The “Solidarity” Movement is continuing is action together with the residents of Issawiya and A-Tur. As in past weeks, we joined  the residents of the two neighborhoods this Friday in a a vigil and tree planting in protest of the planned national park.

Read more about the last Friday vigil:  http://kateincolor.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/olive-trees-ii/

Watch the video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze_1WRfHEFI&feature=youtu.be

Join us next Friday!

We will meet at 11:45 on the lookout on the Eastern part of Mount Scopus
for details call 0546236609

Join our campaign: Help stop the construction of a national park on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem!
A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”
A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur

Viki Vaanunu, public housing activist, speech given at the Sapir conference, January, 2012.

Translated from Hebrew by: Inbal Arnon and Arik Moran

—

I was asked to talk about two topics – what is social justice and what makes a nation. I want to clarify that I am going to talk about these issues from my personal perspective and from the experience I have gained in the course of my participation in the struggle for public housing over the past six months.

Before I address these topics, I want to tell you a bit about myself. I was born and raised in the Katamonim neighborhood in Jerusalem and am today a single mother to a four year-old girl. My grandparents came to Israel from Egypt without money or property and without knowing the language. Their lives were very difficult – after immigrating to Israel they lived in a maabara (transitory camps where Jewish immigrants were settled in the 50’s) and worked in low paying jobs that didn’t pay enough to provide for the basic needs of their family, let alone to live with dignity.

This sad story repeated itself with my mother who worked as a cleaner to support me and my two brothers on a salary that was far below what she needed in order to get an education or learn a profession. Sadly, I find myself caught in the same vicious cycle. I work as a care-taker through a manpower company, I make much less than I deserve, and my salary doesn’t cover the basic needs of me and my daughter. Being caught in this place – the inability to live with dignity and take my daughter out of the cycle of poverty and hardship – is what drove me to stand up and protest; to change reality so that my daughter will not be the fourth generation in my family to live a life of poverty and hardship. I’ve also joined this struggle for the people around me. Everywhere I look in my neighborhood I see a lack: of housing, of food, of education.

And now after talking about my life experiences, I would like to address the issues I was asked to talk about: For me, the question of what is a nation and what is social justice flows from all that I described to you earlier

My people are those who work hard all their lives and get a wage that doesn’t allow them to live with dignity. My people are my friends who are sleeping in the streets now because the state doesn’t give them another option. My people are those who work in the jobs that keep the economy alive, and are asked to sacrifice constantly while other people get rich at their expense. My people are the ones that love this country, and want to be a part of it and to generate real change – those are my people!

The establishment wants me to believe that my people are the Jewish nation, but if there are Jews that exploit me and like me, and who do not allow us to live a normative life, then this definition is not satisfactory and I do not agree with it. My people are all those who are oppressed like me: Jews, Arabs, refugees. All those who are exploited by the establishment.

My definition of social justice derives from my definition of people/nation. Social justice happens when all the groups I mentioned take responsibility for changing their reality. When we stop relying on the establishment to change our situation. Social justice is those people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for change and justice. Social justice is understanding that when the law is illegal, it calls for civil disobedience.

It is unacceptable that there are empty buildings in Israel when people are homeless. It is unacceptable that the state evicts people from their homes. It is unacceptable that the state serves one group of people – the thin layer of elites – at the expense of all of us.

I want to take the opportunity to comment on the things Shlomo Maoz said yesterday[1]. Before I started to protest I didn’t understand why people say that there is discrimination against mizrachi Jews. Now I see how rampant that discrimination is. All the people I know who are poor are mizrachi. I know that there are also ashkenazis who suffer hardship, but it seems that most of the people suffering economically are mizrachi. A small example – as a mizrachi woman, my chances of going to university are much smaller than those of an ashkenazi woman. In that sense, I agree with most of the things that Shlomo Maoz said. There has been discrimination against mizrachi Jews, and that discrimination continues to this day. But unlike Maoz, I do not see the protesters from Rothschild as our enemies. I think that aschenazi Jews also have an interest in changing the system and building a society built on justice and equality.

I want to end with what is to me the heart of the struggle – the issue of public housing. There has been no new construction of public housing in the past twenty years. The public housing law has been frozen time and again as part of the law of hesderim[2]. The state has been selling the public housing apartments at a huge profit  – 3 billion NIS – but has not used this money to build additional public housing as required by law. The money has been used to fund other projects instead.

A house is stability. A house is security for us and for our children. A house is the possibility to live a normal life. From here I call upon the decision makers in Israel –re-enact the public housing law! Stop throwing people to the street and demolishing houses! Build houses for those who need them! The first stone has yet to be thrown in our struggle, but if the state continues to ignore us, continues to silence us with the police, our struggle will escalate. We are ready to fight for our future and the future or our children.

Viki Vaanunu, public housing activist, speech given at the Sapir conference, January, 2012

[2] An amendment to the government budget that is used to ‘correct’ the budget by transferring funds to various departments and activities. In practice, these annually  re-formulated laws are used to appease those pressure groups needed to sustain political stability at the expense of the broad, long-term policies that are so desperately lacking in annual budget programs

Solidarity in Silwan. Photo by: Oren Ziv, Activestills.

After more than two years of struggle and almost 200 arrests, today the first court case  involving an activist from the Solidarity Movement came to a end: Dorit Argo was cleared of all charges, and the Police received a strong reprimand.

Dorit Argo, a Solidarity Activist, today was cleared of all charges in what was the first case to make its way through the court system, out of around 70 indictments filed against Solidarity Activists over the course of the struggle against Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem over last few years. The Solidarity Movement, which became known following its successes in curbing the spread of settlements in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, is active throughout East Jerusalem, including in Silwan, a neighborhood known as a point of tension between settlers, police and Palestinians. Argo was arrested during a demonstration against of the settler movement in Silwan, let by a group called ELAD, which is in charge of the tourist site of the “City of David.” Argo, who was indicted for “public disturbance” and “attacking police officers” was cleared of all charges by Judge Shimon Stein in Beit Misphat HaShalom in Jerusalem.

Along with the clearance, the court ruled that the arrest itself was carried out in a way that did not align with the law and that Argo’s “arrest in such circumstances would even have allowed her to resist arrest with reasonable force,” despite the fact that “it has been proven that the defendant was escorted away by the police without resisting.” As such, Judge Stein ruled that “this is a case of investigative fiasco” and he even hinted that a number of the police officers did not tell the truth in their testimonies. Throughout the discussion, the officer that carried out the arrest claimed that Ms. Argo resisted arrest violently and that he was forced to drag her from the place by force. After video was presented to the court in which Argo was seen responding to the officer’s approach and allowing herself to be escorted to the police car without any form of resistance, the officer was forced to go back on his testimony. Moreover, the other charges of attacking and threatening police officers were discarded by the court after they were contradicted by the testimonies of other officers and by other evidence. Thus, for example, the Judge ruled that “the claim that the defendant took part in tearing Officer Assad’s trousers was contradicted by Officer Assad’s own testimony.”

Judge Stein dealt at length with the issue of freedom of expression and the demonstration, and ruled categorically that the actions of the police amount to a violation of the legal rights of the demonstrators and that the police does not respect their rights to make their voices heard. The police, according to Judge Stein, acted improperly in trying to “silence the voices of the demonstrators.”

The victory today confirms our claims over the past to years that the Jerusalem police’s law enforcement practice is discriminatory, and affirms the needs for the police to conduct serious self-examination and indeed for an overhaul in basic education of the police force in Jerusalem. The police would do well to cancel the remaining indictments against activists from the movement, rather than humiliate itself again in court by further exposing its biased nature, lack of professionalism and lack of commitment to truth.

The “Solidarity” Movement is continuing is action together with the residents of Issawiya and A-Tur. As in past weeks, we will join the residents of the two neighborhoods this Friday in a protest vigil that will focus on agricultural work on land in Issawiya that is slated to be part of the “National Park.”

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority destroyed – we will continue to repair

This Friday, February 3^rd
we will meet at 11:45 on the lookout on the Eastern part of Mount Scopus,
or at 11:30 at the Aroma near the Hebrew University.
For details, call Daniel 0546236609
For the facebook event, click here

*****

Join our campaign: Help stop the construction of a national park on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem!
A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”
A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur
“New Jerusalem park a ‘ruse’ to set up new settlement, activists say”, Ha’aretz
“National park in east Jerusalem stirs controversy”, Jerusalem Post

Last Friday, around 100 activists and residents of Issawiya worked together to fix the damage done by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. For a video of the event, click HERE

The Solidarity Movement will continue to act together with the residents of Issawiay and A-Tur. As in the past weeks, we will meet this coming Friday for a protest vigil whose focus will be to continue our action against the damage done by the INPA.

We will meet at 11:45 at the Eastern Lookout on Mount Scopus
Or at 11:30 at the Aroma Cafe on Mount Scopus (next to Hebrew U)
For the facebook event, click HERE
For details, call Daniel 0546236609

*****

Join our campaign: Help stop the construction of a national park on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem!
A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”
A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur
“New Jerusalem park a ‘ruse’ to set up new settlement, activists say”, Ha’aretz
“National park in east Jerusalem stirs controversy”, Jerusalem Post

Solidarty Against house evactuation, Ramle, 7th of April, 2011. Photo by: Oren Ziv, Activstills

In April 2011, and once again in July of the same year, we were able to prevent the eviction of the El-Aju family from their home in Ramle by the ‘public housing company’ Amidar. The El-Aju family has lived in their home for over 50 years, but in recent years, Amidar has tried to evict them without offering any housing alternative. The family has a small income, and they are precisely the kind of people for whom the public housing company was established. Nevertheless, instead of helping the family, Amidar insists on throwing them into the street, in order to sell the property at a profit.

This Thursday, January 26, Amidar intends to evict Sawsan and Ayyub El-Aju, as well as their nine children, in the middle of winter. The family has nowhere to go, and if Amidar is successful, eleven people will find themselves in the street. Sawsan and Ayyub are determined to struggle for their right to remain in their home.

We will be there with the El-Aju family on the day of the eviction, in order to prevent it from going through.
The El-Aju family’s struggle is part of the nation-wide struggle for the right to equitable and just housing – and against the greed of Amidar.

Join us! Social justice isn’t just a slogan.

This Thursday, January 26
Facebook event
for online registration: see here

From ’48 to Israel 2011: The Story of the Al-Aju Family from Ramle/ Hadas Ben-Eliyahu
Through the cracks: Solidarity in Ramleh / Daniel Argo

The planned national park, located adjacent to the E1 area, on the slopes of Mt. Scopus, would constitute an insurmountable obstacle to any possible future peace agreement involving Jerusalem.  Most immediately, it would “choke off” a number of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and deny residents access to their private lands.  For detailed information on the plan for the national park, click here.

Solidarity’s campaign agaist the park-construction has already recorded some success. Following an investigative report in Ha’aretz, and an appeal by Solidarity to the Municipality of Jerusalem, construction work on the park has been temporarily stopped.  This construction work, which was illegally started by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, is taking place on private lands of the East Jerusalem residents of Issawiya.

Overseas
We need your help now!

Get the word out to your community and public officials Help us raise awareness of this issue with Jewish community representatives, elected officials, members of Knesset, and local Israeli embassies. Click here for a letter and call to action.

In Israel
Take action this week:
Join our demonstration, study tour, and clean-up efforts!

The Solidarity movement, together with residents of A-Tur and Issawiya, is organizing a series of protests, study tours, and a call to action in order to prevent the continued construction of this park.  We need your help! Here’s what you can do:

Friday, February 3rd, 11:30: Stop the “Slopes of Mount Scopus” National Park

Join the Study Tour
The tour, which is scheduled on a weekly basis, will be led by “Solidarity” activists and residents of Issawiya and A-Tur. For information and registration contact Daniel 054-6236609

***

For more information, we recommend reading the following:

A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”

A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur

“New Jerusalem park a ‘ruse’ to set up new settlement, activists say”, Ha’aretz

“National park in east Jerusalem stirs controversy”, Jerusalem Post

This week we recorded the first success of this campaign when we managed to stop the illegal work that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) began to perform on the private lands of residents of Issawiya as part of the development of the new national park scheduled to be built on their land.

The planned national park, located adjacent to the E1 area, would constitute another obstacle to any future agreement regarding Jerusalem and would “choke off” a number of Palestinian neighborhoods.

In the coming days, the “Solidarity” movement, together with residents of A-Tur and Issawiya, is organizing a series of protests against the approval of this national park:

1. The INPA destroyed it, we will fix it:

   This Friday, January 13, join the residents of Issawiya in repairing the damage caused by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority through the work it started on the park infrastructure this week. Meet at 11:15 next to the Aroma Cafe on Mount Scopus (by Hebrew University).
   Contact: Daniel 054-6236609

2. A large demonstration in Safra square:

   On Tuesday, January 17, we will demonstrate together with hundreds of residents of East Jerusalem in front of City Hall to protest the city’s support of the National Park plan. Meet at Safra Square at 4:00 PM. For transportation to the demonstration please register via this online form.
   For the Facebook event, click here.

3. Tour:

   Like every week, we will lead a tour to get to know the area and meet with the residents. The tour will be lead by “Solidarity” activists and residents of Issawiya and A-Tur. This week the tour will be held on Wednesday, January 18, and begin at 4:00 PM. Meet next to the Aroma Cafe on Mount Scopus (by Hebrew University).
   For information and registration: 054-5858625

4. Please take five minutes and send a copy of the letter we prepared, to your Jewish community representatives, elected officials, members of Knesset and local Israeli embassies: see here

To read more about the case:
A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”
A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur
“New Jerusalem park a ‘ruse’ to set up new settlement, activists say”, Haarets
“National park in east Jerusalem stirs controversy”, JPOST

Palestinians in East Jerusalem are subjected to violence, repression, and violations of their civil and human rights on a daily basis. Evidence shows that the government of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality often work with extremist settler organizations to implement a strategy that dispossesses Palestinians, expropriates their land, and demolishes their homes in order to establish settlements in the heart of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods, such as Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Ras el-Amud, Jabbel Mukabber, and A-Tur. Not only are these settlements illegal according to international law, but they also disrupt the contiguity between East Jerusalem and the West Bank in direct abrogation of the possibility for a future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

One of the most effective tools in the occupation of East Jerusalem is the settler-led Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA). Private lands belonging to Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are routinely declared “national parks,” often against the judgment of planning experts, archaeologists, and city officials.

Within two weeks, yet another political “national park” is to be established, this time on the lands of the residents of Issawiya and A-Tur (The Mount of Olives). The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, together with the popular committees of these villages and a coalition of human rights organizations, opposes the establishment of this national park.

To read more about the case, please click here, here, and here

Please take five minutes and send a copy of the letter we prepared, below, to your Jewish community representatives, elected officials, members of Knesset and local Israeli embassies:

Subject: Please Oppose the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park.”

To whom it may be concerned,

My name is _____. Like many other individuals and organizations around the world, I am deeply concerned by the actions of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) and the Jerusalem Municipality in East Jerusalem, most recently in the villages of A-Tur and Issawiya. There the INPA and the Municipality have begun work on a planned “national park” that will be called the “Mount Scopus Slopes.”

This plan is dangerous and wrong on both a humanitarian and a political level.

The ‘Mount Scopus Slopes’ park will be built directly on land belonging to Palestinian residents of A-Tur and Issawiya, and may even entail the demolition of Palestinian homes and structures. Over the past decade, the residents of A-Tur and Issawiya sought, with the help of the Israeli planning rights organization, Bimkom, to submit development plans to the Israeli courts. These plans- which sought recognition of the rights of Palestinian residents in these two neighborhoods to build and develop in their own neighborhoods- were neither accepted nor rejected by the courts: despite the extensive resources and research that went into them, they were never even discussed. Instead, the INPA and the Municipality were granted a green light to move forward with plans for the Mount Scopus Slopes park.

This park, in addition to inflicting a high human cost on the residents of A-Tur and Issawiya whose only wrongdoing was being born Palestinian in Jerusalem, has political ramifications that could prove catastrophic for the potential of any future peace agreement in the region.

The Mount Scopus Slopes park is strategically located such that it will create Israeli territorial continuity between the Old City and the settlement of Maaleh Adumim in what is known as the area of  E1. The US government has consistently opposed Israeli building in E1, due to its potential to permanently seal off any chances for a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank with a capital in East Jerusalem. The US government’s opposition to Israeli activity in E1 has been unequivocal, not only under the Obama administration, but under the Bush administration as well. In October 2005, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated: “We have told the Israelis in no uncertain terms that [settlement in the E1 area] would contravene American policy.” Building a “national park” in E1 is the Israeli government’s ill-disguised attempt to circumvent clear-cut American opposition to settlement in E1. It is apparent, however, that the goals of this park are political and not ecological.

According to many planners and urban development experts there is no special ecological interest in these areas, which are located in the middle of two Palestinian villages. Indeed, according to a member of Jerusalem’s city council, Meir Margalit, “This national park is a farce. There’s nothing there but rocks and thorns, certainly nothing to justify a national park. The only reason for such a plan is to seize lands and hold them as a reserve for a future settlement, while suffocating the Palestinian neighborhoods.”

More than just suffocating Palestinian growth, this specific “national park’s” placement corresponds neatly with the agenda of some of leaders of the settlement movement and the government: the creation of facts on the ground, and particularly in E1, that will make the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state in the West Bank with a capital in East Jerusalem a virtual impossibility.

This plan could have highly incendiary consequences for the future of Israelis and Palestinians, sparking tensions in Jerusalem and further decimating the possibilities for a just peace agreement in the near future.

In light of these considerations, I ask you to use your influence to urge the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to relinquish its claims on the private lands of A-Tur and Issawiya, and demand that the Israeli government, including all of its official bodies such as the INPA and the Jerusalem Municipality, respect the wishes of the US government and international leaders and refrain from all construction in and/or unilateral annexation of E1.

Sincerely,

To contact your elected representative in the United States, please go to this page.
To contact your local embassy, please go to this page.
Below are the emails of the Members of the current Knesset:

davital@knesset.gov.il; nabesadze@knesset.gov.il; ravraham@knesset.gov.il; radato@knesset.gov.il; yedri@knesset.gov.il; dizik@knesset.gov.il;  eaflalo@knesset.gov.il; abibi@knesset.gov.il; zeevik@knesset.gov.il; rbaron@knesset.gov.il; adichter@knesset.gov.il; mwahaba@knesset.gov.il; ozuaretz@knesset.gov.il; yhasson@knesset.gov.il; ahason@knesset.gov.il; shermesh@knesset.gov.il; tiviaev@knesset.gov.il; zlivni@knesset.gov.il; smolla@knesset.gov.il; shaulm@knesset.gov.il; msolodkin@knesset.gov.il; gezra@knesset.gov.il; yohananplesner@knesset.gov.il; mshitrit@knesset.gov.il; nshai@knesset.gov.il; yulias@knesset.gov.il; oschneller@knesset.gov.il; rtirosh@knesset.gov.il; binyaminb@knesset.gov.il; dbensimon@knesset.gov.il; abraverman@knesset.gov.il; iherzog@knesset.gov.il; syechimovich@knesset.gov.il; ecabel@knesset.gov.il; gmagadle@knesset.gov.il; aperetz@knesset.gov.il; ehudb@knesset.gov.il; matanv@knesset.gov.il; einatw@knesset.gov.il; oritn@knesset.gov.il; ssimhon@knesset.gov.il; lshemtov@knesset.gov.il; olevy@knesset.gov.il; yedelstein@knesset.gov.il; meitan@knesset.gov.il; gerdan@knesset.gov.il; mcachlon@knesset.gov.il; ggamliel@knesset.gov.il; llivnat@knesset.gov.il; bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il; dmeridor@knesset.gov.il; gsaar@knesset.gov.il; rrivlin@knesset.gov.il; ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il; sshalom@knesset.gov.il; kshama@knesset.gov.il; mregev@knesset.gov.il; igilon@knesset.gov.il; zgalon@knesset.gov.il; nhorowitz@knesset.gov.il; aagbariya@knesset.gov.il; dhanin@knesset.gov.il; hswaid@knesset.gov.il; mbarakeh@knesset.gov.il; iaharon@knesset.gov.il; aatias@knesset.gov.il; dhershkovitz@knesset.gov.il; yiskatz@knesset.gov.il; ulandau@knesset.gov.il; slandver@knesset.gov.il; smiseznikov@knesset.gov.il; ypeled@knesset.gov.il

In mid November, Solidarity and Rabbis for Human Rights conducted a campaign whose goal was to stop the expulsion of the Sumarin family from the house in which they have lived for over 50 years. On the 28th of November, the eviction order, signed by Himnuta, a subsidiary of the JNF, was supposed to come into force.

As published in Haaretz, the JNF announced, following the appeals made in our public campaign, that it would postpone the expulsion in order to return to dialogue with the family. Last week the courts decided to freeze the eviction order.

The mounting pressure is having a real effect. Earlier this week a JNF board member quit his position and severed all ties with the organization, unwilling to take part in such an eviction.

Himnuta-JNF was given until the 18^th of December to reply the court how it intends to proceed. We already proven that a campaign targeted towards the JNF is fruitful. Help us again to pressure JNF and to make the freezing of the expulsion order permanent.

This is the time to act:

1. Join our tours and solidarity visits:
   Hebrew Tour, this coming Friday, 16/12, 9:45 at Liberty Bell Park (Gan HaPa’amon).
   To sign up and for more info: click here
   English Tour, Monday, 19/12, 18:00 at Liberty Bell Park (Gan HaPa’amon).
   to sign up contact Moriel – 0543157781

 

2. Spread the video
   

 

3. Write to the JNF board of directors and demand an end to the evictions.
   For addresses and a proposed letter see below

Sample Letter:

Dear ___________ (select the appropriate email addresses for JNF Board Members and International Representatives below),

My name is_____. Like many other individuals and organizations around the world, I am deeply concerned by the actions of KKL-JNF (and its subsidiary company Himanutah) in East Jerusalem.

I was happy to hear recently that KKL-JNF and Himanutah decided not to evict the Sumarin family from their house in Silwan, at least for the time being. I was both relieved for the family, and pleased that for now the family’s house will not be transferred to an extremist settler organization, as has happened in the past with properties owned by KKL-JNF/Himanutah. However, the threat of eviction, while temporarily frozen, still exists. This is still your responsibility because the Sumarin house is still controlled by the JNF-KKL via Himanutah.

The JNF-KKL is a United Nations NGO that does very important environmental and ecological work in Israel. I am hopeful that the JNF-KKL and its partners now understand that it is deeply improper for the JNF-KKL to take part in advancing a highly controversial and unjust political agenda centered around the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in Silwan and creating “facts on the ground.” By using the “Absentee Property Law” against non-Jews only, we are guilty of eifa v’eifa, double standards.  The home never should have been taken from the family, and for many years the Custodian for Absentee Property would at least award properties to family members who were living in homes taken under this law. For a brief period of time, Israel began to take inhabited properties, evict families and award them to settlers. However, following what was known as the Klugman Report (1992), a government commissioned report whose findings were sharply critical of the use of the Absentee Property Law in the East Jerusalem context, the State recognized that this policy was wrong and promised the Court to stop using it. In this case, a court has unfortunately ruled that the JNF-KKL/Himanutah may evict the family because, due to a misunderstanding, the family failed to put up a defense in 2005.

You now have the ability to right the wrong that started with the use of a law which should have never been used, continued when the Custodian failed to return the land to the family, and was capped by a miscarriage of justice when you exploited the fact that the family did not defend themselves in court in 2005.  Even then, the court never obligated Himanutah to evict the family. They simply permitted Himanutah to do so.

Now that the case is back in court, the JNF-KKL/Himanutah can go one step beyond freezing the eviction by acknowledging that Israel committed itself not to evict families via the Absentee Property Law, and by simply declining to fight the case further. You could even cooperate with a cancellation of the initial decision to declare the property as Absentee Property.

The choice between right and wrong is in your hands.

The effects are broader than this specific injustice: the settler organizations in East Jerusalem are acting to create an irreversible situation in the “Holy
Basin” that will eliminate any chance for co-existence in Jerusalem. In my eyes, if the Sumarin family is evicted, JNF-KKL/Himanutah, will become, de facto, an active partner to this frightening agenda.

I turn to you, in light of your influential role in the JNF, to ask you to put forward an official statement detailing the JNF’s intention to cancel all plans for the eviction of the Sumarin family, committing not to turn over the property to another body that might carry out the eviction, acknowledging the family as the rightful owners of the property, and announcing the cessation of Himanutah’s involvement in the purchasing properties over the green line and its cooperation with extremist settler organizations.

Sincerely,  _______

• World President of the JNF-KKL in Israel, Efi Stenzler: Email: EfiS@kkl.org.il
• President of JNF-Canada: Frank A Wilson. Email: frankw@tes.net
• President of the JNF in the US, Russell Robinson: Email: rrobinson@jnf.org
• Chairman of the JNF in the UK, Samuel Hayek: Email: samuel@jnf.co.uk
• Office in Paris, France. Nadine: e-mail: nadine@kkl.fr
• Office in Berlin, Germany: e-mail: berlin@jnf-kkl.de
• Office in Sydney, Australia: email: federalO@jnfaustralia.com.au
• Office in Johannesberg, South Africa: e-mail: sharon@beyachad.co.za
• Office in Zurich, Switzerland: e-mail: info@kkl-ch.ch
• If you are from a country not listed above, you can find the contact information for the JNF if your country on the following website.