"Real estate events to sell stolen Palestinian land met with protests internationally" by Natalia Marques
"The sale of land parcels in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem is happening in violation of international and domestic civil rights law." by Marc Steiner
Six months into the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, there is little use denying that what is taking place before our eyes is an intended land grab. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have called for Gaza to be “resettled” and for the Palestinian population to be expelled. And in the US, the likes of Ben Gvir and Smotrich have their allies and accomplices who hope to profit from the theft of Palestinian land. Across the US, real estate events advertising the sale of land parcels in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem have begun to appear. Activist, journalist, and filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield joins The Marc Steiner Show to discuss the recent protests against one such real estate event in Baltimore.
The transcript for the interview with Eleanor can be read here.
The protest in Baltimore is just one of many that have been held in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world in relation to the sale of Palestinian land reduced to rubble courtesy of the IOF funded by the U.S., UK, Canada and others.
The following is a reposting of an article published by Peoples Dispatch on March 14th.
Zionist protesters confronting members of Neturei Karta participating in a pro-Palestine protest in Cedarhurst, Long Island.
“The Great Real Estate Event” has been touring the United States and Canada, exhibiting property for sale on stolen Palestinian land. Each event has been met with mass protests by Palestine solidarity activists, sometimes leading to clashes with Zionist attendees and protesters.
The events have been organized by the real estate company My Home in Israel, and sponsored by real estate firms such as the Emanuel Group, International Marketing and Promotion (IMP), and JewishPress. Events have been organized in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, and in the US in Teaneck, New Jersey, Lawrence, New York, and Brooklyn, New York.
The event website offers attendees the opportunity to “own a piece of the Holy Land!”
My Home is Israel is designing the process of illegal Israeli settlement to be as simple as possible. On the company’s Frequently Asked Questions page, it claims that a foreign resident (anyone not a tax resident of Israel) “can carry out a real estate transaction in Israel, from start to finish, even without coming to Israel.”
These showcases of illegal settlement properties are not uncommon in US Jewish communities, but due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the issue of Palestine has received increased scrutiny in North America. The Palestine solidarity movement sprung into action, protesting outside of all five events across the US and Canada. The final event, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, scheduled for March 13, was in fact canceled in response to a large scheduled protest and after the four prior events were met with nonstop demonstrations. Each of these events was held at a Synagogue, which made any protests uniquely susceptible to accusations of anti-semitism. Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia, spoke at a protest in Brooklyn, which relocated to another location after the real estate event in Flatbush was canceled. Hundreds gathered in Grand Army Plaza, 30 minutes north of the original event location, to celebrate the victory of shutting down the event.
Miner spoke about what he viewed as “a particularly insidious part” of the event, which was its location in a synagogue. “As people of conscience, we would be opposed to this, no matter where it took place,” he said. “But why did they put it in a synagogue? It’s because they want to be able to cry anti-semitism when we as a multi-national movement of people, which includes Jews like myself… come together to confront this illegal act.”
Indeed, as stated by the Palestinian Youth Movement, “At the event, Israeli real estate companies were planning to sell real estate in illegal settlements such as Neve Daniel, Efrat, Ma’ale Adumim… Most of these properties will only be made available for sale to Jewish buyers, in a racist violation of both domestic and international law.”
Pro-Palestine activists protesting the real estate event in the Long Island village of Cedarhurst on Tuesday March 12, were met with a crowd of hundreds of racist counter-protesters.
[I am inserting the video below from the tweet above:]
Witness video captures Zionist counter protesters shouting a confusing medley of slogans at the Palestine solidarity demonstrators—chanting “Palestine doesn’t exist!” while also telling activists to “go back to Palestine!” One Zionist counter protester was dressed in IDF uniform, waving an IDF flag out of a moving car, making rude gestures at demonstrators. According to witness reports, counter protesters also displayed symbols of racism and violence against Black people, with one individual having tied a noose attached to a Black doll around his neck.
Like in Brooklyn, some members of the Jewish community also took part in the Pro-Palestine protest of the real estate event. A rabbi from famously pro-Palestine Jewish group Neturei Karta spoke to the crowd on the Palestine solidarity side outside of the real estate event, “Those selling the stolen properties, those purchasing the stolen properties, are thieves,” said the rabbi. “Internationally, the world recognizes that the settlements are stolen property.”
Pointing across the street at the Zionist counter protesters, the rabbi directly addressed them, “Now you are fighting not Palestine, you… are fighting the entire world with no exception.”
Rachel Hu, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who lives in Long Island, spoke to Peoples Dispatch about her experience protesting the real estate event. Hu recounted hearing homophobic slurs, seeing trucks carrying “Make America Great Again” flags, and witnessing a car attempt to drive into pro-Palestine protesters.
Speaking on the power of having members of the Jewish community visibly on the pro-Palestinian side within a Zionist stronghold in Long Island, Hu said “I saw a bunch of young teenagers that were Jewish come over and start talking to [Neturei Karta], and you could just see the wheels turning in their brain, of something they didn’t expect.”
“I think they were really surprised by the way that all the different kinds of people that were there,” Hu said. “We had people literally of all backgrounds like attending. And I think that really did surprise some of them, at least some of the young people. They came over and they were talking to the rabbi and you could just see their worldview changing.”
“We’re not here to protest the synagogue. We’re not here to tell you to be cowed, or be afraid by the tactics of the Zionists. They were definitely trying to intimidate us on every front, but we are a coalition of people that truly represent people all around the world that stand with Palestine.”
I imagine that most of you have seen the Jared Kushner video clip wherein he comments that he’s “not sure there’s much left of Gaza at this point. Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable… It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there but I think form Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up. But I I don't think that Israel uh has stated that they don't want the people to move back there afterwards.”
Whilst looking for the iconic Jared Kushner video clip about the lovely beachfront Palestinian real estate for sale in the Gaza strip, I came across this tweet and video clip posted by Jeremy Loffredo.
Please watch the video clip from the tweet above.
If you haven’t already, I recommend watching Jeremy Loffredo’s 17 minute film compiled from footage he took whilst he was embedded with Israeli citizens who were supporting the Zionist cause by blocking aid trucks from entering Gaza.
Journalist Jeremy Loffredo goes inside the grassroots Israeli campaign to block desperately needed aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and elicits the shockingly candid views of the Jewish Israeli nationalists manning the barricades.
Setting out on a bus caravan through illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Loffredo arrives at the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza, filming Israeli citizens as they physically block trucks loaded with flour and other essential goods. There, a reservist who served in the military assault on Gaza confesses to an array of war crimes, including blowing up the offices of UN centers dedicated to providing food to the local population.
Loffredo then joins nationalists on a march toward Gaza, where they hope to establish new settlements after the population is violently driven out.
This original Grayzone report was produced thanks to viewers like you.
This isn’t of course the first time colonial entities have committed atrocities, ethnic cleansing and genocide, and then taken over land that did not belong to them.
This is so sick. Thanks for sharing, Azra. We all need to know about these things.
I am so saddened to see humans talking and acting this way against other humans. I feel there is no hope. Thanks for this, Azra.