To the trustees of the JNF-UK,

The Jewish National Fund has been a household name across the Jewish world for more than a century. Like many other Jews, we have donated to JNF by dropping coins into blue and white tzedakah boxes, or honouring a loved one by buying a tree.

Over the past few months the role that the JNF is playing in the evictions of Palestinians out of their homes in Silwan, East Jerusalem, has been brought to our attention. Many of us asked you to step in and halt the eviction of the Sumarin family in November 2011. We know the eviction was delayed as a result of our campaign, and the campaigns of our partners in Israel and the USA.  On Monday 27th February the Ruweidi family, who have lived in their home since it was built in the early 1900s, will be in court trying to prevent an eviction from their home which is being pursued by the JNF’s subsidiary company Himnuta, and the settler organisation, Elad.

We ask the JNF to prevent the eviction of the Ruweidi family, alongside that of the Sumarin family, and ask for a commitment from the organisation that it will no longer pursue a policy of evictions,  which undermine the possibility of a two-state solution, and in so doing threaten Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. 

We, the undersigned, who are active members of the Jewish community in the UK, join with partners in Israel and Jews in other diaspora communities, in asking you as trustees of the JNF in the UK, to do everything in your power halt these evictions and uphold the values on which the state of Israel was created: to be a land "based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel".

Yours Sincerely,

Sponsor

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