JNF heads lobby against bill demanding $570 million payment to state
Move ‘ignores will of the Jewish people,’ says one Diaspora leader, after JNF workers warn government not to ‘fulfill dream of Zionism’s enemies’
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Leaders of the the Jewish National Fund on Sunday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to torpedo a bill aimed at forcing the organization to transfer NIS 2 billion ($570 million) to the state to be spent on national infrastructure projects in return for keeping its tax-exempt status.
The bill was approved by the Knesset’s Finance Committee last week for its final reading in the plenum.
“For 116 years JNF/KKL has been supporting critical environmental projects in Israel. We believe that any action to expropriate funds from the organization could cause serious damage to it,” wrote Peter Smaller, JNF Australia president. “We fervently request that you do not, in any way, pass laws that change the status of KKL/JNF.”
Jacky Benzennou, KKL Belgium president, wrote that the proposal “ignores the will of the Jewish people and its long-standing investment from around the world” for the sake of “redeeming land in the State of Israel.”
He appealed to the prime minister to “prevent this destructive step that will harm the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people, and will cause great damage to the connection with the Jewish communities around the world.”
Earlier Sunday, KKL workers protested outside the weekly cabinet meeting, calling on ministers “not to fulfill the dream of the Joint (Arab) List and Zionism’s enemies” and “not to execute a fatal blow to the most important Zionist organization.”
The workers also said the move would negatively impact their pensions.
The JNF, known in Hebrew as Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, owns 13 percent of all the land in the country and brings in some $3 billion a year, most of it from land sales.
Founded in 1901, it bought land and founded settlements on which Israel was established in 1948. Famed for planting hundreds of millions of trees in Israel, the not-for-profit group also focuses on land reclamation and development of communities outside central Israel.
In January, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira published a report that slammed the JNF as a bloated organization with little transparency that may have mishandled funds and acted out of conflicts of interest.
The bombshell report, the first ever on the JNF by the state comptroller, focused much of its attention on alleged conflicts of interest and lack of oversight at the organization’s operational branch, the Land Development Administration.
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