Israel home-sale
event in N.J. sparks protest
By JEFFREY GOLD, AP
from the Home News Tribune Online February 25, 2007
NEWARK -- An event at a
Teaneck synagogue offering information on buying homes on Israel's West Bank is
drawing opposition from an Israeli group, as well as pro-Palestinian
organizations, who say such efforts undermine international peace efforts.
They also questioned if the sale of what they consider illegally occupied lands
violates anti-discrimination laws. However, a New Jersey official said
state and federal authorities have no jurisdiction on overseas property.
The event, to be held Sunday at Congregation B'nai Yeshurun, an Orthodox temple,
is sponsored by the Amana Settlement Movement, a group based in Israel.
Members of other groups said Friday they are organizing a protest to occur
Sunday outside the temple.
The opposition groups believe the meeting represents the first time West Bank
homes have been offered for sale in the United States.
In promotional material, Amana said, "Come learn how you, a group of friends or
even a community can own a home and strengthen the Zionist dream."
"Amana will reliably manage and rent your home. Your investment is
insured, protected and 100% legal," it continued. Amana named 10
settlements that are participating.
The settlements are controversial because Israel promised in the early 1990s to
freeze settlement construction on the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of the
Oslo peace process. The lands were captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
In addition, under the 2003 "road map" peace plan, Israel agreed to remove
dozens of Jewish outposts from the West Bank.
Nearly 270,000 Jewish settlers, up 6 percent over the past year, live in the
West Bank among 2.4 million Palestinians. In the summer of 2005, Israel
evacuated all 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip.
"Every settler who is added to the West Bank makes the realization of President
Bush's vision of a two-state solution more difficult," said Ori Nir, a spokesman
for Americans for Peace Now, the sister organization of Israel's largest peace
group, Peace Now.
"Most Israelis believe now, are convinced, that the settlements are not a
security asset. In fact, they are a security liability because they make
it more difficult, they complicate the prospects ... of having a two-state
solution," Nir said.
Hesham Mahmoud, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, said his community believes any sales would involve land that the
settlers have no right to claim.
In addition, "It also discriminates against buyers, since its fair to assume
that if an Arab or non-Jew shows up at that event they will not sell him that
land," said Mahmoud, of Rutherford.
Another group, New Jersey Solidarity-Activists for the Liberation of Palestine,
urged members to protest the event. Its Web site accused Jewish settlers
of routinely attacking Palestinians.
About a dozen complaints about the event have been sent to the state Division
on Civil Rights, spokesman Lee Moore said Friday.
However, the agency determined that it does not have jurisdiction over such
sales, and that the sales also fall outside the federal Fair Housing Act, Moore
said.
A phone message and e-mails sent Friday to Amana were not immediately returned.
The temple's leader, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, also did not return a message
seeking comment.
In comments to The Record of Bergen County, he said the event will take place in
the sanctuary to emphasize the notion of religious duty.
"It's not occupied land — it's disputed, unallocated land," Pruzansky told the
newspaper. "And Israel certainly has a valid claim."
Many Orthodox Jews believe that Jews have a right to settle on land that are
part of the biblical land of Israel.
Single-family homes begin at $120,000, the letters said. American
Jews were asked to buy a home and then rent it to settlers for about $250 a
month.
On the Net: Amana:
www.amana.co.il/Index.asp&CategoryID108&ArticleID350
New Jersey Solidarity-Activists for
the Liberation of Palestine:
www.newjerseysolidarity.org
Peace Now:
www.peacenow.org
(Emphasis Added)
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