Israel Matzav

Uri Davis and I agree: The JNF should not be donating trees to 'Palestinians'

More than a year ago, I reported that the Fatah was upset over a donation of 3,000 trees by the Jewish National Fund to the new 'Palestinian' city of Rawabi (you know - the one that is boycotting 'settlement' products and labor). Fatah wasn't upset about taking the donation - only that it had been publicized. I wrote that I was upset that the Jewish National Fund was donating trees to the 'Palestinians' at all.

Uri Davis, a Jew who is a member of the 'Palestine National Council' (we have all types here), has now criticized the 'Palestinian Authority' for accepting the trees. He's now calling Rawabi a 'Zionist project.'

As the Convener of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Committee on Resistance to the Settlements, the Apartheid Wall and the Ethnic Cleansing it is my responsibility to ensure that damage already done in the construction of Rawabi city is minimized.

My concern hinges on the acceptance of a donation of thousands of tree saplings from the Jewish National Fund by Rawabi city developers, planted on lands sequestered by the Palestinian Authority from neighboring villages, for a private and commercial venture.

Billed as a new Palestinian city, nine kilometers north of Ramallah with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean and only 70 kms from Amman, Rawabi has been adopted as a project of national importance and the symbol of the Palestinian right to build.

The 850 dunum hilltop development (seen in the map above, photo 2) was approved by the Palestinian Authority Higher Planning Council in October 2008 for construction in three stages. It includes the commercial center and a range of public facilities and has the potential to accommodate a population of up to 20,000.

...

The bulk of the Rawabi development site was private land purchased by developers from the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company. The remainder, however, was sequestered by Presidential Decree.

On 15 November 2009, Abbas signed the decree, taking approximately 1,537 dunum of lands from the neighboring village of Ajjul, 122 dunum from Attara and 118 dunum from Abwin.

It remains a matter of debate as to whether a project designed to fetch a possible windfall profit for a private corporation should qualify for support as a "national project."

But worse, it seems unless public measures are taken by Masri and Bayti, the continued construction of Rawabi places the PA in a position of complicity with one of World Zionist Organizations and Israel’s ugliest apartheid instruments, the Jewish National Fund, a body that "greenwashed" the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and 1967.

...

In 2009, Masri accepted a donation of some 3,000 tree saplings from the JNF, and allowed the organization arrange to plant the trees on Rawabi lands as a "green" contribution. A portion of the trees were planted on the lands sequestered from nearby villages.

The mission of the JNF is the "redemption" of lands in "Eretz Israel," including Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza and beyond for Jewish settlement. In the wake of the 1948 Nakba, the JNF planted mainly pine trees and other conifers over some 500 ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages.

To add insult to injury, rather than plant indigenous arboreta, notably olive tree saplings, the tree saplings planted by the JNF in the area designated for the Rawabi projects are typically political-Zionist pinera (conifers), the most common tree planted by the JNF in the forests and recreational centers on the lands and over the ruins of Palestinian-Arab villages ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army.

In its support for the city of Rawabi, designated a Palestinian national project, the PNA has implicated itself in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine alongside the JNF and the Israeli army.

I don't know where to begin. If you can stand it, read the whole thing.

Labels: Fatah, Jewish National Fund, moonbats, Palestinian Authority, Rawabi

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:07 AM