During the week of Tu BiShvat some 2,000 young Jews and Bedouin planted around 1,000 saplings in Mishmar HaNegev Forest, which was dubbed The Forest of Hope in honor of the event. JNF Canada has adopted Mishmar HaNegev Forest, and it supported the planting initiative all the way from the land-preparation stage to the event itself and the tree aftercare. The ceremony was attended by senior officials from Israel’s Ministry of Education, by residents of local communities and by KKL-JNF staff members.
“You are our hope for good neighborly relations and for conserving the unique character of each one of us,” Simon Elbaz, Deputy Director of KKL-JNF’s Education Division, told the youngsters. “Could anything be more unifying than planting a tree in the soil of the Land of Israel, where we all live together?”
JNF Canada, which has adopted Mishmar HaNegev Forest, supported the planting all the way from preparation of the ground to the planting stage and subsequent care of the trees. The planting activities reached their climax precisely on Tu BiShvat with the participation of hundreds of schoolchildren from all over the Negev, including the Bedouin communities of Rahat, Lakiya and Tarabin and the Jewish cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Netivot.
This planting ceremony was the high point of the Planting Israeli Hope initiative organized jointly by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and Israel’s Ministry of Education, in which different groups from the Negev met up for Tu BiShvat planting events. The project was designed to present the broad spectrum of Israeli society, strengthen the connection between the various different population groups, to help them to get to know one another better, promote tolerance and shared living, and deepen their sense of solidarity and national pride.
“Planting trees gives you a good feeling, because trees give life to people and their surroundings,” explained 12-year-old Ibrahim Ziadna, a seventh-grade student at Rahat’s Al-Razi School. “When Jewish and Bedouin children plant together, it proves that we can have a good future of peace between us all.” As Ibrahim plunged his hands into the soil to plant his sapling, he was glad to feel that the ground was damp. “It’s great to see that a lot of rain has fallen, and that’s a hopeful sign, too,” he concluded.
Rahat’s Al-Razi School and Ashkelon’s Comprehensive School 4 are both taking part in an educational initiative for partnership and cooperation in which pupils and teaching staff hold a variety of meetings and shared activities, and on this occasion the youngsters planted trees together.
“We believe in living in partnership in the Negev and throughout the country,” said Sheli Zorovsky of Ashkelon Comprehensive 4. “Today, together, we planted a hope for a shared life in our country.”
Planting in Mishmar HaNegev Forest began in the 1980s, and today this woodland extends over an area of around 17,000 dunam (approx. 4,250 acres). The schoolchildren planted a variety of fruit trees, including fig, carob and mulberry, inside limans, i.e., small pools dug into the gullies to allow water to collect and enable full advantage to be taken of every precious drop of rain that falls in this arid desert region.
“Together we all have to plant and build,” said Musaleh Abu Asa, CEO of Al-Kasum Regional Council. “These schoolchildren are our future.”
Nasser Shibli, principal of the Tarabin Primary School, made an emotional appeal to KKL-JNF staff: “Please keep on making the Negev green!”
KKL-JNF’s Southern Region Education Director Hagit Ohana and Itzik Ross, who heads the Ministry of Education’s Shelach (a Hebrew acronym for “Field Study, Nation and Education”) program in southern Israel, presided over the ceremony. “Our generation’s task is to continue to plant, to strengthen Israeli society and to invest in education, especially in the Negev and elsewhere in the periphery,” said Hagit Ohana. Jewish and Bedouin students read poems together in Hebrew and Arabic, in celebration of the trees.
Eli Sheetrit, Director of Youth and Society in the Southern Region for the Ministry of Education, represented the ministry at the event. “Learning to live together in a society that raises the flag of tolerance and peace is the vision we all share,” he said.
The day’s events concluded with dialogue circles in which the students discussed nature, the environment and coexistence. “Nature can unite us all, Jews and Bedouin alike,” concluded 16-year-old Yiska Haddad of Netivot. Her friend Adi Haniya agreed: “Today’s activities are proof that we can communicate with one another, and they teach us how good and right it is for us to live here together.”