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lands, and was tasked to stay true to the central principle of the JNF: that the lands remain “the
eternal property of the Jewish People.” This mission statement echoes both Herzl’s words and the
Torah’s commandment: “And the land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to Me”
(Leviticus 25:23).
No one is pretending that the ILA or the JNF are perfect; these large bureaucratic institutions
have been frustratingly inefficient over the years, and are often sued for racist practices against
Arab Israeli citizens living on or near ILA-administered land. However, the fact that these are
governmental (and not privately owned) institutions means that they have more bodies to answer
to when they act unjustly. Meaning that there are also cases when building plans have had to be
changed due to appeals made by citizens who would be negatively affected by planned building
projects (see an article on this below, “Fearing riots, authorities cancel land tender in Jaffa”).
While everyone in Israel wants to see a reform in the ILA, its inefficiency is not a good enough
reason to privatize the lands of the Jewish people.

Diaspora Zionists entered the picture regarding this struggle in the form of the JNF General
Assembly members, who came to Israel in June for the JNF and WZO conferences. The JNF
General Assembly was asked to vote on whether they were willing to trade expensive lands that
the JNF had developed in the center of the country for undeveloped lands in the Negev and
Galilee, owned by the government. The JNF directorate in Israel had already agreed to this land
swap, but for the deal to be official the General Assembly had to approve it as well. Making this
trade was a key aspect to Netanyahu’s land reform bill, since only if the government could get its
hands on the expensive lands in the Tel Aviv area would it be fiscally worthwhile for the
government (i.e., they would make a fortune) to sell the land to the highest bidder.

The great majority of the JNF General Assembly delegates (120 of 185) came to Israel from the
Diaspora for this conference. Together with sabras (primarily from NOAL), Habonim Dror
bogrim came to the delegates’ Jerusalem hotel to speak with them in English, Spanish, and
Portuguese about the land swap’s effects on the Zionist enterprise. In many cases, the delegates
that we spoke with ended up being people we already knew from our countries of origin, in our
previous roles as movement mazkirut members and community leaders. More often than not,
they were appalled by the way that the Netanyahu government was trying to use them as part of
its underhanded measures to sell off assets belonging to the Jewish people.