Israel
Why planting more trees in Israel is a bad idea right now
By JAY SHOFET
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Over the past few weeks, more than 1,700 brush fires across Israel have destroyed homes, vehicles and countless irreplaceable personal possessions.
As a nation, we have also suffered severe damage to more than 32,000 acres of precious natural resources – woodlands, grasslands and protected parklands, as well as the planted forests and the flora and ground-dwelling fauna that once thrived there.
As the smoke clears, organizations and individuals from across the country and around the world are spearheading campaigns to help hundreds of Israeli families reconstruct their homes, restock their shelves and rebuild their lives. At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the people of Israel would replant the forests that were burned.
“In the place of every tree that was blackened, another 10 green trees will bloom,” he declared.
While the sentiment is beautiful, ecology – the “facts in the ground,” if you will – dictates that the impulsive “plant, baby, plant” ideology commonly promoted by the Israeli government and the Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael would only add insult to injury at this critical juncture. Put simply, replanting the forests would do irreversible damage to Israel’s already weakened ecosystem.
Having swapped countless trees for thousands of acres of scorched earth, the affected areas are in a very fragile ecological state. Disrupting it further by initiating tree-planting campaigns would be counterproductive at best. The reason, as explained to me in detail by our top ecologists at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, is twofold.
First, the destructive nature of the tree-planting process itself could do untold damage to the fragile soil. While most people who “donate trees” to Israel maintain the romanticized notion that small teams plant the trees by hand, the reality is that the process has “evolved” to become an industrial-style undertaking. Because so many of the trees and other plants that had been protecting the soil are now gone, the threats of severe soil erosion and runoff due to wind and rain are very serious. Tree-planting staff and vehicles entering the sensitive areas would erode the soil further, leading to unnecessary long-term damage.
Second, forests are capable of rejuvenating naturally, so planting additional trees would be redundant and harmful, with seedlings and saplings competing for nutrients and room to grow. As such, the rehabilitation process must rely on the natural renewal capabilities of the affected region based on the natural seed bank found in the ground itself, not on initiated tree planting.
Knowing all this, you can understand why ecologists from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel are urging the public to allow nature to run its course. It’s clear to us that the only way forward is patience, careful planning and consultation with experts in the field.
Make no mistake: Being patient doesn’t mean sitting idle. We need to simultaneously launch a full-scale ecological survey to see how the affected areas are reacting naturally, and begin the development of “buffer zones” between human living areas and the previously wooded areas.
In the aftermath of forest fires, highly adaptive and “opportunistic” plants like pine trees begin to overwhelm the affected areas. Our biggest challenge is effectively diluting these young seedlings so they won’t develop and create a dense carpet of green cover. If we mobilize teams quickly, we can prevent this and create a less dense and more patchy and diverse vegetation cover. If we allow the pine trees to grow – or support campaigns to plant even more pine trees in the devastated areas – we will do great damage to the natural balance and set the stage for yet another wildfire, due to the species’ repeatedly proven high flammability.
The final stage of the healing process is education. In addition to promoting the information stated above, we must also make the Israeli public understand that the slow and natural regrowth of our Mediterranean shrubland and grassland is not a failure – it is what’s best for the land that we love. Though many well-intentioned Zionists might prefer the image of trees standing tall in a majestic Israeli forest, the truth is that the shrubland ecosystem is a high-value area for biodiversity and must be protected. In addition, Israel sorely needs more open spaces to mitigate its cycle of wildfires.
We can no longer afford to act first and ask questions later. We cannot blindly do whatever feels right without consulting the experts. We must find options that will enrich our biodiversity.
As winter sets in, it may be difficult to see that patience and planning is, in fact, the way forward. But when all the affected areas are green and lush this spring, we will all be happy that we stood our ground.
(Jay Shofet is the director of partnerships and development at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the oldest and largest environmental nonprofit organization in Israel. He previously served as the executive director of the Jerusalem-based Green Environment Fund.)
Israel
Join the Masa Canadian Professionals Volunteers Program!
You are invited on a 4-week volunteer program in Israel from October 14th to November 10th. Help rebuild Israeli society post-October 7th over Canadian Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. Spend three weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
Features
Message from a Palestinian in Gaza to protesters: “You’re hurting the Palestinian cause”
A very brave Palestinian who was willing to put his name to paper and write an article for Newsweek Magazine has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all those students – and others, who have been setting up encampments across the U.S. – and now Canada, too.
You can read the article at https://www.newsweek.com/message-gazan-campus-protesters-youre-hurting-palestinian-cause-opinion-1894313
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