Israeli President Celebrates Hanukkah at David Friedman’s Favorite Settlement

Image by Haim Zach/ Israeli Government Press Office

By Naomi Zeveloff December 27, 2016

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin marked the third night of Hanukkah by lighting a menorah in Beit El, the West Bank settlement that is supported by Donald Trump’s Israel envoy pick David Friedman.

Friedman, Trump’s lawyer, is the president of American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which raises about $2 million a year from U.S. donors to benefit the settlement near Ramallah, according to Haaretz.

The Trump Foundation gave $10,000 to the foundation in 2003, reported the Jerusalem Post. And the family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has given money to the organization.

Rivlin’s Hanukkah appearance at Beit El was to inaugurate a new study hall at the yeshiva there. In photographs of the event, he is joined by Zalman Baruch Melamed, the head of the yeshiva who has stated that certain Arab citizens of Israel should be stripped of their rights.

Rivlin doesn’t share that view, often saying that Arabs and Jews are “destined to live together.” The president advocates a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the Palestinian territory under Israel’s control.

Rivlin took a nationalistic tone at the Hanukkah event, calling the settlers the “pioneers” and referring to the West Bank, where Palestinians hope to build a future state, as “our land.”

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

Naomi Zeveloff is the former Middle East correspondent of the Forward, primarily covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO