How Trump’s Israel Envoy Is Already Boosting Bibi’s Settlement Push
Beit El’s new yeshiva. Image by Naomi Zeveloff
By Naomi Zeveloff February 9, 2017
Israel has sanctioned thousands of settlement housing units since U.S. president Donald Trump’s inauguration — and Trump’s pick for Israel envoy David Friedman is poised to help build some of them.
Friedman is the president of American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which is building a new construction project in Beit El, a settlement deep inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
According to Peace Now Settlement Watch, the project includes a five-story building as well as 20 housing units, Haaretz reported. Part of the building was constructed on private Palestinian land, and will be retroactively legalized.
American Friends of Beit El Institutions has received donations from the parents of top Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and also from Trump.
Friedman’s support of Beit El, which is built on land Palestinians claim for a state of their own, was likely passed down from his father, Rabbi Morris Friedman, whose name graces several buildings in the settlement.
The organization has helped build several institutions in Beit El, and supports the right wing Arutz Sheva news site.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
