Galilee farmers sold their lands to Persian Gulf tycoons, and protestors will gather on Thursday at the monument to Alexander Zaid - a man who gave his life for the sake of keeping the land Jewish.

It was announced this week – less than a month after the Knesset narrowly passed the controversial lands privatization bill - that farmers in the northern Galilee had sold their land holdings to foreign elements.

The sums involved were significantly more than the assumed worth of the properties. In at least some of the cases, the money was traced back to elements in the Persian Gulf, in Arab countries that have no diplomatic relations with Israel.

The farmers say they were "forced" to sell because of their poor financial situations.

In protest, members of the “Task Force Against the Privatization of Israeli Lands” said they would ascend on Thursday to the statue of Alexander Zaid in Beit She’arim in the Galilee.  Zaid, who was murdered by Arabs in 1938 while performing guard duty in his Galilee settlement, was a founder of two Jewish defense organizations aiming to safeguard the Jewish agricultural settlements in the Land of Israel. He also worked as a watchman, overseeing the lands of the JNF.

The Task Force warns that the recent land sales to Persian Gulf elements “are just a small example of what is about to happen in the State of Israel following the privatization of lands.” 

The bill that was passed, despite strong across-the-spectrum opposition, stipulates that 400,000 dunams (400 square kilometers, over 150 square miles) will be put up for sale to private interests.

Local political leaders in the north expressed concern over the sales. Mevo’ot Hermon Regional Council head Benny Ben-Merhav said that dozens of dunams (quarter-acres) have been sold recently to foreign elements, and the mayor of Rosh Pina, Avihud Raski, said, “The farmers’ financial situation left them no choice. I raised the issue with the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Lands Authority, and I said that we have to establish a mechanism to ensure that our lands remain in Israeli hands – but they did nothing.”

Gov't: Private Land is Not Our Business
The government and JNF say there’s nothing they can do. “We cannot intervene,” a JNF source said, “because these are private lands.” Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon (Labor) and Housing Minister Ariel Attias (Shas) said essentially the same.

Gil Plotkin, of the Anti-Privatization Task Force, said, “We decided to hold our protest at the Zaid monument, which stands for the preservation of Jewish land in the north, in order to remind the public how we bought and preserved our lands before the State was established. Our generation must maintain those same Zionist and pioneering values. Selling our lands for profit is a grave and immediate danger, and the government must wake up and revoke the law enabling the transfer of lands to private hands.”