KKL-JNF allocate NIS 38 million to advance West Bank settlement building
The move comes as the Biden administration persistently warns Israel against unilateral steps in the West Bank such as settlement development.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFTHE FAMOUS KKL-JNF blue box is promoted by a rather tall and lanky David Ben-Gurion impersonator on Independence Day in Tel Aviv in 2009.(photo credit: RONI SCHUTZER/FLASH90)
The KKL-JNF board allocated NIS 38 million to purchase private Palestinian property in the West Bank for the expansion and development of settlements.The vote, which was held by Zoom on Thursday, passed by a slim margin. It advanced a wide ranging plan for settlement development that narrowly received approval of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund's Executive Board earlier this month.A final vote on the matter is expected to be held only after the Israeli March 23rd elections. Opponents of the move, see the budget allocation as part of a strategy to strong arm the organization into embarking on the purchase plan ahead of the final vote.The allocation was set aside as part of a larger budgetary vote for funds for land purchase within sovereign Israel and the money is presumed to be on hold until after a final vote in taken on the matter.The purchases would be limited to private Palestinian property within existing West Bank settlements or to land immediately adjacent to those communities.The KKL-JNF has been active in land purchases since its inception in 1901, but it has publicly focused most of it activity within sovereign Israel. It has however been involved in land purchases in the West Bank, but not as part of wide ranging policy.The left-wing group Peace Now has attacked the plan stating, "This would be the first time that JNF is officially endorsing...the idea of purchasing land in the West Bank, and essentially saying ‘we don’t agree with international law, or that there’s occupation, or that the two-state solution matters.’”The move comes as the Biden administration persistently warns Israel against unilateral steps in the West Bank such as settlement development.
