The National Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization of America has declared its unanimous opposition to the Israeli government’s plan to sell Jewish National Fund urban land to private individuals. The NEC endorsed the recent decision of the Board of Director’s of the JNF in Jerusalem which refused to sanction the sale. In adopting the resolution presented by David Bern of Chicago, at its meeting last weekend, the NEC called upon the ZOA administration “to take all necessary steps with the World Union of General Zionists and other world and national Zionist bodies in defense of the 70-year old JNF principle ‘that the land must remain in perpetuity the inalienable property of the Jewish people.'” It also called upon the ZOA “to reaffirm that the JNF must continue to remain autonomous and independent, so that it may serve Israel with unflagging effectiveness and meet its many challenging tasks in the years ahead.” The controversy arose when the government announced plans to sell JNF and state-owned lands to the 240,000 families now living on it in order to bring additional revenue to the national treasury. The Knesset would have to rescind a 1960 law which prohibits the sale of the lands.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
