NYC politician leads West Bank homebuying junket

Flyer for Hikind's radio show

The road from Brooklyn to the West Bank is paved by politicians. Influential New York assemblyman Dov Hikind is leading a busload of potential Jewish-American homebuyers to the West Bank. Approximately fifty Americans are accompanying Hikind, who also hosts a local radio show, on the trip.

The trip is part of “Project Buy a Home”, which was heavily promoted in American Orthodox Jewish community media. Attendees paid $1350 to travel with Hikind to the West Bank and Jerusalem; the price included airfare.

The trip is taking visitors to several housing developments within territory conquered by Israel in 1967. While the formerly Jordanian portions of Jerusalem have been formally annexed to Israel (in a move which was not recognized by the international community), the West Bank remains in a nebulous gray zone. The Israeli government has encouraged the migration of Israeli-born and foreign Jews to the region, where they live in towns with full infrastructure and are administered by Israeli civil law; Palestinian Arabs in the region were never granted Israeli citizenship and, in areas where the Palestinian Authority does not maintain full control (the vast majority of the West Bank), are administered by Israeli military law. They are also subject to frequent roadblocks and petty harassment.

Apart from visiting new developments, the trip gave the state assemblyman an opportunity to bloviate about his vision of Israel:

“Obama, Clinton, and the others – we will continue to give our message to those who just don’t get it, and that is that these communities will continue to grow and get stronger, regardless of the position taken by any American president. There will continue to be more and more people here as pressure is applied to Israel.”

The bloviating, it seems, was just as important as the real estate purchases. Check out this excerpt (emphasis ours) from the itinerary:

According to Dov Hikind, Democratic State Assemblyman(D-NY), leading the mission, “Our goal is to send a clear message to Washington and President Obama that Jews will continue to live in Judea and Samaria and the ultimate commitment American Jews can make is to actually come and buy property in these areas as this will ensure these communities’ security and growth.”

Highlights of the mission (open to media) include:

·Monday Touring of Samaria Settlements to Ariel, Alon Moreh, Har Grizim & the Gilad Farm
·Tuesday Touring Shilo, Amona, Shdema and Tekoa
·Wednesday Touring of eastern Jerusalem Jewish Neighborhoods and cornerstone laying of new project in Nof Tzion (near Jabel Mukaber).

The mission will bring participants to developing projects in the territories. Hikind says they will be encouraged to make purchases at this time. “Rather than buying second homes in Florida, people must consider buying in our historical homeland,” adding, “We will show the Obama administration that Israel and Jews the world over will never be told where to live or build in our ancient homeland.”

In most parts of the world outside of Manhattan, tours of real estate developments do not give media open invitations to attend. But the rules operate differently in that strange land that’s called the West Bank or Judea & Samaria depending on who you ask.

What Hikind has not addressed so far on the trip during his many interviews with Israeli newspapers is the likelihood that Jewish residents may find their homes located within a sovereign Palestinian state in the next 20 years.

One interesting note: With the exception of retirees, most of the potential home purchasers on this trip are well-off Jewish-Americans who would not be able to maintain the same standard of living as full-time residents of Israel after obtaining citizenship. Logic dictates that, therefore, their homes would either be remaining vacant most of the year in these West Bank communities or that they would be serving as absentee landlords for long-term tenants.

In the past, Hikind has made a name for himself through demanding that Madame Tussaud’s remove a statue of Yassir Arafat and by leading New York protests against The Passion of the Christ.

Dov Hikind has been representing New York’s 48th State Assembly district since 1983, which includes Brooklyn’s heavily Orthodox Boro Park and Kensington neighborhoods. Left unknown is the question of what overseas junkets while the New York State Assembly is in session has to do with serving his constituents.