{"id":33608,"date":"2019-12-05T12:27:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T09:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/?p=33608"},"modified":"2019-12-05T12:27:44","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T09:27:44","slug":"amana-profits-nis-1-million-per-year-on-expropriated-palestinian-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/amana-profits-nis-1-million-per-year-on-expropriated-palestinian-land","title":{"rendered":"Amana Profits NIS 1 Million Per Year on Expropriated Palestinian Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 1990s, the Amana settlement organization received from the state land\u00a0expropriated from Palestinians<\/a>\u00a0in questionable ways in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. This was done without a tender, and for a one-time payment of NIS 913,000. Amana\u00a0is an organization that\u00a0works to establish illegal settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank<\/a>\u00a0and is perhaps considered the most important organization in the settlement movement. In 2017, Amana established a large office headquarters known as Beit Amana on the land in question.<\/p>\n

Peace Now has learned that the Jerusalem Municipality is leasing a tract of land in the office building from Amana, and with the help of the Movement for the Freedom of Information<\/a>, Peace Now obtained the contracts between Amana and the municipality<\/a>\u00a0and between\u00a0Amana and the Israel Lands Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the evidence indicates, while Amana paid a one-time payment of NIS 913,640<\/strong>, it leases to the Jerusalem municipality an area of \u200b\u200babout 713 square meters in the building and receives from it NIS 930,892 each year<\/strong> as part of a 10-year contract with an extension option. The Jerusalem Municipality operates a branch of the Welfare Bureau for residents of the Israeli neighborhoods of the Northern Jerusalem area (and not the Palestinian neighborhoods where the building sits).<\/p>\n

In its contract with Amana, the municipality undertakes that the Welfare Bureau will not provide services to “a public with a criminal nature, including treating drug users, methadone users and\/or alcohol users.” Such a condition may be problematic in operating a Welfare Bureau that should assist disadvantaged populations with multiple problems, but it seems that Amana does not want in its office building, near its employees, people with difficult problems.<\/p>\n

The Jerusalem Municipality chose to operate in the Palestinian neighborhood, specifically, a welfare bureau for the city’s Jewish residents, and the bureau serves northern East Jerusalem settlement neighborhoods such as of Neve Ya’akov, Pisgat Ze’ev, and French Hill.<\/p>\n

Peace Now:<\/strong>\u00a0Not only does the Jerusalem municipality “indulge” a settler organization with a nice income, it also participates in the establishment of a settlement in a Palestinian neighborhood by providing services to Israelis, in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood. Amana is profiting on the backs of Palestinians 3 times: It built a luxurious office building for itself in the midst of a Palestinian neighborhood; it also strengthens the settlement it built by bringing in Israeli visitors to the welfare office inside the Palestinian neighborhood; and has treated itself to a nice income of about a million shekels a year at our expense and with the help of state and municipal institutions.<\/em><\/p>\n\"\"\n

For an article by Nir Hasson in Haaretz on the subject –\u00a0see here<\/a><\/p>\n

For Amana’s lease with the Jerusalem Municipality –\u00a0see here<\/a><\/p>\n

For Amana’s agreement with the Israel Lands Authority for the lease –\u00a0see here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1990s, the Amana settlement organization received from the state land\u00a0expropriated from Palestinians\u00a0in questionable ways in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. This was done without a tender, and for a one-time payment of NIS 913,000. Amana\u00a0is an organization that\u00a0works to establish illegal settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank\u00a0and is perhaps considered… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397,16],"tags":[2510,46,45,1687,177],"class_list":["post-33608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-jerusalem","category-settlement-watch","tag-amana","tag-east-jerusalem","tag-illegal-outposts","tag-sheikh-jarrah","tag-177"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33610,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33608\/revisions\/33610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}