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The Jewish National Fund (Hebrew: קרן קימת לישראל, Keren Kayemet LeYisrael) (JNF) was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Palestine (later Israel) for Jewish settlement. By 2006, it owned 14% of the land in Israel

Early History

The Jewish National Fund (Hebrew: Keren Kayemet LeYisrael) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel specifically for the purpose of re-purchasing and developing the land of Israel. With the nickels and dimes collected in little blue boxes from a poor and dispersed world Jewry so as to purchase the land “dunam by dunam,” acre by acre, JNF was able to re-purchase land that had been neglected for centuries and consisted of swamp, desert and useless soil. Biblically, the Jewish people had been linked to this land for 4,000 years – from the first Jewish land purchase by Abraham.

In 1917, the Balfour Declaration of the British Mandate recognized the historical right of the Jewish people to retun to their ancient homeland. In 1920, JNF was declared to be the instrument of the urban and rural land policy of the people, and its agricultural advancements began. By selling tree certificates, JNF allowed every Jew the opportunity to participate in the building of a Jewish nation.

Between 1920 and 1948, JNF was busy populating the land it had purchased, drilling wells to find water, experimenting with farming methods, aggressively pursuing research and development, restoring three key valleys, and establishing communities.

In 1948, with the founding of the State of Israel, JNF turned its attention and resources to developing the land, reclaiming it for the hundreds of thousands of oppressed Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. Land reclamation was the focus to better the lives of its new residents and enhance the lives of the Arabs who lived side by side and who benefited from progressive farming methods, expanded markets for their produce and increased water availability and usage.

After Statehood

In 1953, the JNF was dissolved and re-organized as an Israeli company without much essential change. A far greater change occurred in 1960, when administration of the land held by the JNF, apart from forested areas, was transferred to a newly formed government agency, the Israel Land Administration, the government agency responsible for managing 93% of the land of Israel . JNF received the right to nominate ten of the 22 directors of the ILA.

The charter prevents JNF from leasing land to non-Jews, but the restriction was frequently circumvented in practice, for example, by granting one-year lease to Bedouins for pastures. In January 2005, Israel's Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled in response to a Supreme Court petition that lease restrictions violated Israeli anti-discrimination laws.

In June 2005, an agreement was made by which the JNF would transfer a portion of its urban holdings to the state and the state would transfer rural land in the Negev of equal value to the JNF.

Reforestation work

The early JNF was also active in afforestation and reclamation of land. By 1935, JNF had planted 1.7 million trees over a total area of 1,750 acres (7.08 km²) and drained swamps, like those in the Hulah Valley. JNF has planted 240 million trees to date.

Today, tree planting continues to fight desertification and create green "lungs" for Israel's communities.

Water Reclamation

Today, JNF’s water systems provide water for 1.2 million people all over the country. By now, JNF has built more than 180 reservoirs and has committed to build over 50 more reservoirs and water treatment plants in the next five years. In the past decade, JNF has invested over $115 in reservoir construction, increasing the country’s total storage capacity by 7% to over 35 billion gallons of water.

JNF is also involved in numerous river rehabilitation projects all over Israel, including the award-winning Alexander River Restoration Project in 2003. In 105 years, JNF has planted more than 240 million trees that beautify the land and protect vital ecosystems, built over 1,000 parks and playgrounds for recreation and tourism and invested in research that has led to scientific breakthroughs that protect Israel’s environment and create agricultural innovations.

Environmental Leadership

JNF’s collaborative work involves participation in the International Arid Land Consortium, which explores the problems and solutions unique to arid and semiarid regions. By developing sustainable ecological practices, the member institutions enable people of arid lands to improve their quality of life.

References

See also

• Yatir Forest

External links

• Official website (in English)
• Official website (in Hebrew)
• United States branch
• The land issue (article on a Jewish Internet Association-maintained website containing information about the JNF)

• Organizations based in Israel
• Zionism
• Israel Prize recipients