Teaneck synagogue seeks to aid West Bank

Congregation B'nai Yeshurun will host a real estate fair aimed at persuading American Jews to buy property in the disputed territories of the West Bank.

"The purchase of a home ... is an ideological gesture of love of the Land of Israel," said a letter to potential American investors from the Israeli group that's conducting the event.



http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDgxOTI0

Yesha Council exports activity overseas with fair marketing homes in settlements to American investors

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3364633,00.html

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"You too can own a home and strengthen the Zionist dream," proclaims an advertisement issued by the Yesha Council and the Amana organization in an appeal to the United States Jewry, as the settler movement acts to thaw the deep freeze which has taken over construction in the West Bank.

The Amana organization defines itself as "the settlement movement of Gush Emunim, with the primary goal of developing communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Galilee and the Negev."

The two groups have launched a campaign which will allow American Jews to purchase a second home in a settlement, pitching the deal as a zero risk venture: "Your investment is insured, protected and 100 percent legal," proclaims the ad.

The government virtually no longer authorizes new construction projects in the West Bank and Israeli citizens are wary to invest their money in the area, whose future depends on the for-now-forgotten realignment plan which may see the entire region evacuated.

And so Yesha and Amana decided to turn to Americans interested in building their dream home in the hills of the West Bank: A cottage in Kiryat Arba or a villa in Karnei Shomron. The houses are priced anywhere from $94,000 to $170,000 per unit."

Who are they going to buy the property from? Israel has no right to sell it.

thanks for posting.

As a non-Jew, i would be prohibited from buying this land.
A Palestinian, would be prohibited from buying this land.

These are not "disputed territories" anywhere else except in Israel, the rest of the world sees it otherwise. These are military-occupied territories, and the Geneva Convention expressly prohibits transferring populations into a occupied territory.

involving Hamas and Hezbollah when American citizens who think that they are landowners try to evict and eject Palestinian residents who may have been residing and keeping the land for decades.

Does this U.S. Rabbi hold a seat in the Israeli government and speak for the government's position? How does that work?

put in place by the occupation regime.

You are correct that this rabbi is not an Israeli government official. but it seems that there will be no sanctions against this deal by the Israeli authorities... homes will be sold to Jewish people only, enlarging settlements that just about anyone except Israeli authorities agree are an obstacle to peace... without any problem from the govt. in Jerusalem... in fact, it is more than likely to get their blessing.

It is only reinforcing the obvious position of the israeli regime... the occupation of the West Bank is forever. There is no intention of Israel leaving. Go ahead, they say, build your homes there. Your children and great-grandchildren will enjoy it. In the meantime, Palestinian lives are made to be as miserable as possible... a kind of quiet, but very real, ethnic cleansing.

Press Release from ADC New Jersey and 11 other Civil and Human Rights groups

February 23, 2007, Clifton, New Jersey – The New Jersey Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC New Jersey) was joined today by 11 civil and human rights groups in warning New Jersey public officials that the February 25 planned sale of Israeli settlement homes in Teaneck, New Jersey may violate international law and the US government’s Roadmap to Peace, and introduce discriminatory sales practices in New Jersey. Groups joining ADC in this warning included The Center for Constitutional Rights (www.ccr-ny.org), The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (www.endtheoccupation.org), Jewish Voice for Peace www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org), and The International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild (www.nlginternational.org). ADC New Jersey’s expression of concern was sent to Teaneck Mayor Elie Katz, Congressman Steve Rothman, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Senator Robert Menendez, Attorney General Stuart Rabner, and Teaneck Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Congregation Bnai Yeshurn.

The sale of Israeli settlement homes in the Occupied Territories by the Yesha Council is planned to take place at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, New Jersey on Sunday February 25, 2007. Property in Israeli settlements has historically been sold exclusively to Jewish people. Palestinians who live in the area are not permitted to purchase such property because of their religion and their ethnicity. ADC New Jersey and the 11 other civil rights groups warned against the toleration of such discriminatory sales practices in New Jersey.

Pursuant to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring civilians from its own territory into the occupied territory, and from creating permanent changes in the occupied territory that are not for the benefit of the occupied population. There exists broad international consensus that that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank – including those in East Jerusalem - violate the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49) and constitute a war crime. Any sales of settlements are therefore presumably illegal. Liability attaches under international law for aiding and abetting the commission of a war crime.

The illegality of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been affirmed by the UN Security Council the International Court of Justice, major human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli organization B’Tselem, and affirmed by the US government throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The rental and sale of Israeli settlements at the event in Teaneck, New Jersey may also contradict US government foreign policy as outlined in the United States Government’s “Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” which, in Phase I, requires Israel “to freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).”

CONTACT: Samer Khalaf – ADC-NJ at (201) 280-3434; Hany Khoury (973) 246-7474

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/02/24/settlement-sale/

international law.