Israel's rich uncle
Op-ed: JNF is handing out millions to projects across Israel, but some are more controversial than others.
Of all the cities in Israel, the most enviable is Afula, the capital of the valley. For on Thursday, Afula receives two massive holiday gifts that came as a surprise, as though from the heavens.
It happens when the board of directors of the Jewish National Fund meets to approve the budget for a long list of projects across the country.
A perusal of the list reveals some interesting items. Two relate to Afula. The JNF intends to bestow two projects upon Afula – NIS 1.9 million to partially fund a bike path around the city, and NIS 7.72 million for "a peripheral walking route around the Emek Hospital."
The bike path is understandable. The JNF has put bike paths in many places, at a similar price; but spending nearly eight million shekels on a trail around a hospital is a little hard to swallow. Does the JNF intend to pave it with diamonds? With gold?
Will the trail also encompass the Kinneret? How far does the hospital in Afula extend, and why is the Clalit HMO, which owns the hospital, not required to invest a single shekel? (A hospital spokeswoman said this week that the route will be a fitness route around the perimeter fence of 2.5-3 km in length.)
And why Afula? The answer to that puzzle, says a source in the company, leads to Eli Aflalo, co-chairman of the JNF. Despite his exalted position, Aflalo has never forgotten his beloved city, and if he does forget, there are plenty of others in the organization to remember and who are eager to please.
The JNF board of directors has 37 members (Microsoft only has 10, but what do they know?). The board members come from a variety of political parties and persuasions, including some that are long gone.
The JNF's main income is the sale of land, and the rise in real estate prices of recent years has brought in billions. But the wealth has attracted unwelcome attention: former ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni demanded the nationalization of the JNF - and its coffers; and those in need of housing slammed it of over the high price of housing. The JNF came to the conclusion that it was better to spend the money, and fast. The list to be approved Thursday represents an expenditure of close to NIS 200 million.
When the list was discussed by the JNF Finance Committee last Thursday, one member, Matthew Sperber of the Reform Movement objected to the disbursement of JNF funds over the Green Line.
Sperber claimed that appropriation for settlements makes it difficult for the Jewish National Fund to raise money from donors abroad and would endanger its tax-exempt status. He was joined by five other board members, who wrote an emotional letter of protest. Alon Tal, a representative of the Green Party, spoke personally with the JNF world chairman, Labor Party stalwart Efi Stenzler. "You are endangering the status of the JNF," Tal warned him.
The reality in this case is a little more complex. Firstly, the JNF has been handing money to the settlements for years; secondly, the amount - approximately NIS 17 million out of the 200 million - is not unusual, and only part of it is invested in the heart of the West Bank.
We refused to pay for construction in the settlements, said one of the JNF heads, all projects in the West Bank are environmental, and are open to everyone.
That made me smile. Anyone who thinks that this new bike path will see Arabs and Jews riding side by side is living in a fantasy; ditto for those who think the parks established by the Jewish National Fund in the settlements will be open to the children of Palestine.
But why complain when a rich uncle is handing out cash? When it's offered, do you not take it?
