Hon. Ze'ev Elkin
Member of Knesset
Co-Sponsor, JNF Bill
The Knesset
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem, Israel 91950

Dear Mr. Elkin:

We the undersigned are profoundly disappointed by your vote to approve, in a preliminary reading, a bill that allows the Israel Lands Authority [ILA] to prohibit Israeli Arabs from leasing some of the land that it manages. This land belongs to Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael [Jewish National Fund] and much of it was paid for by Diaspora Jews who, like us, believed in the vital importance of establishing a democratic Jewish state and helping it to thrive.

We agree with Israel’s Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, who has ruled that the ILA cannot discriminate against Israel’s Arab citizens by restricting the leasing of state-managed land solely to Jews.

At a time when Israel is trying to show the world that there is no contradiction between a Jewish state and a democratic one, every effort must be made to enforce the principle of equality and equal opportunity for all Israeli citizens. At a time of dangerous tensions between Israel’s Arab and Jewish citizens, every effort must be made to demonstrate to the former that they have a stake in the country’s future. The proposed bill completely ignores those priorities.

This bill is not only unfair to one fifth of Israel’s population; it also reinforces the growing perception around the world that Israel is an “apartheid� state. We are friends of Israel who do our best to counter that false perception and to build support for the Jewish state in the public arena. By voting for this bill, you have made our job much more difficult.

To defend this vote, some contend that the Jewish National Fund’s charter calls for the land to be used for Jewish settlement, and that the Fund’s donors assumed that their money would be used for that purpose. This argument has some validity and we appreciate the complexities of the situation. But in a modern democracy, if an organization’s charter is obsolete, discriminatory and contrary to the nation’s basic laws and fundamental values, then the principles of that charter should not be enshrined and codified in a new law.

Zionist pioneers made the desert bloom. They settled land that was purchased by the hard-won coins of donors to the Jewish National Fund. They also never lost their commitment to social justice, equality and human decency. Now, it is necessary to ensure that this tradition is updated and that all Israelis, whether Jewish or not, have access to the same opportunities, including the right to lease land managed by the State.

It is not too late to kill this legislation. We implore you to do what you can to prevent it from being introduced again in the Knesset.

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