TORONTO – Arye King may be selling the best real estate deal of all time; what it gets you may be the happiness that money can’t buy.

King has spent the last 10 years buying back Jerusalem and the rest of Israel on behalf of Jews around the world.

The 36-year-old Israeli entrepreneur was in Toronto recently not to find investors, but supporters to help prevent the loss of Jewish land.

There was a time when every Jewish home had a little blue tin box for donations to the Jewish National Fund whose stated purpose was to purchase land for the Jewish nation in what was then called Palestine. They raised millions of dollars from Jews in the US, Canada and wherever else they placed their boxes, and they did buy land.

Throughout the early years of the state, Jewish ownership of the land was absolute. But then, in line with new politics that began to dominate Israel, the land was transferred to the Israel Land Authority, an arm of the Israeli government, and it was decided, sanctioned by the supreme court, that the land was to be available not just to Jews, but to “all citizens,” even though Jews and and Jewish organizations had bought the land.
Those forests of trees planted in memory of departed relatives or in honour of worthy recipients were turned into kindling or illegal housing. “That’s a political matter,” was the JNF’s attitude.

Which is why Arye King established the Israel Land Fund. On behalf of potential Jewish buyers, King’s organization searches out properties and initiates negotiations. He is careful not to use the word “investors” because, as he sees it, purchasing land in Israel for Jews is beyond investing.

“Doing business with Arabs is not easy,” he told the Jewish Tribune, since Arabs are threatened with death by fellow Arabs if they sell to Jews. “Every deal is a mission; do you know how many deals actually close? Seven per cent.” Israel Land Fund searches titles, does the due diligence and negotiates prices.

Then, and only then, does the buyer write a cheque. There is no fee for this service. If the deal doesn’t close, everyone walks away. If it does close, the buyer’s lawyers finalize it.

“Real estate does not go down in value in Israel,” says King, “but for a bad reason.”

With talk of establishing a Palestinian state, the expulsion from Gush Katif (Gaza), threats of giving up more and more land and a continual flow of immigrants, land is become scarcer and scarcer. So while King cannot speak of values increasing, he does say: “This is not an investment, but there is no probable loss.”

He also talks about how the rift between the left and the right has resulted in Jewish land being sacrificed on the altar of politics. On July 30, 2003, Hebrew University sold 96 dunam (1=1,000 square metres) in Beit Hanina to the Housing Council Co., an Arab organization, for $12,000 per dunam despite firm offers from Arye King for $30,000 per dunam and an even higher bid from a Yeshiva sponsor for more. The sale brought in $1.3 million from a hostile community instead of more than $3 million from Jews because, as King alleges and newspapers reported, King was associated with “settlers” and the right wing and the university didn’t want to be seen as right wing, fearful that they would lose their donor base in the West.

The land had been purchased, originally, from Arabs by Nachum Honing “for Zionist reasons,” says King, and donated to Hebrew University. Similarly, the Shuafat forest in eastern Jerusalem, owned by the JNF, has disappeared, according to King.

As well as buying land, Israel Land Fund works with Jewish families to re-establish ownership of properties they may not even know they own. After the establishment of the state, it was common to gift land in Eretz Yisrael for bar mitzvahs, weddings and anniversaries in honour of a service or special event.

Most were seen as symbolic but these land “deeds” do indeed have value, said King. He urges anyone who has them as keepsakes to inform him so he can establish an inventory of Jewish-owned land.

It’s a race against time as wealthy Arabs are also attempting to purchase Jewish land, and ads for property in Jerusalem are being placed in newspapers in Egypt, Morroco, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Syria, Jordan and Iran.

To date Arye King and the Israel Land Fund have purchased more than 1,000 dunam and built more than 30 properties. They are planning a ‘Riviera’-style development in Akko, on the Mediterranean coast near Haifa where the Jewish population today consists of 22 students. King lives in Jerusalem with his wife and six children on the Mount of Olives. His web site is www.israellandfund.com where he is looking not for buyers but for Jews who want to help fund the no-fee service.