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U.S. Jewish Groups Refuse Aid to Refugees, By Aaron Klein (WorldNetDaily.com)
Excerpts;
Mainstream American Jewish groups largely have refused to aid the thousands of Jews evacuated last summer from the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom, fifteen months later, are unemployed, and none of whom received permanent housing promised by the Israeli government, WND has learned.
The former Gaza residents have appealed for help multiple times to major Jewish organizations in the U.S. but say they were mostly rejected.
Meanwhile, the U.S. groups, most of which supported Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, raised over $300 million for northern Israeli communities battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in July and August, including large sums of money for Arab villages.
Also, the American organizations recently initiated a major task force to raise money for underprivileged Israeli Arabs.
“With few exceptions, we have received almost no help from the mainstream Jewish American groups, which grant billions of dollars per year,” said Dror Vanunu, a former Gaza resident and the international coordinator for Friends of Gush Katif, a major nonprofit organization representing the Gaza Jewish refugees.
Vanunu said the U.S. Jewish groups “supported the Gaza withdrawal, telling Americans it would help bring peace. They see us in a political light, but it shouldn’t be this way. There are now thousands of Jews who are without permanent homes and whose children are having major problems.
“We are a humanitarian case, not political. Where is the Jewish brotherhood? The people who say they will not allow Jews to be in need? We are expecting them to become deeply involved in the restoration of our lives and hope they respond,” Vanunu said.
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Commentary:
It seems that Jewish Federations in the US as well as the “Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations have long inculcated and disciplined their constituent organizations and their donors; Do not donate to anythng over the ‘Green Line.’
Unquestionably the Residents of the North who were victimized by this summer’s Hezbollah Katushya Blitz and the resultant destruction, are worthy of assistance.
But one must wonder what it is about residents of the North that makes them MUCH MORE worthy of help and donations than are the displaced Expelled of Gush Katif in the eyes of Jewish Federations in the US and the “Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
And so, American Jews by-and-large, turn a blind-eye and deaf-ear to the plight of some their JEWISH Brethren, the former residents of Gush Katif, while jumping in with both feet offering endless assistance for the residents of the North.
This blind-eye and deaf-ear attitude, in this author’s opinion, is best exemplified by the classic remark of an individual constituent
last year during Rachel Saperstein’s fund-raising tour;
“‘You gave a powerful speech’ said one smiling man, ‘but I’ve got to get home. I have an early golf date in the morning.’” MB
(continued) U.S. Jewish Groups Refuse Aid to Refugees
Refugees ‘in desperate need’
In August, Israel evacuated its nearly 10,000 Jewish citizens from Gaza. Successive Israeli governments over the years had urged thousands of Israelis to move to Gaza and build communities there. Israel promised the expelled residents compensation packages and new permanent housing, employment, farm land and institutions of education.
A status report by Friends of Gush Katif found not a single Gush Katif family was provided permanent housing.
Ninety-eight percent of former Gush Katif residents are living in temporary structures, mostly in the Israeli Negev desert in small, government-built, prefabricated “trailer villas.” Residents there live largely in crowded conditions – in many cases lacking enough bedroom space to accommodate their families.
“You can punch through my wall,” a resident of Nitzan, the largest Gush Katif trailer community, told WND. “My friends come to visit me in coffee shops because there is not enough room in my living room for them to be comfortable.”
In some cases, including 50 families living in two Negev communities, former Gush Katif residents were given notice they must vacate their trailer villas within six months. The families, who were expecting permanent housing, say they will have nowhere to go.
Prior to their evacuation from Gaza, the vast majority of Gush Katif residents lived in large homes in landscaped communities. Many were farmers, tending to the area’s famous, technologically advanced greenhouses that supplied Israel with much of its produce. The Gush Katif unemployment rate was less than 1 percent.
Now, 51 percent of Gaza’s Jewish refugees are unemployed, and only 21 percent of former Gush Katif businesses have reopened.
Residents of the Negev trailer camps are predominantly former farmers, many of whom now say they’re not sure what they’ll do.
Israeli teen refugees suffer disorders, drop out from school
According to the most recent Gush Katif status report, many of the Jewish children expelled from Gaza suffer from a full range of traumatic and post-traumatic stress symptoms, including anxiety, depression, regressive behavior, general behavioral problems, lack of concentration and difficulty coping with new or challenging situations.
The Forum for Israel, a nonprofit group also working with Gush Katif refugees, recently outlined for the Knesset major problems facing Gush Katif refugee teenagers. The group pointed to an elevation in suicidal thoughts and eating disorders. The report also said 30 percent of former Gush Katif teens either failed to integrate to new schools or failed their final exams.
Jewish groups refuse aid, federation leader quits in protest
Until he resigned in February, New Jersey resident Buddy Macy served as a member of the board of trustees and a recording secretary for the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton-Passaic in New Jersey which belongs to the United Jewish Communities charity network, the most financially endowed Jewish charity group in the U.S.
The UJC reportedly raised over $850 million last year.
Since July, the UJC has garnered some $330 million in pledges from federation members to help Israel’s northern communities battered by Hezbollah rocket fire during the Jewish state’s military confrontation against the Lebanese militia.
The UJC is known to set the tone for thousands of Jewish charity organizations nationwide.
In an e-mail reply also widely circulated after it was posted by Macy, Rieger retorted, “I am not heartless. Read many of the comments which I have made publically [sic] on this subject. On the impact that dislocation has on individuals. And I have visited many of those who are now living in the Sinai and feel genuine concern for their plight.”
Former Gaza Jewish residents do not live in the Sinai, which is located in Egypt.
Rieger in the e-mail went on to blame the Gaza Jewish refugees for their current situation:
“I do believe that in the end that the priority must be the rule of law,” he said. “That many of those who found themselves without assistance after having to be uprooted also refused to engage with the system which was offering compensation.”
The vast majority – 1,450 of Katif’s 1,800 families – did not apply for government compensation ahead of Israel’s August evacuation deadline, some stating they feared if the withdrawal were allowed to be implemented in Gaza, it would lead to other evacuations in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem.
After the Gaza withdrawal, the Israeli government reoffered aid packages and said all residents would be fully compensated.
Almost all Gush Katif families applied.
Rieger was unavailable for comment. His spokesman, Glenn Rosencrantz, did not return several messages left by WND at his office and on his cell phone over the past three weeks.
In an e-mail reply also widely circulated after it was posted by Macy, Rieger retorted, “I am not heartless. Read many of the comments which I have made publically [sic] on this subject. On the impact that dislocation has on individuals. And I have visited many of those who are now living in the Sinai and feel genuine concern for their plight.”
Former Gaza Jewish residents do not live in the Sinai, which is located in Egypt.
Rieger in the e-mail went on to blame the Gaza Jewish refugees for their current situation:
“I do believe that in the end that the priority must be the rule of law,” he said. “That many of those who found themselves without assistance after having to be uprooted also refused to engage with the system which was offering compensation.”
The vast majority – 1,450 of Katif’s 1,800 families – did not apply for government compensation ahead of Israel’s August evacuation deadline, some stating they feared if the withdrawal were allowed to be implemented in Gaza, it would lead to other evacuations in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem.
After the Gaza withdrawal, the Israeli government reoffered aid packages and said all residents would be fully compensated.
Almost all Gush Katif families applied.
Rieger was unavailable for comment. His spokesman, Glenn Rosencrantz, did not return several messages left by WND at his office and on his cell phone over the past three weeks.
The National Council of Young Israel, an American synagogue organization, provided funds for specific campaigns under the leadership of the Council’s executive vice president, Pesach Lerner.
Some private donors, such as Irving and Cherna Moskowitz of Miami, have helped. Vanunu said some mainstream Canadian groups and philanthropists, largely located in Toronto, including David and Rachelle Bronfman, have been providing aid. The Bronfmans, whose extended family of well-known Jewish billionaire philanthropists largely supported the Gaza evacuation, also provided assistance last summer to help stop the withdrawal from being carried out.
“The Toronto community has been enormously receptive,” he said. “I would really like to apply that model to the American organizations.”