Most Israelis know of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund for its breathtaking national parks and nature reserves.
Most Diaspora Jews know of the KKL-JNF for its tzedakah boxes collecting money to plant trees in Israel, a contribution that has immeasurably beautified our once barren homeland (the only country on earth that started the 21st century with more trees than it had at the start of the 20th century).
These activities, however aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly, are not the main mission of the KKL-JNF; they are complimentary to the mission it was established to pursue.
Herzl sought the formation of the KKL-JNF for the explicit purpose of purchasing and developing our ancestral lands for Jewish reestablishment. Yet, when current KKL-JNF chairman Avraham Duvdevani set out to formalize the process in which the organization purchases land in Judea and Samaria, many self-styled progressive Jews have done everything in their power to reverse this decision, to the point that Benny Gantz, the head of the center-left Blue and White Party, publicly called on Duvdevani to exercise caution because of potential backlash this decision might inspire from American Jewry.
Duvdevani’s response? He’s not reinventing the wheel. In fact, he’s doing exactly what the KKL-JNF was established to do and set out to do in 1901 and has continued to do ever since.
So what qualms do the aforementioned self-styled progressive Jews have with the KKL-JNF buying land in Judea and Samaria?
Presumably, it’s not a rejection of the Jewish people’s indigenous right to redeem ancestral lands and sacred sites. For it would hardly be progressive to champion the Jewish people’s right to return and rebuild the ruins of Safed, only to demonize the return and rebuilding of Beit El.
Could it be that the same progressive Jews who are rightfully moved by the Sioux nation’s fight to defend its ancestral lands in Standing Rock, North and South Dakota, don’t believe their Jewish brethren have the right to purchase and build homes in the Judean Hills?
Perhaps it is the case that these Jews take issue with Duvdevani because they care for the rights of Palestinian Arabs. This would be a noble concern, but if so, it is one that is being wrongly politicized to attack an organization attempting to stay true to its righteous and historic mandate.
The KKL-JNF has explicitly stated that it can only purchase privately owned land in Area C of Judea and Samaria, land that can only be built upon per the Israeli government’s decision to do so. So if any legitimate concerns regarding the usurpation of Palestinian Arab-owned land and/or the undermining of political process are directly addressed by the KKL-JNF’s express and clear policy, what excuse do these progressive Jews have to condemn Duvdevani’s decision?
We need to wake up. The liberation of the Hebrew heartland in 1967, which was swiftly followed by the return of Jews and the repopulation of villages formerly ethnically cleansed of Jews (even recently by the Jordanian army), is not the reason for Palestinian Arab suffering. That is a complicated issue, with much of the blame lying at the feet of the so-called two-state solution paradigm and the corruption of the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, both of which have left the Palestinian Arab masses without a legitimate government to support them.
But none of those issues will be remedied by denying the Jewish people the right to purchase land in the indisputable heart of its indigenous homeland and highest concentration of sacred sites. Indigenous rights are human rights.
We can and must support the continued purchase and development of Judean land as the realization of a 2,000-year struggle for Jewish self-determination and freedom, while all the while demanding an end to the perpetual abuse suffered by Palestinian Arabs at the hands of the PA and those within the Israeli government who misguidedly justify its existence.
Duvdevani made the right decision, consistent with the true values of liberalism, Zionism and the KKL-JNF mandate, which was to serve as a bridge, rather than a barrier, to achieving the Zionist dream. Let’s keep it that way.
The writer is a leader in the youth cabinet of Herut North America. Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education. Its US website is https://herutna.org