Over 70 percent of an area Israel calls “Canada Park” was destroyed by a wildfire which raged across central Israel on May 1. The “park” is located on the ruins of three Palestinian villages which were ethnically cleansed in 1967 and later physically destroyed. Read more.
Wildfires spread across central Israel on April 30 to May 1st cutting off the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway for 24 hours.
One of its victims was the “Ayalon-Canada Park”, which Israelis have been enjoying as a picnic and cycling area for over 50 years. The Jewish National Fund said the blaze destroyed around 5,000 acres of land including 3,000 acres of forest.
“Canada Park” has a dark history. It became a park in the 1970’s with the planting of thousands of trees to cover up the remains of three Palestinian villages which had been ethnically cleansed and subsequently destroyed altogether.
In June 1967, in the middle of the 6 day war, Palestinian villagers were rudely awoken in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers screaming “get out”. Most escaped wearing only their pyjamas, recounts Heidar Abu Ghosh who was 14 at the time. He and his family spent the next two days fleeing on foot to seek safety in Ramallah about 30 kilometres away.
The houses and a mosque were bulldozed later by Israeli forces somewhat later to prevent any hope of returning. A church was spared because of a nearby French monastery.
The lands of the villages were turned over to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an Israeli NGO which controls 13% of the land of Israel for the benefit of Israeli Jews. The JNF covered up the ruins by planting thousands of trees to turn the area into a “Park”. Much of the funding came from the JNF’s Canadian subsidiary – the Jewish National Fund of Canada. Hence the name “Canada Park”.
“Canada Park” has been an embarassment for many Canadians as it makes Canada complicit in ethnic cleansing. Ironically, nature has now destroyed the park which was itself created by the destruction of the three historic Palestinian villages
Important archaeological value
One of the villages – Imwass- is mentioned in the Bible. (We know it today as Emmaus}. Christian tradition recognizes Emmaus as the place where Jesus met two of his disciples after his resurrection.
But the widespread destruction of the park opens up new possibilities. Now that the forest cover has been eliminated, organizations interested in history could do archeological research to discover evidence of its two thousand year history.
“This would also be an excellent opportunity for the Israeli government to recognize what it did and to issue an apology to the inhabitants of those 3 villages and their descendants who were made refugees. Now that the land is unused again, it would be possible to rebuild the three historic villages and invite their inhabitants to return,” said Abu Ghosh.
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What a cheerful title! A forest was almost completely wiped out!
The Jerusalem corridor was a forested land before the Muslim Ottoman empire deforested it for railway lumber and coal.
The jews coming back to their land, toiled for over 120 years to re-forest the land.
since the 60’s the forestation is done exclusively with local trees: Jerusalem Pine, Cypress, Tabor Oak, Carob, Olive and Fig.
Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike, are devastated by these forest fires, the diaspora Palestinians and their alleys are cheering.
this is just a modern example of the Judgment of Solomon: A native would never celebrate his land being burnt to the ground.
Hi Nadav Ben Simon,
Thanks for taking the time to share your views. You appear to be well informed about “Canada Park”. Perhaps you can help me understand how and when the Palestinian villages were destroyed. Was it by bulldozers or were they bombed as israel did to the Christian palestinian village of Ikrit in the north? And is it your view that the Palestinians living in those villages were just living as forest animals? Or did they raise sheep and goats, did they grow olives and lemons and almonds. That is what they say, but perhaps you have contrary information. I look forward to your answer.
In response to nadav.bensimon’s “a native would never celebrate his land being burnt to the ground”, so a native would never celebrate being forced to leave his land, have his home buldozed to the ground and then have it covered up with trees which were the wrong species of pine with resin so flammable that it ignites in the hot middle east sun.
Unfortunately some of those trees were planted in my name in 1967.
No true native would rather see his land burnt than having to share it with the Jews .
the inhabitants of these three villages used their strategic location to blockade Jerusalem and preventing food and medicine from reaching the jews during the siege of 1948
As a preventative measure, Israel relocated them when it could in 1967
The nonsense stories about the JNF planting the wrong trees and resin spontaneously burst into fire were debunked many times before, I’m not going to bother with them
Hi Nadav, thanks for your further comment.
You didn’t answer my earlier queries. I hope you will…
In this response, it seems to me you have a strange notion of what it means to “share”. There was no option to “share the land” with the Jews when the land was taken over. The Zionist forces wanted it. They had the military might to take it. The inhabitants of the 3 villages weren’t even armed.
I find it curious that you think that forcible takeover can be called “sharing”. It seems to be a good template for what the IDF and settlers are doing today in the West Bank.
When I visited the park, I was told that the trees used to forest over the destroyed villages were actually European confiferous trees that have not adapted well to the climate of Palestine–contradicting the myth that Israel has been transforming the environment for the better.