03/12/2024

According to many US and Canadian synagogue members, for-profit companies have been renting out synagogues for the Israeli sale of stolen Palestinian Real Estate across the world.

These particular pieces of property being marketed are in West Bank settlements. The majority of international bodies, including the United States, consider these settlements illegal under international law.

Rich Siegel, a New Jersey resident, spoke out in condemnation of the sales at a Township Council meeting stating, "Hi, my name is Rich Siegel. I'm a 25 year homeowner here in Teaneck. I'm Jewish. The reason that I'm telling you that I'm Jewish is because I have a concern about something that's going on in the Jewish community. On March 10th, there is scheduled to be an Israeli real estate sales event at the Keter Torah synagogue. That event violates both domestic law and international law. It violates domestic law because we had a Civil Rights Act in 1965 and a Fair Housing Act in 1968. We don't allow real estate events to be for whites only or Jews only... for anybody only. Now, as Jews, we don't get to fly under the radar and break the law and hide it in the synagogue. It violates international law because West Bank settlement homes are going to be available for sale at this real estate event. On the website, it lists three different West Bank settlements. Those settlements are in and of themselves illegal by international law. If we allow this sale to go through, we are enabling a local synagogue to violate both domestic anti-discrimination laws and international law. Now, there's other reasons we shouldn't allow it, okay. There's a genocide going on right now. I don't care who that offends. More than 35,000 people have been killed, more than 13,000 children have been killed. People in this community are in deep mourning. People in this community are angry. I'm angry. What this real estate event is going to do is it's going to fan the flames."

Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, claimed in a video, "I'm here today outside a synagogue where they're selling properties built on land stolen from Palestinians. There's a real estate agency that's come here today to Toronto to sell properties built on stolen Palestinian land. It's kind of unbelievable that Canada permits this. It's clearly illegal. So we're here today to call that out and God willing to make it stop."