MESOP MIDEAST WATCH : JEWISH-ISRAELI VOICES PRO PALESTINIANS

16-102021-‘With the Jewish National Fund (JNF) turning 120 this year, an NGO working in Israeli society launched an awareness campaign to bring attention to the land development group’s role in Israel’s dispossession of Palestinians’

Tel Aviv-based Zochrot’s educational effort recently ended, having run for three weeks in total and having sought to enlighten principally Israeli but also international audiences about the JNF’s alleged historic and continued role in the organised dispossession of Palestinians.

The campaign largely operated on social media, where Zochrot shared posts, graphics, and videos about the Israeli organisation – often called KKL-JNF – as well as other similar but separate international groups, like JNF UK, under the #ExposeJNF hashtag.

“For [us], it’s very important to highlight the ongoing Nakba and ongoing displacement of Palestinians… and the JNF has been taking a leading role in that,” Zochrot advocacy and media coordinator Najwan Berekdar, 39, told The New Arab.

The Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced or fled their homes.

While the term “Nakba” itself references this period specifically, some activists and scholars argue it or actions leading up to it commenced decades earlier and are still occurring in 2021. Education about the Nakba is Zochrot’s mission, and the first week of its campaign focused on its history.

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