To be clear, the proposed resolution being voted on today is not concentrated around the near consensus settlement blocs. If approved, this vote will endow the Executive of KKL with carte blanche to purchase lands in Area C, and potentially pick an unnecessary fight with the Biden Administration. With today’s deliberations, KKL has arrived at a virtual fork in the road, an entirely premature and unnecessary fork.
For 120 years since its founding by Theodor Herzl, KKL has played a pivotal role in reclaiming and redeeming lands. Today KKL controls over 13% of the land mass of Israel and is responsible for Israel’s national forests. It is a pioneer in environmental sustainability, a leading force in Zionist education and a source of beauty and access to nature for Israelis and Jews around the world.
This august organization, which literally reclaimed our lands and helped Israel flourish is now contemplating to extend its mandate to purchase lands in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria. As the Chairman of the World Confederation of United Zionists, an apolitical faction in the Zionist Congress and World Zionist Organization which focuses on engaging global Jewish communities with Israel, I do not take this vote lightly.
Most of the parties in the international Zionist movement align themselves politically. There are parties in the Israeli political system like Likud and Labor who identify as right wing or left wing, or religious streams who have strong political stances of right and left such as Mizrachi (right) or the Conservative movement (left). This has led them to take strong sides regarding today’s historic vote about land in the West Bank. Those on the right see it as an opportunity to flex their political muscles and exercise greater Israeli sovereignty over the contested region. Those on the left see it as their duty to not embroil Israel in further controversy and sabotage an eventual two-state solution. As a centrist movement, the Confederation does not affiliate with any political party in Israel nor with any religious stream.
As a group that works with Zionist communities around the world, we believe that nature should be a bridge-builder, not a barrier. As the Jewish people’s national fund, decisions of this magnitude within KKL should be conducted in a transparent manner and with full inclusion of global Jewry, and not be made behind closed doors. Zionist leaders and global donors should be consulted and engaged in public discourse concerning their Jewish National Fund.
A much broader question is: What is the rush to push this resolution through?
Israel captured the areas of Judea and Samaria in 1967 and to this day no formal decision about the status of these contested lands has been accepted.
Against this backdrop, Israel has just completed 4th national elections and a government has yet to be formed. The leadership of KKL initially understood this sensitivity when it determined to delay deliberations until after the March 23 national Israeli elections.
The confederation platform reflects support for the democratically elected government in Israel as the arbiter to establish policy governing life on behalf of Israeli citizens. Yet Israel’s government has yet to determine its policy on control of the land in Judea and Samaria, also referred to as the West Bank.
The General Zionist faction that I lead stands for Zionism and Zionism alone. We seek to unite Jews from around the world, all with a wide range of backgrounds but who love Israel and seek to support our homeland. Like Israel’s Knesset with a virtual stalemate, inside KKL the right and left wing camps are of almost equal in size. This places the Confederation as a centrist party in a unique position.
There are essentially two primary challenges with the proposal that is being brought before the KKL board today: One relates to the content of the proposal and the other relates to the process leading up to the vote.
Regarding the content, it is considered common consensus that there are certain settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria that will remain as part of Israel even in the event of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Earlier this week, the Confederation held an online panel discussion about the vote and most panelists from former Labor MK Einat Wilf to former Likud MK Yehuda Glick agreed that purchasing lands in these areas was not controversial.
However the resolution being proposed allows the KKL executive (which has a slight right wing majority) the right to purchase any land in all of area C. If the Israeli government has yet to decide what it wants to do with Area C, should a non-governmental organization like KKL make the decision for it?
The second substantive challenge with the vote relates to process. For 120 years KKL has been supported by the Jewish people throughout the world. They are the ones who have donated the funds which KKL now wants to use to purchase these lands. It is wrong to make such a hasty decision without engaging with global Jewry and listening to their input. Especially given the rise of global antisemitism and the concerted BDS delegitimization campaign, decisions made regarding the West Bank has profound impact on Jews worldwide. These leaders must be included in the conversation before a decision of this kind is made. But, sadly, they have not been included.
Due to the two problems that I explained above, I signed on a letter asking the KKL leadership to postpone the vote. I turn with a direct and personal plea Avraham Duvdevani, the distinguished chairman of the Jewish National Fund, to rise above the partisan politics and adhere to the sage advice of King Solomon: that for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose. The World Confederation calls upon the Chairman and the Executive to postpone the vote at this sensitive time, before a government is formed in Israel.
In the interim, let us work on repairing the divide and involving world Jewry in this decision. Let us find those consensus areas that represent a broad section of World Jewry and together advance the critical zionist and environmental work of KKL.While we are a political people with broad interests, there are fabrics that bind us. It is imperative that we embrace those unifying threads and engage and involve KKL’s stakeholders - global Jewry. More than ever, this is the role that KKL must play to bring about greater harmony.
Until this consideration happens, our faction cannot support KKL involving itself with such a hasty and premature political act which could very well hurt the global Jewish community.
The writer is a director of KKL and is the Chairman of the World Confederation of United Zionists.