Real estate has no place in US synagogues — especially when it’s Palestinian land

What is a synagogue when it’s not serving as a place of worship, a house of study, or a community center? 

One answer comes from American supporters of the Israeli government’s expansionist policies. For them, a synagogue is a legitimate shell, a shield and an implicit shill for profit-making companies selling disputed land on the Occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. 

This, even though some of the land promoted may have been taken at gunpoint from its rightful Palestinian owners, through discriminatory legal legerdemain or with the Israeli Defense Force’s collusion. And now, these houses of worship are facilitating investments and sales to American, Canadian, British and Australian Jews. 

The issue has become a global flashpoint, with significant reaction. 

“Events promoting real estate investment in Israel and the occupied West Bank have been held across the New York area for years,” The New York Times reported in May. “But in recent months, an energized pro-Palestinian movement has drawn public attention to these events through rancorous protests outside synagogues that have hosted them.”

At synagogues in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Los Angeles, these invitation-only events go by names like “My Home in Israel” and “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event.” Critics say “The Great Israeli-American Land Grab” would be more accurate.  

To be clear, not all the land on offer for sale at synagogues was taken at gunpoint on the West Bank. Some is in Israel proper and areas of East Jerusalem, now or previously occupied by Arabs. 

Both Palestinian Americans and Jewish activists have protested such marketing events, dubbing them “the sale of stolen Palestinian land.” Sometimes shouting and shoving matches with pro-Israel counterprotesters ensue. In Britain on June 15, London........

© The Hill