Jewish National Fund (JNF) The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 during the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. It was set up as part of a network of charities to colonize land for Jews in Palestine. The JNF was originally set up as a non-governmental organization yet having been given the special relationship with the Israeli government, it can be argued that the JNF is a quasigovernmental agency. The JNF currently holds title to about 13 percent of the 93 percent of Israeli state-controlled land, and all land controlled by JNF - owed or administered - is leased to Jews only.115 The JNF cannot sell the lands as it holds them on behalf of “the Jewish People in perpetuity,” but it can develop them and lease them to any Jew or to a company under Jewish control.116 The main development carried out by the JNF in these lands has been forestation, mainly with the goal of concealing the Palestinian villages that used to be there. More than two thirds of the JNF forests are planted on Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel.117 A JNF staff member admitted that, “a great part of our parks are on lands that were Arab villages, and the forests are a cover-up.”118 Forestation Plans The JNF, which is carrying out plans on behalf of the ILA, considers the village of al-Araqib a “recreational area” designated for forestation.119 The JNF made the first attempt to forest al-Araqib lands in 1998. Around 45 families returned to al-Araqib around that time recognizing that a forest on their lands would hinder their claims to the land.120 The move by the 115 Palestine Land Society, “Jewish National Fund’s Violation of International and Domestic Law,” August 2005, available at: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/JNF/Story1513.html [accessed 21 September 2017]. 116 Ibid. 117 Eitan Bronstein Aparicio, “Most JNF - KKL forests and sites are located on the ruins of Palestinian villages,” Zochrot, April 2014, available at: http://www.zochrot.org/en/article/55963 [accessed 21 Septmeber 2017]. 118 SOS Israel, “Eretz Yisroel Shelanu Expose: The Arab ’Right of Return’ Begins at ’Park Ayalon Canada’,” June 2008, available at: http://www.sos-israel.com/?pageID=6319&siteLang=2 [accessed 21 September 2017]. 119 Noga Malkin, “Erasing links to the land in the Negev,” Foreign Policy, 11 March 2011, available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/03/11/erasing-links-to-the-land-in-the-negev/ [accessed 25 September 2017]. 120 Nadia Ben-Youssef, Suhad Bishara, and Rina Rosenberg, “The forced displacement of Palestinians,” Open Democracy, 19 September 2013, available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/nadia-benyoussef-suhad-bishara-rina-rosenberg/forced-displacement-of-palestinians [accessed 21 September 2017] [hereinafter Ben-Youssef, Bishara, Rosenberg, “Forced Displacement”]. 44