With Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and IsraelNN.com
An Israeli media storm is brewing over whether donations to the JNF should fund tree plantings in PA-controlled areas.
The Palestinian Authority has asked the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to keep a low profile on the donation of 3,000 trees for a new Arab city near Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, JNF sources told Israeli media. The PA fears the media reports on the gift may scuttle future help and may fuel negative reaction among Arabs for accepting “Zionist” assistance.
The Jewish Agency also stands to lose financially due to a possible lack of contributions from the Diaspora, where the JNF’s traditional "Blue Boxes" are a fixture in hundreds of thousands homes and offices.
Israeli media was unable to get an official explanation from the JNF on the donation of the trees because two of its senior officials are traveling outside of Israel. It still is not known who approved the gift and if it fits the JNF’s mission.
The JNF website states, “The Jewish National Fund was established more than 100 years ago by a small group of leaders, including Theodor Herzl. By purchasing plots of land, they hoped to establish the groundwork for the birth of our nation of Israel.”
Its tree-planting website tells potential contributors, “Over the last 100 years, JNF has planted over 240 million trees in the land of Israel.” Neither the tree-planting website nor the main site mentions donations to Arabs, and there is no mention of the Palestinian Authority. The PA claims all of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, including the new city where the trees are to be planted, as a future sovereign state it wants to establish.
One JNF source said, “The government of Israel officially works with the Palestinian Authority almost every day on different projects, and it is not clear why there is a problem with this donation.”
The directors of the JNF are expected to discuss the donation to the PA at the next meeting of directors after he returns to Israel.
no more contributions to jnf
no more contributions to jnf from all i know. wasted money
You have to be more
You have to be more explicit.
What is it that "you know"? Why is the money wasted? What would you rather spend it on?
Lion613
Any act which demonstratesa
Any act which demonstratesa a will to create peace between neighbours, which doesn't cost us anything in human terms, and which highlights the central and fundamental humanism which differentiates us from the goyim, is worth exploring - at least once.
If the Palestinians (whatever that may mean) do to the trees what they did to the hydroponics plants and the buildings which the Israelis left for them in Gaza, well then I would agree, they should get no more trees ... but bear in mind that our laws have special rules regarding respect for trees in war or on a battlefield. They occupy a special position, and as such a gift of trees would be significant.
Do not scorn actions which could promote peace. As long as they don't cost us too dearly. The life, or severed limb, of a single Israeli, is worth more than all those trees: if it costs us that much, it's too much - and if it saves us that much, the price is right.
Lion613