“The Great Israeli Real Estate Event” toured the US and Canada, exhibiting property for sale on stolen Palestinian land.
Each event has been met with mass protests by Palestine solidarity activists.
The events featured the real estate company My Home in Israel and were hosted in Montreal; Toronto; Teaneck, New Jersey; Lawrence, New York; and Brooklyn, New York.
These showcases of illegal settlement properties are not uncommon in US Jewish communities, but due to the genocide in Gaza, Palestine has received increased scrutiny in North America.
The Palestine solidarity movement sprang into action, protesting outside all five events across the US and Canada.
The final event, in Brooklyn, scheduled for 13 March, was cancelled in response to a scheduled protest and after the four prior events were met with demonstrations.
Each of these events was held at a synagogue, which made any protests susceptible to accusations of antisemitism.
Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia, spoke at a protest in front of the Brooklyn Public Library, a rally that was originally going to be right in front of the real estate event in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
However, due to successful protest and public pressure, this last iteration of the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” was canceled.
“As people of conscience, we would be opposed to this, no matter where it took place,” Miner said.
“But why did they put it in a synagogue? It’s because they want to be able to cry antisemitism when we as a multinational movement of people, which includes Jews like myself… come together to confront this illegal act.” – Peoples Dispatch/Globetrotter News Service
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- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Closed-door meetings held in some synagogues in the US and Canada to sell properties belonging to Palestinians from areas where illegal settlers reside in East Jerusalem and the West Bank have sparked outrage across the US.
One of these meetings, organized by the Texas-based real estate company Keller Williams, was protested in Englewood, New Jersey.
Dozens of protesters, including pro-peace Jews, gathered outside the Ahavath Torah Synagogue in Englewood, holding Palestinian flags and protesting the sale of properties to American Zionist Jews from illegal settlement areas.
Surrounded by tight police security measures, the protesters gathered near the synagogue, for hours chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine,” “End the Israeli occupation,” and “Illegal settlements must stop.”
In the pouring rain, protesters carried banners saying: “You can’t sell stolen lands,” “This is land theft,” and “Do not do business on stolen lands.”
Leila Hazou, the daughter of a Palestinian who was born in Jerusalem, said that she came from Milford, Pennsylvania, nearly two hours away, to protest “the greatest injustice of our time.”
Decrying the meeting inside the synagogue, Hazou told Anadolu: “It’s a disgusting situation for me that lands and properties that don’t belong to them and are illegally settled are being sold. It’s illegal and morally wrong in many ways. This shouldn’t happen in this country or anywhere else. That’s why we had to be here to reject it.”
The New Jersey office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also condemned the sales.
“Places of worship should be sacred. The use of places of worship like synagogues to sell stolen lands by violating international law is deeply concerning,” CAIR said in a written statement.
The sales meetings, organized by realtor Keller Williams along with the illegal Israeli settlers group “Your Home in Israel,” are being held privately in New Jersey, New York, Toronto, and Montreal.
Pre-registration is required for the meetings, and only Jewish members are allowed to enter.
Estimates indicate about 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
All Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal under international law.
Israel has waged a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed at least 30,631 people and injured 72,043 others with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.