A $250,000,000 long-term land development program for Israel’s Negev and Galilee regions will be announced at the national conference of the Jewish National Fund opening in Washington on February 23, it was stated here today by Yaacov Tsur, world chairman of the Fund’s board of directors and formerly Israel’s Ambassador to France and to Argentina. The money will be raised among Jews throughout the world.
Mr. Tsur, who is also president of the General Council of the World Zionist Organization, arrived here Sunday to attend the JNF conference. He said that the new JNF program, which would take many years to carry out, would provide for the agricultural development of 1,700,000 dunams of land in Israel and the planting of 250,000,000 trees.
Land development was vital, Mr. Tsur declared, in order to prepare Israel for the day when she will have to be ready to take in thousands of Jews who are now living in countries where Jewish life is being stifled and from where they cannot now emigrate. About 27 percent of world Jewry are now living under such tragic conditions, he stressed.
As an example of the utilization of land which, until a few years ago, was completely barren and useless, Mr. Tsur cited the cultivation of 20,000 dunams of sisal plants, which has given rise to a thriving twine industry in Israel.
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