— Mashe Rivlin, chairman of the board of directors of the Jewish National Fund, said Friday on his return from a two-and-a-half week visit to four Latin American countries that he found there deep interest in the work and experience of their JNF. He said officials of those countries expressed interest in implementing JNF experiences in their own countries.
In a special interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rivlin said that he visited Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Venezuela. Rivlin said that while he was in Mexico, the 50th anniversary of JNF activities in Mexico was celebrated.
“I was especially impressed with the full participation of Jewish school children in Mexico in those celebrations,” he said. He disclosed that the Mexican Jewish community agreed to take two projects under its sponsorship. One is the project for development and expansion of two villages in the Galilee — Goran and Zuriel. The second project, he said, is the planting of 200,000 trees in the village of Achiud in the Galilee.
Rivlin also said that the Prime Minister of Panama accepted his invitation to visit Israel next March for the dedication of the Panama Forest near Jerusalem.
SPEARHEADING LAND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
In a press conference before the interview, Rivlin said that in the last two years the JNF has been spearheading some of the largest land development programs in Israel’s history, mainly in the Galilee and the southern Negev.
Among these efforts, he disclosed, is the completion of the land base for 31 mitzpim, or pre-settlements, in strategic sectors of the Galilee. In addition, he said, the JNF is supervising a new land reclamation program which calls for the preparation of sites for 50 new settlements in the Galilee.
Rivlin also said that in the Eshkol region bordering the Gaza Strip, and in the area known as Pitchat Shalom, the JNF has been converting about 20 million cubic meters of sand into reclaimed land upon which 20 new settlements are being prepared to receive the settlers forced to relocate as a result of the new Sinai border with Egypt.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
