An appeal to Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales to close the offices of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Venezuela and Bolivia,  and demand the removal of the names of their states and heroes of liberation  from colonialism from JNF sites

The Jewish National Fund Law and the Covenant between the Government of Israel and the JNF are central to the Israeli legal apartheid system[1]. The JNF offices located in the capitals of Bolivia and Venezuela - like all of the JNF offices around the world - raise funds that are used to further entrench an apartheid system and to erase the signs of Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people and Jews of Arab origin. This appeal is directed toward the two governments, which have released their people from colonizing forces. It suggests concrete ways that these governments can act in solidarity with the occupied and dispossessed Palestinian people and publicly recognize the crimes of this ongoing colonial project.

The Zionist movement is a Jewish European colonial movement that was established at the end of the 19^th century by European Jews ("Ashkenazi" Jews) and for their benefit, serving the European colonialism and supported by it. Since the middle of the previous century the Zionist movement has committed two crimes against humanity. These two crimes initially occurred on the backdrop of, and were facilitated by, British colonialism in the Palestine Mandate and in other Arab countries and with its assistance.

The first crime is an ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the beginnings of which are marked by the expulsion of close to 800,000 of the indigenous people of Palestine from their 13 cities and more than 500 of their villages, and the demolition of most of those villages, accompanied by tens of organized massacres. The "State of Israel", which the Zionist movement established in the territory of Palestine that was occupied, persecuted and killed refugees in order to prevent them from returning to their land, which Israel seized. In 1967, Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian land and the Syrian Golan heights, demolishing an additional 19 Palestinian villages, 170 Syrian villages, and one Syrian town, expelling the indigenous inhabitants. These crimes have continued to unfold for at least 60 years. Today, Israel continues to steal lands from the Palestinian people who remain, to demolish their houses, persecute the refugees in the refugee camps in Gaza and Lebanon, and to simultaneously deny the crime of ethnic cleansing.

The second crime is the destruction of ancient Jewish civilizations all over the Arab and Muslim world, the transferring of their communities to Palestine by means of terror[2] and the exploitation of their deeply rooted religious relationship with Palestine,[3] The Land of Israel. The transfer of the Arab-Jewish communities was accompanied by the looting of their property. The oppression and exploitation of Arab-Jewish communities continues today, although the conditions of oppression that Arab-Jewish communities face today must be understood relative to the conditions of Palestinians people, many of whom, for example, are living in the refugee camps. Nonetheless, the State of Israel continues today to demolish Arab-Jewish homes, which were built upon the land and ruins of Arab Palestinian villages [recently cases include[4]: Kfar Shalem / Salame 2008, Kfar Gvirol / AlQubeiba 2009],[5] blocks them from institutions of higher education, pushes them into unemployment, poverty, crime and drugs, and systematically implements policies that exterminate their Jewish cultures because they embody Arab characteristics[6] and are deeply rooted in Islam.[7]

The Role of the Jewish National Fund (JNF)

After demolishing most of the Palestinian villages, which were occupied in 1948, the Zionist movement housed the victims of Arab-Jewish transfer in some of the villages and the JNF employed them in the planting of pine forests over the ruins of Palestinian villages. Pine, planted in millions, became a predominant flora, forcing out the indigenous flora and thus serving to veil the crimes of expulsion and expropriation committed there.

The JNF was established by the 5th Zionist Congress in Basel in1901. It was registered in Britain under English law as a company under the name Jewish National Fund Ltd. in 1907, and in Israel, by power of the Jewish National Fund Law, in 1953. Prior to the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the JNF had already succeeded in purchasing approximately 7% of the entire lands of Mandatory Palestine.

The Jewish National Fund Law of 1953 and the Covenant between the Government of Israel and the JNF of 1961 are central to the Israeli legal apartheid system. Together they define 93% of the entire territory, which Israel occupied in 1948, as "national lands" and are legally designated for those persons who are defined under the laws of the State of Israel as "Jews". In addition, the JNF has been instrumental in veiling the ruins of many, if not most, of the Palestinian Arab localities ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the course of and in the wake of the 1948 war. It accomplishes this task by planting forests and developing recreational facilities on the lands they have cleansed, and over their remains[8].

The JNF sign on the entrance to Eshta'ol forest

A prime example of the double crime being committed by the Zionists is Eshta'ol Forest. Most of the Eshta'ol Forest resides on the lands of the two villages ‘Islin (عسلين), where 280 inhabitants used to live, and Ishwa‘ (إشوع), where 680 inhabitants used to live. The inhabitants of these lands were expelled by arms by the Har'el Brigade of the Plamah, which departed from Kibbutz Zora'a in the framework of the Dani operation on the morning of July 18^th, 1948. The Eshta'ol forest also resides on the lands of two other villages: Beit Mahsir (بيت محسير), where 2620 inhabitants were expelled on May 11, 1948, and Beit Susin (بيت سوسين), where 230 inhabitants were expelled on April 20, 1948.

In Eshta'ol Forest, there stand three courts. The first one is in the memory of the liberator of Latin America in the 19^th century from the European colonialism, Simón Bolívar; it stands on the land of the village Ishwa‘. The other two courts are in memory of another liberator of Latin America from the same period, General José de San Martin; they stand on the land of Beit Mahsir.

Moshav [the Zionist term for village] Eshta'ol, built on the ruins of the Ishwa‘ village, is a village of immigrants from Yemen, which were transferred by the Zionist movement to Palestine right after the 1948 ethnic cleansing. In the transfer camp in San'a, Yemen's capital, the Zionist Agency looted more then 50 tons of their ancient sacred books and manuscripts[9] and a tens of tons of goldsmithing,[10] a craft in which this community specialized. In the transfer camp, children were kidnapped and were delivered for adoption.[11] Once in Moshav Eshta'ol, and in the neighboring Moshav, Yish'i, which has an identical story (see Appendix 1), the community succeeded to restore a part of life as it was in Yemen. The return of the Palestinian refugees to their land does not necessarily means another dispossession of this community. On the contrary, it may open an opportunity to establish neighborhood relationships that will fix the wrong that was done both to  the Palestinian refugees and Arab-Jews by Zionists, while strengthening the culture of the Yemeni Jewish community of Moshav Eshta'ol and Moshav Yish'i, which were always fed by Arab and Muslim civilizations in their country of origin. It might also serve to strengthen their Arab dialect of Hebrew, a dialect and a culture, which are under the dagger of an extermination held by the Israeli Zionist Ashkenazi establishment.

The sign leading to Bolívar and San Martin courts.

This appeal is to the two new regimes who librated Venezuela and Bolivia in our time - countries which underwent violent direct colonial occupations including the seizure of land, the extermination of civilizations, cultures, and human beings, and until recently the indirect colonialism of the US, which trampled their peoples and looted their resources. This appeal is to the two countries, which recently succeeded to replace their terror regimes that served and were supported by the US, with new liberating regimes that have been established to serve their peoples. This is an appeal to refuse complicity in the Zionist double crime and its cover-up. This is a call to Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales to close the JNF offices in the Venezuelan and Bolivian capitals and to demand the removal of the names of their States and heroes of liberation from colonialism from JNF sites, as a concrete act of solidarity with the occupied and dispossessed Palestinian people, and as a recognition of the double crime which was committed by the European, colonial, Zionist movement in the middle of the previous century and which continues until today. This solidarity will feed our hope for the replacement of the Zionist regime by a regime that will provide the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants their rights in this land. In Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, it is named among other names the Land of Israel, which is NOT the colonial apartheid "State of Israel". This is an appeal to feed the hope of the marginalized inhabitants of the region who lived together for thousands of years in this region, that we may live again in peace and dignity.

Appendix 1: a list of sites under the name of Venezuela and Bolivia and their heroes of liberation from colonialism

A. Sites under the name of Bolivia: Simon Bolivar court in Eshta'ol forest.

B. Sites under the name of Venezuela:

1) + 2) Two courts in Eshtaol forest under the name on General José de San Martin.

The following list was received from the JNF information service. They were not sure these sites still existed since "You have to check that the sign still exits and the forest is not burned because the [Arab] inhabitants vandalize the signs; In general there are many fires and a lot of vandalism". Therefore it is strongly recommended to ensure the removal of the signs from the following sites as well if they remain:

3) In Golani junction, near JNF offices the name of Venezuela is written on a special wall.

4) A forest under the name of Venezuela, in the Tura'an Mountain.

5) Park Venezuela in Hanita forest.

6) A ceremony for adding a sign under the name of Venezuela was conducted in Yishi'I JNF forest.

Appendix 2: The contact details of the JNF offices in Venezuela and Bolivia capitals.

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael
Avenida Jorge Washington

Edificio Bet Am Piso 2

San Bernardino
Caracas 1011, Venezuela

Tel: + 582-12-551-2030, + 582-12-552-1163
Fax: + 582-12-552-1250

e-mail:

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael

La Paz, Bolivia
Tel: + 591-2-373839

Fax: + 591-2-376963

e-mail:

[1] Apartheid Israel: The Jewish National Fund, by Uri Davis, April 2006, http://www.uridavis.info/jewish_national_fund_apartheid_israel.htm

[2] See Yehuda Shenhav article"The Perfect Robbery"

[3] See Nizar Hassan and Sigalit Banai films:"Cut" (2000) and "The pioneers" (2007)

[4] Among other expulsions of Arab-Jews: Moshav Tohelet (Asaferiya السافرية) (1976), and Yamin Moshe (1968) and Mamila (1988) neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

[5] See "Arim", local paper of Rehovot, issue 1142, 4.2.2009, p. 22: "Fifty years ago they took our children and now they are taking our home."

[6] See interview with the author and the literature researcher Shim'on Ballas, who declares: I am an Arab-Jew" in the Palestinian periodical "AlKarmel", issue 60, summer 1999 211-233 (214)

[7] See "The Bridge with Islam" by Rabbi Haim Ovadia, the rabbi of Kahal Joseph Congregation in Los Angeles, California, who writes: "I am a Jew of Islam"

[8] Apartheid Israel: The Jewish National Fund, by Uri Davis, April 2006, http://www.uridavis.info/jewish_national_fund_apartheid_israel.htm

[9] Amos Nevo, "That's how they robbed the immigrants", Afikim periodical, September 1991, p. 14-16

[10] Smadar Lavie, "Cultural property rights and the construction of the Mizrahi race as a commercial symbol", In: Rainbow of opinions: Mizrahi agenda for the Israeli society, by Yone, Na'aman and Mahleb (eds.), Jerusalem: November books 2007, p. 198-204

[11] The missing Yemenite children: Sometimes truth Is stranger than fiction, by Shoshana Madmoni in The News From Within, February 1996