Jewish National Fund Donates Thousands of Trees to Palestinian Planned City

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has donated 3,000 trees for the reforestation of the first Palestinian planned city. Rawabi, meaning “hills,” is being built about seven miles north of Ramallah in the West Bank. As The Media Line has pointed out in its coverage of the project, the Palestinian designers of Rawabi have drawn on Israel’s experience in several aspects, one of which is the mass planting of trees. A JNF official told the newspaper Ha’aretz that the organization “is helping in any way we can.” Several years ago a major flack broke out among JNF’s overseas supporters when it became known that the organization would not fund any communities or projects “over the green line”, meaning in areas acquired in the 1967 war, including the area where Rawabi is located.