2/23/2007

Here  in New Jersey lies an opportunity for the community to galvanize behind efforts to expose the racist and illegal nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. You may have learned that "Amana – The Settlement Movement" will  be hosting a real estate fair in the town of Teaneck, New Jersey on Sunday, February 25^th, 2007,  to entice more settlers 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."

I am certain that I, an American citizen who is eager  and willing to buy a home and live in the West Bank, would not be permitted to do so simply because I am not Jewish. How can our local community, elected politicians and the public at large,  allow this racist policy to be propagated here in NJ? We must expose Israel’s immoral practices and deny them the opportunity to further derail any chances for peace in the Middle East. 

I have visited Palestine twice in the previous year and know first hand the impact of Israel's settlements upon the lives and the aspirations of our people. Do your part to denounce plans to bring more Jews into Arab-owned lands.

I have contacted several media outlets and alerted them to the need to expose this event. I particularly spoke to John Chadwick from the Bergen Record who will cover the story on Friday. See article. Read our follow up response to the article. See coverage of protest by the Associated Press.

We wish to acknowledge the leading effort initiated by NJ Solidarity in exposing the event and calling for a peaceful demonstration to protest the event.

See Breaking News in Jewish Telegraphic Agency
N.J. shul: Buy West Bank land

Arab residents of New Jersey are upset that a synagogue is holding a real-estate fair urging American Jews to buy land in the West Bank.
The expo, scheduled for Sunday at Congregation Bnai Jeshurun in Teaneck, will be run by the Amana Settlement Movement. The group sent a letter to potential Jewish buyers of West Bank land, urging them to buy houses for as little as $120,000 and rent them to settlers for $250 a month, according to the Bergen County Record.

“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.”

At least one protest is being planned outside the synagogue, which is located in a growing enclave of Modern Orthodox Jews.
 

Read the NYT editorial on the matter.

Read an op-ed in Columbia Univeristy student paper.