The Druze Youth Movement held a special event to express its appreciation of KKL-JNF’s years-long partnership with the Druze community as a whole and to its youth movement in particular. The special evening took place in the Druze village of Peqiin in the Upper Galilee. Honored guests included the Druze community’s spiritual leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif; leaders and members of the Druze Youth Movement; Secretary-General of the CYMI (Council of Youth Movements in Israel) Naftali Deri; and KKL-JNF representatives, including Education Division Director Sar-Shalom Jerbi, Northern Region Director Dr. Omri Boneh, Northern Region Education Department Director Danny Fadida, and Community and Forest Coordinator Pnina Levanon.
Members of the Druze Youth Movement welcomed their guests with a stirring drum performance, after which the participants gathered in a hall at Peqiin’s community center. The speakers at the event described the years-long relationship between the Druze community and KKL-JNF, the productive collaboration between the two and the shared values – equality, roots,
acceptance of the other, a love for Israel and concern for nature and the environment – that bind them together.
KKL-JNF is very active within the Druze community, and collaborates with it on a variety of joint events such as woodland activities, summer camps and the Covenant of Brothers - a Covenant of Life Walk that celebrates the unique bond between KKL-JNF and the Druze community. Other collaborations include the sporting event
B’Shvil HaBanim HaDruzim (“On the Trail for the Druze Sons”), which honors the memory of the hundreds of Druze soldiers who have fallen in Israel’s wars.
“We greatly appreciate KKL-JNF’s activities within the Druze community and the extensive cooperation between us. We share the same values, a tradition of giving and a tradition of
educating the young,” said Druze Community Leader
Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif in his speech at the event. “We thank KKL-JNF for its support of the Druze Youth Movement and for its help in strengthening the bond between young Jews and Druze.”
Speaking on behalf of both the participants and KKL-JNF World Chairman Daniel Atar, Education Division Director
Sar-Shalom Jerbi thanked his hosts for their hospitality and appreciation. “KKL-JNF educates young people to love their country and their nation and to preserve the traditions of the Druze community,” he said. “We have an obligation towards the Druze community because of everything it has given the Jewish People. We shall continue to give and to invest in and strengthen the connection and this cooperation.”
In conclusion, the Druze Youth Movement presented KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar with a token of appreciation (in his absence it was accepted by Sar-Shalom Jerbi) and made similar presentations to CYMI Secretary-General
Naftali Deri and KKL-JNF Education Coordinator for the Druze Community
Rem Dagach.