Jewish National Fund

Established in 1921 to purchase land for Jewish settlement in Ottoman-era Palestine, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) continues to be a significant landowner in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT). In 1953, the JNF was dissolved and reorganized as an Israeli company under the name Keren Kayemeth LeYisrael (KKL-JNF), while a governmental agency, the Israel Land Administration, was tasked with administering land that is in the public domain, including JNF land holdings state land, and land that is the property of the Development Authority (comprising 93 percent of the land in Israel). Rights organizations have repeatedly petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to challenge the discriminatory role of the JNF—whose funds are only allocated for Jewish settlement—in governing land use in Israel.