Every year in honor of Tu B'Shvat the State of Israel, and KKL, goes on a planting binge around the country. This year it seems that the RAAM party, headed by Mansour Abbas and a member of the government coalition, expressed opposition to planting trees in the Bedouin corridor down south, saying it damages the land and the livelihood of the Arabs in the area.

Some reports say that the Bennett government capitulated to the threats and demands and canceled the planting events in the area. Other reports say the planting is set to continue and was only paused for a couple of days but has been restarted. And other reports say that the planting was actually stopped by the Netanyahu government in December 2020 when Amir Peretz was appointed to be in charge of the development of the area.

The Likud has jumped on the issue and Likud MKs went south yesterday for a planting ceremony to protest the Bennett government, in addition to sharp criticism leveled at Bennett for caving in to Abbas.

And MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) then criticized his political partners for this form of protest. Maklev protested saying that violating the Shmitta is out of bounds even in the name of protesting the Bennett government.

Perhaps the real reason the Arabs were opposed to the planting is because of it being a shmitta year! As they say, the work of the righteous is done by other people - צדיקים מלאכתם נעשית יל ידי אחרים.

I dont know how far south they were though, as a good portion of the south is not even considered halachically Eretz Yisrael. It is possible they did not even violate the shmitta in the process!

The olive tree is the winner of the KKL competition to determine the unofficial national tree of Israel. Announced today on Tu Bshvat, in celebration of 120 years of KKL, they have declared the olive tree the winner of the title of national tree of Israel.

The olive tree was in tight competition with the palm tree, the eucalyptus, the fig, the Tavor Oak, the pine tree (cypress) and the Pistacia Atlantica.

The olive tree took 32.94% of the vote.. The Tavor Oak came in second with the palm pulling in at third.

Congratulations!

We went on a short tiyul in the area this afternoon. It was a KKL nature reserve in the area of Bet Shemesh called Beit Habad (House of the Press) based on the Olive Press found there.

There was this great big tree we saw with "flowers" growing on it. We have no idea what they were but if any of you botanists or horticulturists recognize them from the pic, leave a comment with the name of the tree and/or flower.