Israel home-sale event in N.J. sparks protest
February 28th, 2007 - Category: Real EstateNEWARK — 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?
New Jersey Solidarity- Activists for the Liberation of Palestine: www.newjerseysolidarity.org/
Peace Now:www.peacenow.org/
