Jewish National Fund - Fundraising Campaigns

Fundraising Campaigns

The Jewish National Fund has arms in other countries, active in fundraising for the benefit of the JNF-KKL in Israel. The United States arm of the JNF was incorporated on January 26, 1926 and developed a uniquely American effort to support development in Israel. JNF-USA continues to play an important leadership role in the JNF family and claims to be the largest contributor to JNF-KKL in the world. In 1996, the JNF-USA was accused of mismanaging funds. According to the charges, only 21% of US donations reached Israel, and money was being diverted to Latin American JNF offices. In the wake of this scandal, the North American management was forced to resign.

The tax-exempt status of the JNF-USA was challenged in 2011 as violating the public policy of the United States with respect to ethnic and religious discrimination. However, it is doubtful that these policies would be applied to activities outside the United States.

In the United Kingdom, the JNF-UK (full name JNF Charitable Trust) was formed in 1939 and is registered as a charitable organization. In October 2005, the JNF-KKL in Israel split from its British partner, accusing JNF-UK of having “misled” the public. The JNF-KKL claimed that the British group was using the KKL name to raise funds “for their own causes which are not associated with KKL.” The Israeli JNF-KKL then threatened to launch a separate fundraising operation in the UK because it was receiving too little money from JNF-UK. JNF-UK then launched a legal action in an attempt to stop KKL using the names "JNF" or "Jewish National Fund" in the UK. The two organisations ran up an estimated £4 million of costs between them before making peace after the Israeli-born businessman Samuel Hayek took over as JNF-UK chairman in 2008. In fact, the Israeli JNF-KKL ended its dispute with the JNF-UK within weeks of ending a similar dispute with the American JNF-USA

The charitable status of the JNF-UK has come under increasing attack. British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had been Honorary Patrons of the JNF-UK, like all British prime ministers before them since its inception. Confounding expectations, David Cameron resigned as Honorary Patron to JNF-UK in 2011. According to a spokesman, Cameron's surprise refusal was due to the JNF-UK being an organisation that was specifically focused around work in one specific country, i.e. Israel. Cameron's decision was interpreted as a snub, in spite of the spokesman's assurances that his decision had "absolutely nothing to do with any anti-Israel campaign". However, campaigners claimed that Cameron's resignation was due to political pressures motivated by the JNF-KKL's discriminatory policies in Israel. Since then, the JNF-UK's Honorary Patrons include no leader of the main British political parties. An Early Day Motion in the British parliament condemning the JNF and calling for the revocation of the JNF's charitable status in the UK was launched in 2011 and by February 2012 had been signed by 66 Members of Parliament. In 2012 the Green Party called for the JNF to be stripped of its charity status and pledged to sign up to a campaign which calls the charity "racist".