Leket. 'UK funds diminished'
Photo: Avigail Uzi
JNF tree planting. Money for forests or for war on poverty?
Photo: Yael Ilan, JNF
Zionist funds' bitter split
Israeli charitable organization JNF splits from British counterpart, sides exchange harsh allegations. British branch misled donors, Israeli fund says; We are independent body, UK organization replies, charging JNF Israel with financial irregularities
The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a leading international Zionist agency , this week split from its British partner, accusing the UK based JNF branch of having "misled" the public, this according to a report in the Jewish Chronicle newspaper.
In a message from Jerusalem, JNF World Chairman Yehiel Lekets said that "unfortunately, the JNF charitable Trust in the U.K (JNF-UK), has increasingly failed to align its activities with the purposes and charitable objectives of JNF, to develop the state of Israel."
"In fact," Leket added, "in the last 10 years, funds sent to Israel by JNF-UK have diminished from 3,500,000 pounds in 1996 to just over 100,000 pounds so far this year."
Leket further claimed that the British branch of the JNF has been taking advantage of the JNF's name to raise money.
"We consider that JNF-UK has therefore misled the donating public," Leket said.
As a result of this rift, the JNF has decided to set up its own fund raising arm in the UK.
'JNF UK - an independent body'
JNF-UK was never a branch of the JNF. It has always been an independent body with no legal requirements to hand over money to the Israeli-based JNF, Chairman of the British charitable trust Gail Seal told the Jewish Chronicle.
The spokesman of the British JNF in Israel, Daniel Epstein told Ynet that not only has the UK fund always been an autonomous organization, but its fields of activity are also different from those of the Israeli JNF.
JNF-UK, he explained, is mainly devoted to the purpose of fighting poverty.
"Our activities have a broader range than the JNF's. Since we report to the funds registry in Britain, we must prove that we do more than deal with planting forests and developing water reservoirs," Epstein said.
Epstein added that since 1999, the British organization has also funneled money to other projects in Israel that were not related to the JNF. He also mentioned concerns that the Israeli organization was involved in financial irregularities.
"We have asked JNF Israel to clarify allegations that there were irregularities and that donors' contributions were not transferred to beneficiaries, but no explanations were given. We however continued to work with them, while trying to solve the problems internally," he said.
But the discord between the two organizations continued, until the recent split.
Epstein said he laments JNF Israel's decision to establish a separate branch in the UK, a project which will require the investment of new resources, instead of continuing to work with JNF-UK that can provide the required infrastructure.
We would be happy to continue working with the JNF, Epstein concluded, as long as we get answers to our questions.
