Jewish National Fund

Israeli police officers guard during a protest against tree planting by the Jewish National Fund, outside the Bedouin village of Sa'wa al-Atrash in the Naqab/Negev desert, southern Israel, January 12, 2022. (Flash90)

Gov’t contract shows how Israel enlists forests to grab land from Bedouin citizens

An agreement between the Israel Land Authority and Jewish National Fund uses militaristic language justifying tree-planting as weapon against 'invaders.'

By Meron Rapoport September 22, 2022

A JNF forest built on the remains of the depopulated Palestinian village of Lubya (Courtesy of Umayma Diab)

WATCH: The dark past and present of the Jewish National Fund

A new video challenges the myths of the JNF, an organization that has played a central role in dispossessing Palestinians from its inception until today.

By Po Medaykim February 16, 2022

Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab/Negev, protest on Road 31 near the village of Sawe al-Atrash, against an afforestation plan carried out by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), January 13, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

What’s behind the Israeli right’s renewed war on Palestinian citizens?

Having moved on from its failed bid to formally annex the West Bank, the Israeli right has trained its sights back on an old target.

By Meron Rapoport February 10, 2022

Latest

Bedouin women and girls protest Israel's afforestation and expropriation of their land, Sa’wa al-Atrash, Naqab, January 12, 2022. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

As Naqab protests intensify, Bedouin women are taking the helm

Women and girls are increasingly on the front lines of Bedouin resistance to Israel’s expropriation of their land — and they’re just getting started.

By Samah Salaime January 19, 2022

Members of Kibbutz Amir working in the Papyrus thicket of the Hula Swamps, June 30, 1940. (Kluger Zoltan/GPO)

Why does the JNF still exist?

The forefathers of Zionism never hid their desire to use the Jewish National Fund to dispossess Palestinians. On its 120th anniversary, now is the time to abolish it.

By Yaara Benger Alaluf July 8, 2021

Amal Sumarin, her sons, and their attorney arrive for a court hearing on the JNF-KKL appeal to evict them from their family home at the Jerusalem District Court on June 30, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

PODCAST: Will this Palestinian matriarch get to keep her Jerusalem home?

Amal Sumarin has been fighting Jewish settlement and a discriminatory legal system for years. An Israeli court may decide her family's fate next month.

By Unsettled March 30, 2021

Illustrative photo of Palestinian workers from the West Bank crossing a checkpoint into Israel. (Flash90)

JNF illegally fired and discriminated against Palestinian workers, court rules

Tel Aviv court rules JNF must rehire 10 Palestinian workers excluded from collective bargaining agreement and dismissed for living in the West Bank.

By Orly Noy March 17, 2021

Israelis holding signs of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) take part in a Tu Bishvat tradition of planting trees, in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Michmash, in the Binyamin District, Jan. 15, 2014. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

The JNF is no innocent charity

The Jewish National Fund presents itself in Germany as a 'green' organization serving all of Israel's residents. That's not what its leaders say in Israel.

By Michael Sappir March 4, 2021

Workers at the City of David archaeological site, near Jerusalem's Old City, on July 22, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

In East Jerusalem, the settler project is expanding underground

Elad's politicization of archaeology, most notably through the City of David park in East Jerusalem, erases Palestinians and their history.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland October 23, 2020

An Israeli flag over the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, seen from the Mount of Olives, December 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Exclusive: Documents reveal decades of close cooperation between JNF and Elad

The Jewish National Fund has allowed settlement group Elad to pursue legal actions on its behalf since the 1980s, an internal report reveals. The collaboration has led to the eviction of Palestinians while bolstering Jewish presence in East Jerusalem.

By Uri Blau October 19, 2020

Progressive British Jewish group Na'amod project messages against Israel's plans to annex parts of the West Bank on Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, July 15, 2020. (Courtesy of Na'amod)

British Jews must take the anti-occupation fight to our leaders

If mainstream representatives of British Jewry will not demand consequences for Israel's policies, a new generation of activists will speak for themselves.

By Daniel Lubin and Zac Lewis July 22, 2020

Amal Sumarin, her sons, and their attorney arrive for a court hearing on the JNF-KKL appeal to evict them from their family home at the Jerusalem District Court on June 30, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

From Silwan to DC, the Jewish National Fund is enabling Israeli annexation

Israel would not be on the verge of formalizing its control of the West Bank were it not for the key role of the JNF — an organization I was once a part of.

By Seth Morrison July 1, 2020

Israeli Border Police walk through the City of David settlement in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, March 28, 2007. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

How settler groups could use annexation to deepen Palestinian dispossession

For decades, settlers have used the Israeli legal system to take over Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. Activists fear those tactics may soon be used in the rest of the West Bank.

By Uri Agnon June 24, 2020