writes in Electronic Intifida 15 February 2021
Israel’s Jewish National Fund is reportedly planning to purchase privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank to expand Jewish-only settlements.
The organization’s leadership approved the proposal on Sunday, which was reported in Israeli media days earlier.
The JNF proposal reportedly prioritizes expansion of settlements in the Jordan Valley, occupied Jerusalem, the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the southern West Bank and in the South Hebron Hills area.
According to Israeli media, the group will not be constructing new settlements but expanding already existing ones.
“Expansion” of existing settlements – often far beyond their original boundaries – is a ruse Israel has long used in an effort to minimize international criticism of its colonization of Palestinian land.
Moreover, “land purchases” by Israeli settlement organizations in the West Bank are frequently fraudulent.
While the JNF’s move is being portrayed as a “major policy change” in Israeli media, it is consistent with its historical agenda.
Since its inception in 1901 by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement to colonize Palestine, the JNF had one fundamental objective: to acquire Palestinian land for the exclusive use of Jews.