JNF works for betterment of Israel

By Bernice Friedman, Las Vegas

Saturday, March 14, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The Nicholas Kristof column “A tale of two Israels” (Las Vegas Sun, March 7) would lead the reader to believe the Jewish National Fund is seeking to push out the Bedouin Arabs from the Negev Desert and that it is an organization that is creating projects in the area strictly on its own without the backing of local Israeli governments. Neither is true.

Many JNF supporters are familiar with Aleh Negev-Nahalat Eran, the facility in the Negev that assists all families — Jews, Arabs, Christians, Bedouins — who have children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities. JNF’s partnership with this rehab center enables almost 1,000 children throughout the country to receive state-of-the-art medical, educational and rehabilitative care, and more than 30,000 children with milder disabilities have access to outpatient sessions.

JNF donors can be very proud of Project Wadi Attir, a model sustainable desert community, which is supported by the local Bedouin people near the town of Hura. Central to the project will be the raising of sheep and goats for organic meat and dairy products as well as the cultivation of desert medicinal plants. The project also will re-introduce nutritious, desert-hardy, indigenous vegetables that once were an important part of the Bedouin diet.

And the JNF, in partnership with the Be’er Sheva community, has created a beautiful river park and amphitheater in a recreational area that is twice the size of New York’s Central Park. Rusty cars and other garbage were removed from the dry riverbed, which had been used as a dumping ground by local people, and it is now a beautiful walkway and performance center.

We at the JNF are proud — and rightly so — of the wonderful partnerships we have developed in Israel for the betterment of all Israelis. With the continued support of the American community, we will build a strong, sustainable homeland for all Israelis — Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins and anyone else who lives in peace in this remarkable nation.

The writer is president of the Greater Las Vegas JNF Board of Director