Israel Land Fund

The Israel Land Fund describes its purpose as continuing the work of earlier Jewish pioneers by redeeming and purchasing land throughout Eretz Yisrael for the Jewish people.[1] It was established in 2007 as a nonprofit organization.[1] Aryeh King founded the fund at the behest of philanthropist Guma Aguiar.[2] King could not disclose how much money supported the fund or identify its primary investors at the time of that reporting.[2]

In 2021, when King became deputy mayor of Jerusalem, management of the fund passed to Elishiv Kimchi.[3] The fund's own profile describes its role as connecting Jews in Israel and the diaspora with opportunities to buy land or buildings in Israel.[3]

The fund presents its work as a direct response to non-Jews acquiring property in Israel, including in Jerusalem, arguing that such acquisitions can allow hostile or enemy elements to establish themselves on the ground.[1] It frames its aim as enabling Jews, both in Israel and abroad, to own land and ensuring that land is returned to and maintained by Jews.[1]

The organization describes four strands of activity: acquiring land and property from non-Jews for Jewish investors; purchasing land and property from Jewish heirs; assisting owners and tenants of Jewish-owned properties in what it terms strategic areas, including through renovation, maintenance, and resident support; and offering geopolitical information tours at acquisition and transaction sites for domestic and international visitors.[1]

King described two particular lines of operational work: identifying property he said had been Jewish-owned and registered with Turkish or British authorities, and matching Arab property owners who wished to sell with Jewish buyers.[2] The fund's website screened inquiries to ensure that potential investors were Jewish and provided limited details about properties for sale.[2] King suggested that individuals could participate with investments of $10,000 to $15,000, connecting purchasers to Eretz Yisrael.[2]

Prospective buyers first meet with a fund representative and must provide a recommendation from a person, organization, or community known to the fund; this requirement is described by the fund as intended to prevent sales to hostile parties.[7] Properties are initially presented without identifying details, and the seller's identity is disclosed — along with a permitted site visit — only once the fund considers a buyer serious and credible.[7] The buyer may then negotiate directly or have the fund represent them through signing and registration.[7]

The purchase process is guided by a registered Israeli lawyer specializing in property law; buyers may use that attorney or appoint their own, in which case a fund representative oversees the transaction without providing legal representation.[7] Following registration in the buyer's name with the Israel Land Authority, the fund supplies a purchase certificate, property map, and copy of the ownership document.[7] The fund also says it may help find tenants for a property and connect new owners with tenants or farmers.[7]

The fund's donation page states that it reviews and investigates hundreds of transactions across the country each year, but that only approximately 0.03% reach acquisition and closing — a proportion it attributes to an in-depth investigation process and, in some cases, lengthy legal proceedings requiring professional involvement and fieldwork.[8]

The ILF has been reported as helping Jews buy property across Israel and in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[9] Its activities have included projects in Jerusalem and mixed Jewish-Arab cities such as Jaffa and Acre, while its own archive lists partnerships in Jerusalem's Nof Zion and Gilo neighborhoods.[2][10]

In Jaffa, King told The Times of Israel in 2022 that the fund had helped bring approximately 50 families into the city, with backing from an unnamed donor who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars.[9] The Jerusalem Post described the fund's projects in Jaffa and Acre as seeking to establish a right-wing, mainly Orthodox Jewish presence in those cities.[2] In Acre, a northern port city whose mostly Arab Old City is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the fund was reported to be seeking investors for a $16 million residential, hotel, and country-club development.[9]

In 2012, The Times of Israel reported that the fund took over efforts to obtain two homes in Beit Hanina that it said had been Jewish-owned before 1948 and that an Israeli court had ruled had been legally purchased by Jews.[11] Following the eviction of Palestinian residents, Jewish families moved in, and the fund planned to develop a Jewish enclave of 50 apartments in the neighborhood.[11] A 2015 Jerusalem Post report described a court case in Kafr Aqab, beyond the security fence, involving 12 Palestinian families who had lived on the properties for decades; the report noted that the houses had been built without permits and that it was unclear whether the families had known the land had Jewish owners.[12] King was quoted as planning for Jewish families to move in and describing the site as a first step toward a new Jewish neighborhood.[12]

In 2009, King was reported by Ynet as defending plans for Jewish housing in Ras al-Amud, arguing that descriptions of the site as lying in the heart of an Arab-populated area were misleading.[13] The same report described a proposed expansion of housing units in the neighborhood tied to the Bukharian Jewish community, though the fund was linked to advocacy for construction there rather than ownership of the land or submission of the development plan.[13]

The fund's project archive describes a 2015 partnership to recruit Jewish investors to preserve land reserves in Jerusalem's Nof Zion neighborhood, responding to an attempted acquisition of the rights-holding company.[10] It also identifies itself as a partner in the Nofei Rachel residential project in Gilo, comprising 250 housing units, and in the 2016 Nof Shmuel project in northern Jerusalem, comprising 200 units.[10]

U.S. Department of State human rights reports covering 2009 and 2010 identified the ILF as an NGO and said it continued a program of purchasing Arab land throughout Israel and marketing it to Jewish buyers, including buyers in the diaspora.[4][5] The 2015 report repeated that description and likewise recorded the organization's claim that all the land belonged to Jews and its characterization of the purchase of Jewish-owned land by non-Jews as a "danger."[6]

These reports situated the fund's activities within a broader policy context. The 2009 report noted that approximately 93 percent of land in Israel was in the public domain, and that approximately 12.5 percent was owned by the Jewish National Fund, whose statutes prohibited sale or lease to non-Jews.[4] It also referenced a 2005 attorney general ruling that the government could not discriminate against Arab citizens in marketing and allocating state-managed land, and a 2009 law concerning land privatization and exchanges with the Jewish National Fund.[4] The 2010 report noted that legal petitions concerning the Jewish National Fund's policy of leasing public land only to Jews were ongoing at year's end.[5] The reports described the policy environment around the fund's work; they did not constitute legal determinations about the fund's own activities.[4][6]

The ILF's activities have drawn criticism, primarily focused on its role in establishing Jewish presence in Arab-majority neighborhoods and its involvement in property disputes that have resulted in evictions of Palestinian and Arab residents. Critics quoted in The Jerusalem Post characterized Jewish settlement in Arab-majority neighborhoods as provocative and raised allegations about pressure on residents and harmful effects on Palestinian homeowners; these were presented as critics' claims rather than established findings.[2]

A 2023 Ynet report noted that the Israel Land Fund was among the organizations named in proposed New York State legislation targeting groups that support Israeli activity beyond the 1967 lines; the report stated that the fund had financed construction in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, though that claim appeared in the context of coverage of the proposed bill and its provisions rather than as independently verified financial information.[14]

The fund's property-screening practices — including screening potential investors as Jewish and requiring a community recommendation — and its stated framing of non-Jewish land acquisitions as a security threat are matters of political contestation.[2][7] The fund presents these positions as its organizational rationale, while critics quoted in reporting have characterized related settlement efforts in Arab-majority neighborhoods as provocative and harmful to Palestinian homeowners.[2] In Beit Hanina, a court ruling reported by The Times of Israel held that Jews had legally purchased two homes that the fund said were Jewish-owned before 1948; the Kafr Aqab case likewise involved a court-ordered departure from plots reported as Jewish-owned.[11][12]