A new Palestinian city takes root - with JNF trees

Eli Ashkenazi
Haaretz
29 November 09

(See ZOA response below)

Hirui Amara excitedly held a bunch of pine seedlings and was quick to dip their soft roots in a bucket of water. Several seconds later he was next to an elderly man, and helped him plant one of the seedlings.

This was the end of an exciting day for Amara, who heads a Jewish National Fund greenhouse at Golani Junction.

Amara and five other JNF employees took part, 10 days ago, in an extraordinary project that involves the JNF assisting in planting trees in the area where a new Palestinian city, Ruwabi, is scheduled to be built north of Ramallah. The name means "City of Hills."

As a first step, the JNF contributed 3,000 tree seedlings for planting in what is meant to be a forested area on the edges of the new city. At the same time, the forestry experts of the JNF have been advising the city planners on the matter.

Suhil Zaydan, one of the JNF's forestry managers, is serving as liaison between the organization and the city planers.

"There have been a number of meetings, both at the location where the city will be built and also at the JNF greenhouses," he says. "We have contributed with our know-how, by advising on how to prepare the ground for the planting and how public gardens should be planned, as well as the best times for planting, and what kinds of trees it is preferable to plant. We did not talk about politics and we shall not talk about it - we deal with trees and understand forestry, botany and greenhouses."

The ambitious project of building a city from scratch has drawn an estimated investment of $800 million, mostly from Palestinian and Qatari sources.

The plan is for 6,000 housing units over a 6,300 dunam area that is supposed to provide housing for nearly 40,000 people and employ some 10,000 Palestinian workers. The project is aimed at the Palestinian middle class. (Full article)

Click here "ZOA Criticizes J.N.F. For Donating 3,000 Trees To Palestinian Authority"

Gary N. was kind enough to send me JNF's reply to his query.

"Shalom Yosef,

This is JNF's (Jewish National Fund (Hebrew: קרן קימת לישראל, Keren Kayemet LeYisrael) reply to my query about their tree donation: "I hope this well help clarify. None of the trees bought by JNF-KKL donors were used for this purpose. KKL grows approximately three million saplings a year; less than one million are bought by donors worldwide. These saplings came from a stock that KKL utilizes for international forestry and related projects. KKL was appointed national foresters by the Israeli government. As such, we work with many countries together with the U.S. Forest Service in their international forestry department, the Canadian Forest Service, the Australian Forest Service, and many others, and we a proud member of the International Arid Lands Consortium. We have worked with Rwanda, Indonesia, E. Timor, Jordan, just to name a few countries, sharing our expertise with them and teaching them how to cultivate and care for the land. We hope to always be able to share our knowledge with the world for positive uses.Beyond tree planting, our priorities are focused on building new lives for Gaza evacuees, building the Negev for tomorrow’s generations, and finding answers to the drought in Israel. For these and many other reasons, JNF is the central address for connecting to Israel."

Regards, xxxx xxxxxxx,

Assistant Marketing Manager,
Jewish National Fund.

Sorry, This does not satisfy me, at all.
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