“The Galilee is top priority with us,” says Moshe Rivlin, chairman of the Jewish National Fund. “We have undertaken some really huge projects there over recent years. But we have to adjust the pace of our development efforts to the pace of the country as a whole, and that means economic problems slowing us down.”
Rivlin noted that part of the JNF’s purpose is to establish Jewish ownership over Galilee lands wherever possible. But he was emphatic in dismissing any anti-Arab connotation. Land was sometimes purchased from Arab owners, always with strict legal propriety, he said.
Sometimes there were land-exchanges between the JNF and local owners: a tract in one location in return for a similar tract somewhere else. Otherwise the JNF worked on Jewish-owned land or State lands which were not in the possession of anyone.
The chairman stressed, too, that much of JNF’s forestry and road-building work in the Galilee was directly beneficial — and much appreciated — by Arab Galileans as well as Jews.
Rivlin termed much of the JNF work in the hilly, stony Galilee “land creation.” Each year, he said, the JNF readies some 7,000 dunams of land for settlement, and another 6,000 dunams are planted as forest-land. “For Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi alone,” Rivlin says, “we recently reclaimed 1,000 dunams of land that is now lush farm soil.”
RINGED BY A BELT OF GREEN
The forestry work is always planned with recreation and tourism in mind. Thus, said Rivlin, some of the Galilee development towns are now ringed by a belt of green “which has literally changed the quality of life in these places.”
Among the major longer-term tourism schemes is a development of the north-eastern banks of the Sea of Galilee, to be carried out in conjunction with government ministries and with the kibbutzim and moshavim of the area.
Some infrastructure exists there already: the JNF’s Jordan Park, a scenic site on the banks of the river north of the Sea of Galilee — one of Israel’s beauty spots since time immemorial; Kibbutz Ein Gev with its cultural center, restaurant and camping grounds; and Kibbutz Haon with its ostrich farms, open to visitors. Rivlin says this region could grow into a major tourism center for Israeli and foreign visitors.
FOCUS IS ON THE MITZPIM
The JNF’s heavier work, laying the groundwork (literally) for and blazing the paths (literally) to new settlements, has focussed for some years now in the Galilee on the mitzpim or hilltop settlements which began to go up in the mid-seventies. To date there are about 40 of these dotted around the entire region.
Their locations make the roadbuilding particularly difficult and expensive, since it usually involves blasting through rocky terrain and laying out virgin paths upon which the roads are subsequently paved. Rivlin notes that much of the road-building budget comes from JNF’s own funds, not from the government, even though this road-building is plainly a national need.
The mitzpim have had varying success. Some, says Rivlin, are already flourishing. Others have good prospects. But some are faltering and their future is not secure. The JNF does not abandon the fledgling settlements once its land-preparation work is done, but retains close ties, sometimes stepping in later to purchase or develop adjacent lands to help the mitzpeh take root and expand.
Rivlin emphasizes the success of the scheme where-by specific areas of the Galilee have been linked to JNF communities abroad. Thus, the Segev area of settlements and industrial enterprises is tied to JNF Australia; Tsalmon to the east is tied to Canada; the area around Golani Junction to South Africa; and the area north of Migdal Haemek to Great Britain.
The Australians in particular are displaying intense interest and involvement in every facet of the JNF’s work in their region.
ISSUE OF ARAB VANDALISM
Rivlin says the issue of Arab vandalism against JNF forests and facilities in the Galilee “must be seen in its proper proportions.” The miscreants are few in number, and the damage they do, though irksome and on occasion locally devastating, is not widespread.
He notes that the phenomenon is certainly not new. Back in the 1936-39 disturbances, the JNF was singled out for attack.
Rivlin says that for every misguided young nationalist who smashes a JNF commemorative plaque in a forest, there are hundreds of Arab Galileans who enjoy weekend and holiday visits to the forests. “They are among our most satisfied customers,” he says.
Of late, Arab local authorities in the Galilee have been seeking to raise money abroad — to plant trees. “It just shows how successful our work is,” says Rivlin.
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