Generations of Jews have dropped spare change into the iconic blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund, a 120-year-old Zionist organization that acquires land, plants trees and carries out development projects in the Holy Land.
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But the Israeli group, known by its Hebrew acronym KKL, is now considering formally expanding its activities into Jude and Samaria (the West Bank). That has sparked fierce opposition from left-leaning Jewish groups in the United States, deepening a rift with the right-wing Israeli government.
The debate has drawn attention to the fact that the KKL, which owns more than a tenth of all the land in Israel, has been quietly operating in Judea and Samaria for decades, building and expanding Jewish communities that much of the international community considers a violation of international law.
A separate New York-based organization, also known as the Jewish National Fund, does not take a position on the settlements and mostly operates within the Green Line.
The controversy erupted earlier this month when the Axios news website reported that KKL was considering a proposal to openly fund land purchases from Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. The move could potentially channel hundreds of millions of dollars into the expansion of settlements, some of them deep inside the disputed territory.
Israel views Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people and says any partition with the Palestinians should be negotiated in peace talks, which have been largely moribund for more than a decade.
The proposal would need to be approved by the KKL's board of directors, which includes representatives from several Jewish organizations and is not expected to decide before the country holds nationwide elections on March 23.
"Throughout the years and till this very day, KKL-JNF has been operating in all parts of the Land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria," it said. "At this stage, there is no intention of opening up a new area in Judea and Samaria."
It added that all projects are confirmed with donors in advance, suggesting that funds intended for projects inside Israel would not be diverted to the disputed territory.
But Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, says KKL has been quietly operating in Judea and Samaria for decades, acquiring at least 65,000 dunams (16,000 acres) of land for Jewish communities, mainly through a subsidiary.
"This has happened before and so this isn't a sea change," Peace Now spokesman Brian Reeves said. "But this would be the first time that they are officially endorsing this in the open, the idea of purchasing land in the West Bank, and essentially saying 'we don't agree with international law, or that there's occupation, or that the two-state solution matters.'"
Palestinians view the sale of land to Jews as a betrayal of their national cause, so such transactions are usually carried out in secret or through middlemen, opening them up to allegations of fraud. In some cases, they result in the eviction of Palestinian families who say they never sold their property.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in North America, said KKL's shift stems from recent elections at the World Zionist Congress that brought to power right-wing leaders more closely aligned with the Israeli government.
His group and others that are opposed to settlements denounced KKL's proposal and have vowed to oppose it when the board meets, but it's unclear whether they have enough votes. Jacobs is concerned the move could tar KKL for many in the West or spark tensions with the new US administration, which is also opposed to settlement expansion.
Jacobs acknowledged that KKL has operated in Judea and Samaria in the past, but said its activities dramatically dropped off over the last two decades before resuming and accelerating in secret in recent years, prompting opposition from the URJ and other groups.
"We basically blew the whistle and said wait a minute, there's a whole lot of land purchasing going on under the table, under the radar without oversight, and frankly, without even the formal permission to do so," he said.
"Here in North America, the majority of Jews are opposed to the proliferation of the settlement enterprise," he added. "That's something that American Jews feel very strongly about."
The US-based JNF is a separate entity with its own board and its own offices in New York and Jerusalem. CEO Russell Robinson said it doesn't involve itself in politics and focuses on projects in the Negev and Galilee regions of Israel.
"Politics is not where the majority of people want to be involved in," he said. "They want to be involved in making the world a better place, and we give them that opportunity."
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The US JNF contracts out forestry and reservoir-building to KKL, in what Robinson refers to as a "vendor service." It has also funded some small projects in Judea and Samaria, including a heritage museum in the Gush Etzion bloc.
Robinson dismissed the infighting within the major Zionist organizations and says it's had no impact on his group's fundraising. But Jacobs said Israelis should be concerned about the fraying relations between their right-wing government and their allies abroad.
"American Jews are very involved in the political life of the United States," he said. "We are working overtime to bridge the differences and to establish more commonality, but we're not going to forsake our core commitments to do so."
