[Peace-discuss] Late Action Notice

Sun Feb 25 11:37:36 CST 2007

http://www.northjer sey.com/print. php?qstr= ZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVl RUV5eTcwODE5MjQm eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3 dnFlZUVFeXky 

Teaneck synagogue seeks to aid West Bank
Friday, February 23, 2007

By JOHN CHADWICK
STAFF WRITER

A Teaneck synagogue may become a flashpoint this weekend in the 
Arab-Israeli conflict.

Congregation B'nai Yeshurun will host a real estate fair aimed at 
persuading American Jews to buy property in the disputed territories of 
the West Bank.

"The purchase of a home ... is an ideological gesture of love of the 
Land of Israel," said a letter to potential American investors from the 
Israeli group that's conducting the event.

But critics say such land sales would inflame the conflict by bringing 
more Jewish settlers to the predominantly Palestinian territories.

The settlements, built on land that Israeli forces seized in 1967 and 
continue to occupy, have been condemned as obstacles to peace by the 
United Nations, U.S. government officials and even many Israelis.

A Teaneck resident said he's organizing a protest to take place outside 
the synagogue.

"Our objection to this happening in Teaneck and America is that it 
makes us complicit in Israel's violation of international law," said 
Richard Siegel, who is active in the group New Jersey Solidarity.

Fast facts
â€¢ An Israeli settler group is asking American Jews to buy property in 
the disputed territories of the West Bank.

â€¢ A Teaneck synagogue is backing the program by hosting a real estate 
fair Sunday for potential investors.

â€¢ Critics say the effort will inflame the Mideast because it bolsters 
Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory.

â€¢ Some Jews believe they have a religious obligation to settle in the 
biblical land of Israel.

A prominent North Jersey Palestinian agreed, adding that the event is 
inherently racist.

"I'm sure if I attended the meeting and told them I was an American 
citizen interested in purchasing land that I would be denied," said 
Aref Assaf of the American Arab Forum in Paterson. "And yet I was born 
there."

The group organizing the meeting -- the Amana Settlement Movement -- 
did not return two phone calls seeking comment.

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, the spiritual leader of B'nai Yeshurun, 
represents an Orthodox Jewish community that, generally speaking, 
opposes a Palestinian state and holds that Jews have a right, and a 
responsibility, to settle in the territories that are part of the 
biblical land of Israel.

Indeed, Pruzansky, who calls the territories by their biblical names of 
Judea and Samaria, said the meeting will be held in the sanctuary of 
his synagogue -- rather than in its conference room -- to underscore 
the notion of religious duty.

"It's not occupied land -- it's disputed, unallocated land," Pruzansky 
said. "And Israel certainly has a valid claim."

He blamed the Mideast conflict on Arabs who don't recognize Israel.

"I don't think there is much hope for peace in my lifetime, unless the 
Messiah comes," Pruzansky said. "And the main reason is that there are 
too many people who are not reconciled to Israel's existence."

About 250,000 Jews, including many from New York and New Jersey, live 
in the West Bank. The actual settlement towns constitute a tiny 
fraction of the land, but settlers control more than 40 percent of the 
land in the West Bank, according to statistics compiled by Peace Now, 
Israel's largest peace group.

There are about 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, according to 
the U.S. government.

The bid to seek American investment is a relatively new program and 
reflects the worries of settlers about whether their numbers will 
continue to grow.

Amana's letter to American Jews notes that the Israeli government has 
stopped subsidizing new homes.

"Almost all communities in [the West Bank] are full, with no 
possibility of accepting new young couples or families," the letter 
says. "If we don't find a solution now, we will create our own 
population freeze, which may, in turn, begin a phenomenon ... of 
families leaving in communities. "

The letter said single-family homes cost as little as $120,000. 
American Jews are being asked to buy a home and then rent it to 
settlers for about $250 per month.

Investors may buy vacant land to build new homes, or preexisting homes, 
said Dov Hikind, an assemblyman from Brooklyn who's promoting the 
program.

Pruzansky said the meeting will provide an overview to potential 
investors as well as answers to questions on financing, security and 
other issues.

American Jews are divided.

Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America, a strong supporter 
of the settlements, said the program is "a statement that Jews from 
America, Europe and anywhere else have a sacred right to live on this 
land."

A spokesman for Americans for Peace Now disagreed.

"As a matter of principle, we think it's wrong for Americans to be 
underwriting a politically damaging enterprise," Ori Nir said. "We 
think the whole settlement movement is damaging to Israel in many 
ways."

E-mail: chadwick at northjerse y.com

Tammy Watts <tammyewatts at yahoo.com> wrote:            Hi Everyone,

  Better late than never--I was only aware of this late yesterday.
  Most of the numbers I called (listed at bottom) gave me the 
  bureaucratic runaround--seems nobody has "jurisdiction" over matters
  like this.  
  Checking the Amana website, it appears that events like these may be
  taking place across the country in the near future.

  Tammy

  Take Action Now 
                    This Sunday-New Jersey Event to Increase the Occupation of Palestinian Land                Protest New Jersey Event to Increase the Occupation of Palestinian Land    More Info
             "Amana – The Settlement Movement", a Zionist organization, will host a real estate fair in Teaneck, New Jersey to recruit more colonizers to illegally occupy Palestinian land in the West Bank. The event announcement declares: "Come learn how you, a group of friends or even a community can own a home and strengthen the Zionist dream."   View the event announcement here:
http://www.amana.co.il/Index.asp?CategoryID=108&ArticleID=350
  In Teaneck, New Jersey, Congregation Bnai Yeshurun is hosting a racially exclusive real estate fair on Sunday, February 25th. Ten illegal settlements will be represented, making Palestinian land available to Jewish American citizens, but not to Palestinians, Arab Americans or non-Jewish Americans.
  Take Action! 
Please contact the following public officials to express your outrage at this event that is promoting apartheid and the illegal sale of occupied land. Use the talking points listed below or, go to http://www.adcnj.us/AA/teaneck.htm, copy the letter and send it to the officials. 
  TALKING POINTS
  1) The advertisement and sale in Teaneck of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories may violate New Jersey, federal and international law, including New Jersey Civil Rights Law §10:5-12 (h) and the Federal Fair Housing Act.
  2) Pursuant to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, states are prohibited from transferring civilians from the occupying power's territory into the occupied territory, and from creating permanent changes in the occupied territory that are not for the benefit of the occupied population. There exists broad international consensus that that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank – including those in East Jerusalem - violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and are, therefore, illegal according to international law. Any sales of settlements are presumably illegal.
  3) The illegality of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been affirmed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 465, the International Court of Justice, the world's highest legal body, in article 120 of its July 9, 2004 advisory opinion (http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket/imwp/imwpframe.htm), and by several major human rights organizations worldwide. Not only did the US government repeatedly affirm this position throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but the Israeli Supreme Court has acknowledged de facto its validity by ruling that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are under "belligerent occupation" in 1979, 2002 and 2004. 
  4) The possibility that the rental and sale of Israeli settlements at this event in Teaneck, New Jersey may also contradict US government foreign policy as outlined in the United States Government’s “Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” which, in Phase I, requires Israel “to freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).” (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20062.htm)
  PLEASE CONTACT 

   Teaneck, New Jersey, Mayor Eli Katz, 201-715-5179, help at katz07666.com   
     Municipal Manager Helene Fall 201-837-4807 twspmanager at teanecknjgov.org

     Congressman Steven Rothman at 201-646-0808 www.house.gov/rothman

     Senator Frank Lautenberg http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact  or call 973.639.8700

   Senator Robert Menendez http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm, Menendez at mail.senate.gov or call 973.645.3030   
   State Department International Law 1-202-776-8342   
     New Jersey Attorney General,The Honorable. Stuart Rabner, 609.292.4925

  Please email ADC-NJ at mailto:info at adcnj.us to let us know the outcome of your call.

---------------------------------
  Be a PS3 game guru.
Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games._______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss

---------------------------------
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go 
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20070225/774634bb/attachment.html