Why does the JNF still exist?
A JNF forest built on the remains of the depopulated Palestinian village of Lubya
Yaara Benger Alaluf writes in +972:
Along with its iconic fundraising box, known as the “Blue Box,” one of the enduring symbols of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is a 1930s children’s song by the Russian-born Jewish poet Yehoshua Friedman, titled “An Acre Here and an Acre There”:
Let me tell you this my girl,
And you as well dear lad,
How in the Land of Israel
We are redeeming the land:
…. ….. …..
The “redemption of the land” referenced in the poem is the Zionist expression for the common cause of purchasing land for the establishment of exclusively Jewish settlements — a project to which many contribute, each according to their means. The JNF characterizes its “fundraising project…[as being] founded entirely on the small donations of many small individuals, drop by tiny drop that turns into a sea, coin by precious coin accumulated into a joint force that enabled the redemption of the lands.” This propaganda effort once painted a picture of a barren land, a nation united in its intent, and the “redemption of land” as a legitimate economic transaction.
Reality, however, is more complex than a children’s song. In the early 1930s, Palestine was home to more than a million inhabitants, the large majority of whom were non-Jews. Among the Jewish residents, and even among the Zionist leadership, there was disagreement over the realization of Jewish nationhood, and particularly how to settle the Land of Israel.