Then, in 1910, the first kibbutz was founded on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, giving a practical boost to the dream of making the desert bloom.  A historic and collective effort was undertaken to restore Israel’s forests and to transform a distressed landscape into a fertile paradise.  A hundred years later, and just as with so many elements of our civilization, the concept of “greening” can be traced back to the land of Israel.

Israel is one of two countries on earth that has more trees today than it did 100 years ago.  From 1513 to 1917, the Land of Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire.  During much of those four centuries, taxes were calculated according to the number of trees on a particular property.  It takes little imagination to understand that, cutting down trees was the obvious answer to retaining wealth.

It was in 1901 that the Jewish National Fund was formed: its goal to oversee the reforestation of the Land of Israel.  During the ensuing century, the planting of some 200 million trees transformed the landscape, the hillsides and the oxygen levels of the country.  Israel is now a land of forests and pastures, not of barren wilderness.