFeBookVol1ed2x.pdf
5. Samuel Hayek in ‘Supporting Israel for Life’, JNF Charitable Trust,
Annual Report & Accounts 2009
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends10%5C0000225910_AC_20091231_E_C.PDF
6. The JNF in the Negev (Naqab)
‘Shattering Israel's image of 'democracy'’, The Guardian, 3 December 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/03/israel-negev
‘Cameron-backed charity accused of discriminating against non-Jews’, 10
June 2010
http://www.jnews.org.uk/news/cameron-backed-charity-accused-of-discriminating-against-non-jews
‘The Israelis keep bulldozing their village, but still the Bedouin will
not give up their land’, The Guardian, 1 March 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/01/israelis-demolish-bedouin-village
‘Stop creating forests that are destroying Bedouin lives’, Amnesty
International, 11 April 2011
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stop-destruction-bedouin-village-and-its-inhabitants%E2%80%99-livelihoods-5
7. The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
http://www.ijsn.net/home/
8. Early day motion 1677, JEWISH NATIONAL FUND, Session: 2010-11
“That this House welcomes the Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF)
Campaign launched on 30 March 2011 by the Palestinian Boycott National
Committee, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Scottish
Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others to inform the public about the
JNF - Karen Kayemet L'Yisrael, its ongoing illegal expropriation of
Palestinian land, concealing of destroyed Palestinian villages beneath
parks and forests, and prevention of refugees from returning to their
homes; notes that the JNF's constitution is explicitly discriminatory by
stating that land and property will never be rented, leased or sold to
non-Jews; further notes that the UN rejected the JNF USA's application
for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council on the
ground that it violates the principles of the UN Charter on Human
Rights; regrets that the Prime Ministeris a JNF honorary patron; and
believes that there is just cause to consider revocation of the JNF's
charitable status in the UK.”
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1677
9. UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) rejects JNF (US) application
for consultative status (2007)
- Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC/6267 NGO/618,
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ecosoc6267.doc.htm
- Badil resources centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights:
http://www.badil.org/en/article74/item/429-the-jewish-national-fund-jnf
- CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER
ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION, Concluding observations of the Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (para19),
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/041AB84D2F05080C85257302004A9963
10. Challenge the JNF: Stop the JNF Campaign Workshops, London, 4 June 2011
http://www.stopthejnf.org/greatbritain_takeaction_workshop4june2011.html
11. End fund-raising in Scotland for ethnic cleansing in Palestine, 21
June 2011
http://www.stopthejnf.org/greatbritain_takeaction_protest21june2011.html
http://stopthejnf.org/greatbritain_campaignnews_pressrelease27may2011.html
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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