One can dismiss the troubling figure that Peace Now presented to us in its usual polemical fashion - that 40 percent of the settlements are built on private Palestinian land - by arguing that it is very possible that the data leaked to the group from the Civil Administration were exaggerated or even mistaken. The other side of the coin is also obvious: A great many state lands and properties belonging to Jews have been taken over by Palestinians, both within the Green Line and beyond it. Examples include Jewish properties in the Dehaishe refugee camp and Al-Khader, and plots of land that Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer and philanthropist Nathan Strauss purchased near Rachel's Tomb in previous centuries.

Mention of the massive land theft that has been taking place in broad daylight for years, in the form of extensive illegal Arab construction throughout the country, would also be relevant. Nevertheless, the bottom line does not lie, and it is embarrassing: The fact that a considerable portion of the settlements' territory is on private Palestinian property constitutes a moral transgression on the part of those who trumpet the purity of the settlement movement. It may also turn out to be a legal problem.

Yosef Weitz, one of the leaders of the Jewish National Fund who purchased property on behalf of the Jewish people both prior to the establishment of the state and subsequently, described in his diary how one day he and Menachem Ussishkin rode on a donkey to the fields of Bethlehem in order to locate a suitable piece of land for the establishment of a Jewish farming community. Weitz related that in the end, the land purchasing committee opted to buy a different plot of land in the vicinity of Sha'ar Hagai.

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Even after the establishment of the state, the purchase of lands continued. "Igum," a secret government agency, acquired homes and land in East Jerusalem and the Old City during the years when Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir were in power. Former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek developed close ties with patriarchs and archbishops that resulted in property deals in Jerusalem that benefited the Jews. Even then-agriculture minister Arik Nehamkin approved funding from his ministry's budget for the acquisition of lands from the White Russian Church in East Jerusalem, and in the 1990s, then-housing minister David Levy invested state funds in purchasing St. John's Hospice in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, where Jews still live today.

The fact that the other side also takes over lands that are not theirs does not make Jewish takeovers any more legitimate. The old method of redeeming lands by purchasing them is fitting, moral and well-established. However, the state ceased to deal with this, as if the Zionist enterprise had ended. As if this were no longer a disputed land that our enemies were trying to take over - not only from a national, cultural and religious standpoint, but also from a territorial one.

Ideological groups like Ateret Cohanim, Atra LeYoshna and Elad are doing important work by redeeming lands, but they are just a drop in the ocean. Once we had Montefiore and Rothschild. Now, all that is left are the Gaydamaks, yet even they can be guided and directed. But in any case, the initiative must be from the state. The Achilles heel of this lack of action is most evident in Jerusalem. The last person to recognize this was Shmuel Meir, Ehud Olmert's deputy in the Jerusalem municipality, who died 10 years ago. Meir pushed for the establishment of the neighborhood of Har Homa. But since then, the Zionist enterprise in Jerusalem has been in the doldrums.

In order to deal seriously with a national task of this sort, a fund should be established, in which the entire Jewish people would be partners. Its purpose would be to redeem the Land of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular. Redemption is not a profane word, and its national aspects are currently predominant over its messianic aspects. The Redemption Fund was set up by the World Zionist Organization as early as 1918, and this term also appears in the formal definition of the Jewish National Fund.

Jerusalem, and especially the Old City, must be the focus of this activity, especially since the other side is not inactive there. The Gulf states, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian tycoons allocate funds for the "redemption of Palestinian land." In Morocco, there is a "Jerusalem Treasury" fund that operates under the Jerusalem Committee headed by the king. A Jerusalem Development and Investment fund was set up in Jordan in the past, and Saudi Arabia has set up similar funds.

Faced with the "Ishmaelite National Fund," we must act anew in the style of the Jewish National Fund of old and its subsidiary Himnuta. If the Saudi television station MBC can hold a 10-hour fundraiser and raise $7 million dollars for Al-Quds, the Jewish people, whose roots in Jerusalem are much deeper than those of the rulers of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, is entitled to return, in an organized and official manner, to the days of the JNF Blue Box. This would be more appropriate and moral than simply grabbing private lands, or confiscating them. Even our forefathers paid money for the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the site of the Temple and the part of the field in which Joseph is buried.