Press Release 15 January 2006
From November 2005 to January 2006, Scottish Friends of Palestine direct a series of Press Releases to General Colin Powell, principal speaker at a JNF Charitable Trust fund raising dinner in Glasgow, January 2006. These Press Releases contained a question directed at Mr Powell.
For three years, Scottish Friends of Palestine questioned the activities of the UK based charity, the JNF Charitable Trust, with the Charity Commissioner for England & Wales. There was limited success with the Trust being required to amend its website. Subsequent approaches revealed that the Commissioner has, apparently, complete faith in the integrity of the charity’s Trustees. With the trio of Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy all being Hon Patrons of the JNF Charitable Trust, perhaps we should not be too surprised at this position of the Commissioner.
It is worth noting that over three decades ago it took sustained effort by two dedicated MPs at Westminster to disclose that within the UK the JNF is a multifaceted body with, at that time, five bodies operating from premises at Edgeware Road, London using the name JNF. Only one had charitable status. This confusion was accepted, then, by the Charity Commission and the status quo has not changed over the decades.
You are invited to have a look at the website of the Trust at www.jnf.co.uk and spot anything which distinguishes this UK charity from the non-charitable JNF or JNF-KKL. This latter body is racist by nature and constitution. Through the application of Israeli laws which have nothing to do with justice, the JNF-KKL now “own” vast quantities of Palestinian looted lands and property. The JNF-KKL is a politically active body, it blatantly ignores international law and is a financial supporter of the continuing occupation of Palestinian land.
SFoP is concerned that General Colin Powell is the guest speaker at the JNF Charitable Trust’s forthcoming fund raising Gala Dinners
London 15 January
Glasgow 16 January
Manchester 17 January
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
Q 1
Why are you, Mr Powell, as a past representative of the USA which always presents itself as an “honest broker” in the Israel-Palestine conflict, here in the UK as a guest speaker for the JNF Charitable Trust – a UK based charity which is more than happy to have itself and its fund raising activities identified with the non-charitable JNF-KKL – this latter body being widely recognised as racist in nature, deeply involved in the theft of Palestinian land, a moral and financial supporter of the occupation of Palestinian land?
Question 2-23 November 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
Q 2
Over a year ago, the JNF Charitable Trust objected to allegations made against it by a Palestinian solidarity group based in Scotland. It threatened legal action. Not surprisingly, this action was never carried out – the last thing the Trust wanted was to display its connections, in open court, with the racist JNF-KKL which at that point in time was its principal agent in Israel, disbursing funds raised by UK donors and subsidy from UK tax payers.
Why, Mr Powell, are you associating yourself with a UK charity which conducts itself in a manner likely to lead to being identified with the blatantly racist JNF-KKL, a charity which then resorts to legal action to silence its critics instead of addressing the issue of identity and association – an issue which has spanned the decades to the present day?
Question 3-27 November 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
Scottish Friends of Palestine welcomes the recent (undated) statement on the website of the JNF.
Charitable Trust which states that the the Trust no longer uses the JNK-KKL as an agent to disburse it funds. It also welcomes the amended homepage which clearly identifies itself as being the Charitable Trust. Both these change were advocated by SFoP in its final approaches to the Charity Commission.
The JNF-KKL is a quasi-governmental body within Israel. As the body charged with “disposing” of the vast quantity of land and property stolen from the Palestinian people following the events of 1948 (at that point less than 10% of Palestine was Jewish owned) it was always on the cards that such a body would be corrupt in nature. That the JNF Charitable Trust chose to sever connections (or was it pressure from the Charity Commission?) with the JNF-KKL over concerns of corruption/mal-administration comes as no surprise.
The Trust, in its statement, refers to its “high standards of financial transparency”. SFoP hopes that these standards prevail elsewhere throughout the Trust. However, the statement from the this UK charity makes no mention of having revoked the basic tenet of the JNF-KKL , a body with which it has had close ties for almost a century. This states that land obtained by the JNF-KKL cannot be sold to non-Jews. With 20% of Israel’s citizens being non-Jewish, this policy is one of discrimination based on race.
Q 3
Why, Mr Powell, are you as a black American, supporting a UK charity which has long identified itself with the racist policies of the JNF-KKL, policies which openly state, for example, that land and property cannot be sold to that 20% of the population which is nonJewish?
Question 4-4 December 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
Until very recently, the JNF Charitable Trust had very close ties with the JNF-KKL. The Trust has long been comfortable with its dealings with the JNF-KKL, not only entrusting its charitable funds to this body but content to be identified with its philosophy. The constitution of the JNF-KKL states that the vast quantity of Palestinian owned land to which it has laid claim cannot be sold to non-Jews. With 20% of Israel’s citizens being non-Jewish, this policy is one of discrimination based on race.
The recent statement from Gail Seal, President of the Trust, while disassociating the charity from the corruption now associated with the JNF-KKL, does nothing to distance this UK charity from the racist guiding philosophy of the JNF-KKL.
Q 4
The slogan of the JNF Charitable Trust proudly proclaims “Supporting Israel for Life” It should, quite properly, proclaim that it is only supporting 80% of Israel
Why, Mr Powell, are you as a black American, supporting a UK charity which openly discriminates against 20% of its declared catchment?
Question 5-12 December 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
The JNF Charitable Trust has a habit of choosing speakers who open to question the validity of the “honest broker” status of the USA. Five years ago former US President Clinton was their guest of honour. This choice of speaker provoked debate and questions. At one point the JNF spokesman refused to address certain questions claiming that they were political and outwith the province of the charity.
Yet, in March 2004 on the website link www.jnf.co.uk/ecom/pages/edonation it was clearly stated that “The state of Israel belongs to the entire Jewish people . . through JNF Charitable Trust, you can be a full partner . .”
This statement, from a UK charity, was very much a political statement and raises more questions than even Mr Powell can possibly answer.
Many of the questions it raises are disturbing.
This UK charity, in making such a statement
1] denies the rights of that 20% of Israeli citizens who are not Jewish
2] denies the strongly held view of those non Zionists amongst the Jewish community in the UK
3] denies history, in that at the time Israel’s statehood came into being less than 10% of Palestine was Jewish owned
4] encourages donors to similarly deny history and the rights of the Palestinian people
5] helps to establish a culture of denial in the UK with regard to the rights of the Palestinian people
Q 5
Why, Mr Powell, are you supporting a charity which makes political statements, the nature of which deny the truth and reality of history and the Palestinian experience – and by doing so makes the achievement of a lasting peace that bit harder to achieve?
Question 6-18 December 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
The accounts of the JNF Charitable Trust indicate that £55.35 million was spent through the now discredited, corrupt and racist JNF-KKL. The accounts also indicate that the Trust has beneficial ownership of land and property acquired through the JNF-KKL.
In correspondence with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Scottish Friends of Palestine ascertained that the Charity Commission has no jurisdiction as to how the £55.35 million was spent. It has no authority to find out if this cash, raised by donors and “topped up” by the UK taxpayers’ effective subsidy, has been spent on stolen land and property. It has no authority to ascertain whether or not such land and property transactions contravene international law.
And if the land and property, which was acquired before 1950, resides within, for example the boundaries of the Jerusalem village of Deir Yassin, Al Tantura and many, many others, the Charity Commission has clearly indicated that it has no jurisdiction to act against a charity which could be benefiting from acts of terror.
Q 6
Why, Mr Powell, are you prepared to support a UK charity which has so many unpalatable questions yet to be answered? Are you prepared to encourage the JNF Charitable Trust to be transparent in its financial and property dealings, to ascertain whether or not the land and property to which it claims beneficial ownership is owned by Palestinian refugees or “absentees” ?
Question 7 – 26 December 2005
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
The JNF Charitable Trust has a committee constituted to deal with projects in the Negev. Currently there is a move to increase settlement of Israel’s Jewish citizens within the Negev. This is bad news for Israel’s non-Jewish citizens who live in the area. There are, at present, 45 unrecognised villages in the Negev. These villages are home to about 80 000 Bedouin Palestinian Arab Israeli citizens.
There is no municipal authority that governs the villages, the Bedouin Palestinians cannot vote or be elected for municipal representation. Villagers are deprived of basic infrastructure and services like roads, sewage, running water, electricity, clinics, kindergartens and welfare services. The families in the villages mostly live in shacks under zinc roofs where the temperature can reach as high as 55 degrees Celcius. There is no authority that can decide upon permits for the construction of properties. The building of houses in the villages is therefore unlicensed and they are at all times under threat of demolition. A former captain of the Negev police remarked that “there is an imbalance since there is only a destroying authority and no authority issuing construction permits.
In the past, the Bedouin farmers and their crops have been been sprayed, from the air, by chemicals. It is the policy and practice of the Israeli state to demolish a few shacks every so often. It doesn’t attract attention but gives the Bedouin the message – we have already confiscated your land so keep moving, don’t settle here. It is a government policy of slow, but sure, ethnic cleansing.
Q 7
Why, Mr Powell, are you prepared to support a UK charity which, by nature of its projects, can be associated with ethnic cleansing? Are you, Mr Powell, prepared to support the rights of Israel’s Bedouin Arab citizens and insist that any funding directed to the JNF Charitable Trust’s Negev Committee is not to the detriment of those citizens?
Question 8- 2 January 2006
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
The JNF Charitable Trust makes great play of its record on the afforestation of Israel and the construction of water reservoirs on Israel’s “state” land. Where did this land come from?
In 1948, Joseph Weitz, director of the Land Dept of the JNF in 1948, advocated the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land. They must be removed leaving “not one village, not one tribe”. Together with the the JNF’s Transfer Committee, a memo was produced outlining the best way to induce an exodus of the Palestinian people. It recommended the destruction of the villages and the settlement of Jewish colonial immigrants “so that a vacuum would not be created.”
In the immediate aftermath of the conflict of 1967 Israel occupied the West Bank (incl East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. This included the Latrun salient where the residents of three villages were expelled. The villages were wiped off the face of the earth by the simple expedient of removing them stone-by-stone. One of them was Amwas, the Biblical Emmaus. The late Michael Adams , the first journalist to visit the area, recorded seeing traumatised villagers in the area, of seeing school jotters half buried.
Thanks to the the efforts of the supporters of the JNF in Canada, the site of Emmaus is now a picnic area in Canada Park.
Q 8
The JNF has planted forests in order to obliterate the sites occupied by Palestinian villages, whose residents were forced into exile. The JNF proudly proclaims the construction of water reservoirs but omit that this is on land looted from Palestinian owners, and the water is not supplied to unrecognised villages where Israeli Arab citizens reside.
Mr Powell, have you checked the extent to which the JNF Charitable Trust has supported the above type of projects?
Question 9-8 January 2006
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at these events reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
SFoP believes that questions should be asked of Mr Powell with regard to his association with the JNF Charitable Trust. These questions will be posed between now and Powell’s visit to the UK.
At Scottish Friends of Palestine’s recent conference, The legacy of Balfour, one speaker raised the question as to why the state of Israel forces elderly Palestinians, who pose absolutely no security threat, to wait for hours on end at checkpoints in the freezing cold, the driving rain or the burning sun. We extend this question.
Q9
Mr Powell, the JNF Charitable Trust claims to support Israel for life.
This is the same Israel which, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Report August 2005, was responsible for the following Between Sep 2000 and and Dec 2004, 61 women gave birth and 36 infants died at checkpoints as a result of the Israeli Defence Force prohibition of ambulance access. In 2003 an infant girl in Nablus died at a checkpoint, as both parents waited for a second ambulance on the other side of the checkpoint, after the father used a stone to cut the umbilical cord.
Why, Mr Powell, are you supporting this UK charity which has no qualms in supporting a state which is responsible for young women in labour being forced to give birth at the roadside, resulting in 36 infant deaths in three years?
Final Press Release 15 January 2006 16 January Glasgow Hilton Hotel 1 William Street (assemble at 5 – 6.30pm to make your protest known)
As a former representative of that “honest broker”, the USA, Mr Powell’s presence at this event reveals the true nature of the links between the USA and Israel at government level.
Scottish Friends of Palestine argues that the JNF Charitable Trust should have no charitable status. It should receive no benefits from the British taxpayer.
When the Trust was asked, ‘Does the JNF Charitable Trust completely dissociate itself from the guiding philosophy of the JNF-Israel which states that no land/property should be sold to non-Jews?’, ‘ Does the JNF Charitable Trust dissociate itself from the principal function of the JNF- Israel namely, the acquisition/disposal/administration of stolen Palestinian land?’, ‘The JNF Charitable Trust has beneficial ownership of property in Israel/Palestine. Can the Trust give assurances that this property was purchased from its rightful owners and not given by the JNF-Israel in its function as custodian of stolen Palestinian property?’ and ‘The JNF Charitable Trust claims that it is “Supporting Israel for Life”. Given that about 20% of Israeli citizens are non-Jewish, can the Trust identify and quantify projects which are aimed at assisting this 20% of Israel’s population?’
If you receive this Press Release as a member of the media, please pursue these questions.
If you receive this Press Release as a member of the public, please circulate the questions. This way the tax paying public of the UK will be made aware of the use to which their hard-earned income is used when it comes to the UK taxpayer subsidising the JNF Charitable Trust.
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