Pro-Palestine Protesters Clash with Racist Mob at Bergenfield Illegal Land Sale Event
On Thursday, November 7, activists opposing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine protested the latest in a series of events opposing the sale of real estate on illegally occupied Palestinian land to an audience of New Jersey zionist Jews. Protesters held signs with messages including “‘End Theft of Palestinian Land”, “Stop the Sale of Stolen Land”, “Palestinians Have a Right To Return To Their Land,” and “This Jew Says NO! To Ethnic Cleansing!” Protesters were met with a crowd of jeering supporters of the event, with flags, signs, and clothes celebrating Donald Trump and the zionist military. While pro-Palestine protesters were subjected to racist taunts about exploding beepers and followed and harassed by a menacing individual on a scooter as individuals arrived and left the demonstration, the two groups were kept separate by barricades, preventing direct contact between the groups.
The real estate event, held at the home of Steven Shockey Klar and Rebecca Klar at 102 Spring Avenue in Bergenfield by real estate firm My Israel Home, encouraged attendees to purchase planned real estate in Aderet Jerusalem, a real estate development in the planned Givat HaMatos settlement. My Israel Home’s Gedaliah Borvick bills Givat HaMatos as “Central Jerusalem’s Newest Neighborhood,” an area he describes as “liberated in 1967” when the zionist entity began its illegal occupation of the West Bank. Givat Hamatos has been condemned by both the European Union and the United States as in violation of international law and an obstacle to peace.
“Companies like My Israel Home profit from the expansion of the Jewish ethnostate by ethnically cleansing and settling Jerusalem beyond the Green Line and ultimately the entire West Bank. The racist mobs that come out in support of these events do so not to oppose antisemitism, but to support the further displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland.” said Adam Weissman, a Jewish resident of neighboring Teaneck.
The Bergenfield event was one of a series of eight November events by the real estate firm encouraging Jews in New York and New Jersey to “come home” by purchasing properties in “magnificent Jerusalem projects” – a right denied to the over 8 million Palestinians displaced as a result of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
During the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, Zionist terror groups murdered 15,000 Palestinians, violently displaced 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, and destroyed 500 Palestinian villages. The zionist entity has been encouraging Jews to emigrate and occupy this stolen land ever since. Under the zionists’ Law of Return, all Jews are granted the right to emigrate to and become citizens of the zionist entity. By contrast, Palestinians are prohibited from returning to the homeland almost a million Palestinians were violently displaced from, in flagrant violation of UN Resolution 194 and many subsequent resolutions over the past 76 years. Real estate agents “based in “israel”, with no legal presence in the U.S. like My Israel Home are constantly soliciting New Jersey Jews, along with others across the U.S. to buy property in the zionist entity, profiting off of settler colonialism even as the “israeli” occupation forces continues its genocidal project in the West Bank and in Gaza.
“Real estate companies like My Israel Home profit from stolen land sales, encouraging New Jersey Jews to emigrate to a land many have never before set foot in while Palestinians ethnically cleansed in 1948 and their descendants are denied the right to return to their homeland.” said Tova of Palestinian Assembly for Liberation-Awda NY/NJ, who provided event organizers with a demand letter to cease and desist, compiled by the PAL Law Commission, describing all the ways the hosts are in violating state, federal, and international law and thus in legal jeopardy by holding these stolen land real estate events.
The protest was sponsored by Teaneck for Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine NJ Chapter, Palestinian Assembly for Liberation-Awda NY/NJ (PAL-Awda NY/NJ), Party for Socialism and Liberation NJ, NJ Anti-Zionist Minyan and West Orange for Humanity.
