New York, NY – On Sept. 18, around 40 activists and community members gathered in front of the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue to rally against the Jewish National Fund.

On the weekend of Sept. 16-19, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) was hosting a conference to discuss its future plans, programs and partnerships to continue its agenda of stealing Palestinian land and giving it to Jewish-only settlers. The JNF has worked with impunity for decades to fund the ever-growing state of Israel. It is a fund raising, non-profit charity whose whole purpose and goal is the forced removal of Palestinians from their land. In their mission statement it explicitly states that any land they acquire cannot be rented, leased, sold or worked by non-Jews. Every year, the JNF raises $60 million in the U.S. for its cause.

Protesters were barred off on the other side of the street, while Zionist counter-protesters jeered and danced with an Israeli flag, unhindered by the police, in front of the hotel’s entrance. However, the pro-Palestine protesters were loud and militant with their Palestine flags and signs that read “Stealing land is not charity.” Chants ranged from, “There is only one solution! Intifada! Revolution!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!”

The protest turned into a march and went around the block. The numbers that were there protesting the JNF vastly outnumbered the meager handful of Zionist supporters.

At the end of the event, one of the organizers announced that there was going to be another protest later that week as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was going to be in the city receiving an award. This is mere days after a $38 billion dollar military aid package, the largest in U.S. history, to Israel. The protest is going to be Thursday, Sept. 22 at the Plaza Hotel at 6 p.m.

The organizers and endorsers of the anti-JNF protest were the Stop the JNF campaign, the US Palestinian Community Network, American Muslims for Palestine, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the National Lawyers Guild – Palestine Sub-Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Labor for Palestine and Al-Awda NY.

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