Under the drizzle of an auspicious rain, Rt. Hon. Sir Eric Pickles, Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) Parliamentary Chairman and British Member of Parliament, planted a young carob tree at KKL-JNF’s VIP Tree Planting Center, which is located near the Kennedy Memorial in the Jerusalem Mountains.
“I am genuinely emotionally pleased to have this gift…This is a symbolic commitment to the people here, and a commitment to this place which will be here for years to come,” said Pickles, who said that he first came to Israel in 1980 and “fell in love” with the country. “It is good to put down roots in this bastion of democracy where people speak their minds. It is one of the few places in the world where people speak their minds about politics and institutions and people have to earn their respect.”
On this special tree planting occasion, he noted that it was fitting that the symbol of his party is an oak tree.
Pickles said that by visiting the country many times with his colleague Lord Stuart Polak, CBE, the Honorary President of CFI, he was able to see many aspects of Israel that he would not have otherwise seen.
“Part of the pleasure is bringing together two countries which have so much in common,” Pickles said.
A commemorative plaque of the planting was placed in the Lord Sacks Forest in nearby Aminadav.
“This has been a spiritual experience and a great honor. Now I have something connected to me in this country, especially around Jerusalem,” said Pickles.
Although in this weather there was no need for the watering can left by the side of the sapling by KKL-JNF workers, the jocular Pickles insisted on using it to hand-water his sapling as he was protected against the rain by an umbrella.
The 17-person strong delegation was greeted by KKL-JNF Chief of Protocol Andy Michelson and JNF UK* Israel Representative Yonatan Galon, and was accompanied by Orna Toeg, head of the KKL-JNF's British and South African Desk in Israel.
“In Judaism the concept of planting a tree is very important,” said Michelson, noting that since its founding in 1901 KKL-JNF has planted 240 million trees – the equivalent of about 17,000 trees every week.
In addition, KKL-JNF actively cooperates with world leaders in afforestation issues, he said, in addition to gladly sharing their forestry and agricultural knowledge with African countries.
Galon, commenting on the water reservoirs, forests and agricultural infrastructure that KKL-JNF has developed, noted that the development of Israel’s desert regions has been unlike any other.
“We do this without distinguishing between Jew and non-Jew,” said Galon, noting the importance of the support of British Jewry over the past 115 years. “Our close relationship with the UK is one we value enormously.”
Israel Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev and newly appointed deputy UK ambassador Sharon Bar-Li also attended the ceremony and recited the planter’s prayer in English and in Hebrew.
Lord Stuart Polak, quoting from a poem by Lucy Larcom, said: “he who plants trees, plants hope.”
Together with Regev, Polak presented certificates of appreciation to Rt. Hon., MP; Rt. Hon. Nicky Morgan, MP; Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers, MP; Lord Jitesh Gadhia; and CFI supporter and businessman Mustafa Mohammed.
Other members of the delegation included: James Gurd, CFI Executive Director; Andrew Heller, CFI Chairman; Hilda Worth, CFI Deputy Chairman; Stephen Massey, CFI Treasurer; Irene Pickles, the wife of Sir Pickles; Beatrice Crabb, the wife of MP Crabb; Alex Morgan, the son of MP Morgan; Tanyah Murkes, Head of the CFI Israel Office, and Ellen Steel, CFI Israel Liaison.
The delegation then traveled south to Israel's border with Gaza, to the communal agricultural village of Netiv Haasara. There they met with British native and founding member Roni Keidar, who told the visitors about how the village was founded: In the wake of the evacuation of the original village from northern Sinai, in order to facilitate the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement in 1979.
“It was a conflict. There was a longing for peace but we did not want to be uprooted from our homes. But when you realize it is either peace or living in Northern Sinai it was obvious what we had to do,” she said.
There are now 230 families in the village, having started out with 66. Some 71 new families are scheduled to move in. The village does not have a single vacant lot, Keidar said, despite their proximity to the Gaza border and the danger of rockets being lobbed at them with only 15 seconds to find cover.
Keidar told the group about her peace activism and efforts to get to know Palestinians on the other side through various activities and groups. She now has friends in Gaza, and during the last operation, they would call each other to see if they were safe, she said. Last year during the Purim holiday, elementary students from Netiv Haasara were able to send holiday gift packages with the special holiday pastry Oznei Haman to a school in the Gaza Strip, she said.
“I believe we have to start a real earnest dialogue. We are bound to disagree but you go forward and find something you agree on. We have to talk and listen and try to understand,” she said. “I am not a dreamer; it can happen.”
Following a visit to the Netiv Haasara lookout where the group saw for themselves the village’s close proximity - less than one kilometer (just over half a mile) - to the Gaza Strip border, they travelled to the city of Sderot for a briefing with the city’s security officer Kobi Harush.
Harush told the visitors that thanks to the Iron Dome system developed by Israel which monitors for any rocket launchings and intercepts them in midair, the people of Sderot and the southern communities are safer than before. Still, he said, the fear of having to rush to safety at the sound of the alarm has left its scar in the form of post-trauma emotional injuries for many of the city residents.
“It brings the dangerous situation in which people are living here to life, just seeing how close to Gaza Israelis live and how they deal with this extraordinary situation from day to day not knowing what is going to happen,” said MP Morgan. “It also shows how committed people are to their homes on both sides of the border. There is also hope for optimism if individuals can have a friendship with people in Gaza. But that probably does not happen often enough.”
Having visited the border communities several times before, Pickle praised the Iron Dome System but noted that it can’t protect against suicide bombings.
“People here are living on the edge, they are the ones who pay the price,” said Pickles. “The difficult thing to get across is that killing civilians is just pointless. It does not bring about any changes. I admire people who live here, really.”
* JNF Charitable Trust (JNF UK) is a wholly independent legal entity registered in England and Wales and with the UK Charity Commission. It operates completely separate with its own Board of Directors and Management.