Those of us who stand for equality and against racism must support the recent purchase of an abandoned church near Hebron by philanthropists Cherna & Dr. Irving Moskowitz which is attracting headlines. People are free to live anywhere they choose in the world, and this purchase was made legally – so what is the story?
Little in the Middle East is ever simple, hence headlines about the fact that a “shell corporation” was used to purchase this property. While details are not confirmed, certain media outlets have reported that a Swedish organization with no other holdings purchased the properties from a church. Unlike the recent New York Times profiles about wealthy people using shell companies to buy real estate to evade taxes, this purchase was made through a shell corporation because there is a practice of racism and discrimination against Jews who seek to buy real estate (or live) in this part of the world. And naturally there were Palestinian protestors against these Jews who legally bought the home.
Anywhere else in the world that is called racism. Jews can buy homes anywhere they want in New York City, in Moscow, in Tokyo, in Paris – so why not anywhere they choose in the Middle East? While Arabs live freely in the State of Israel, why is it that Jews aren’t permitted in nearly every Arab country? These are the questions which should be asked.
The reality is that there would rightfully be outrage if there were protests about white people moving into Harlem. Imagine if black people moved into Dublin, Ireland and were condemned for it. If the peace process is incapable of digesting the presence of an American entrepreneur purchasing and repairing a formerly abandoned property which 20 families are slated to live in close the second holiest city in Judaism, then its fragility is indeed beyond repair.
Cherna Moskowitz, the purchaser of this property spoke of those who condemn purchases such as this clearly on a previous occurrence by saying, “It seems to be a continuation of a 2,000-year-old habit of Jews being told where they can and cannot live. This spanned from the ghettos of medieval Europe, to severe zoning restrictions in czarist Russia and finally to the edicts of Nazism, where we were eventually told that we could not live at all. Can it be possible that we will accept any part of that today in our own nation? Jews should be able to live anywhere in the world.” She’s right.
The world condemns Israel whether they buy homes or not. The obstruction to Middle East peace is not Jews legally buying homes – it is that Israel’s neighbors do not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
If democracy and civil rights matter, why can’t Jews buy real estate and live wherever they want?