mininewimmenni7
411M111111111111111.
16 Friday, August 5, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
JNF Official Predicts Israel
Agricultural Leadership in 2000
•..........
. .
•
CALL
646-8990
\OW...
TO ARRANGE
FOR YOUR
COMPLIMENTARY
VISIT.
Swim for a day in
any of our three
spacious pools. Dine,
relax in a sauna,
exercise on nautilus, attend
an aerobic class. Try
Hamilton Place FREE for a
day, you'll love it.
HAMILTON
P
Southfield's luxurious
athletic and social club
30333 Southfield Road
(between 12 & 13 Mile Rds.)
- 7
rrrrs.__
NEW YORK (JTA) — A tion with other government
vision of Israel in the year agencies, been responsible
2000 as the granary of the for developing new recrea-
Middle East thanks to the tion and camping areas.
revolutionary use of desert
In the next decade-and-
conditions and extensive a-half some 60 new parks
land reclamation for ag- and 200 camping grounds
riculture was projected by will be developed by JNF,
Dr. Samuel Cohen, execu- many of them adjacent to
tive vice president of the existing JNF forests.
Jewish National Fund of
"Perhaps no area,"
America.
Cohen concluded, "holds
In a report issued to more greater promise for Is-
than 100 JNF national and rael's future develop-
regional executives attend- ment and growth than
ing an annual fundraising the vast Negev desert."
conference in New York, There, he continued,
Cohen stated that by 2000 "JNF is involved in ag-
Israel will be well on its way ricultural and
to becoming an "eco- environmental research
nomically independent projects that utilize des-
oasis of peace."
ert characteristics, such
Citing the extensive as abundant sunlight and
land-reclamation achieve- geo-thermal water, and
ments of the JNF, which economic irrigation
will be 99 years old in the methods to improve ag-
year 2000, Cohen based ricultural yield and the
himself on current statistics quality of life in this
and trends.
region of severe climactic
He predicted that by conditions."
2000 more than 235 mil-
The JNF, Cohen said, is
lion trees throughout Is- working with other scien-
rael will have been tists in following up ad-
planted, adding to the vancements made in solar
cover of green and net-
energy, preparing ponds for
work of forests now dot- growing sea food, perfecting
ting the country. JNF's hot houses and using saline
afforestation program water for plants and crops
has until now been re- exported abroad.
sponsible for the planting
of 160 million trees.
Canada College
Planting continues apace
Won't
Dismiss
at the rate of almost five
million trees a year, Cohen
War Criminal
said.
TORONTO (JTA) — The
He pointed out that the
University of British
JNF land reclamation pro-
Columbia has refused to
grams, which prepare des- dismiss a convicted Nazi
ert and rocky terrain for ag-
war criminal, Jakob Luit-
ricultural and settlement jens, from its faculty and the
use, as well as conserve federal government has re-
woodlands and wilderness fused to extradite him.
areas, have as of this year
Disclosure of the refusal
reclaimed 40,000 acres.
to dismiss Luitjens, a
Cohen projected that an botany lecturer, was made
additional 100,000 acres
in a letter to the Simon Wie-
will be reclaimed in the next
senthal Center in Los
17 years.
Angeles, which had sent a
Stating that JNF is now telegram to George Peder-
involved in Israel in more sen, president of the univer-
projects and programs than sity, declaring Luitjens
at any other time in its "cannot be allowed to main-
eight-decade history, Cohen tain 'a position of honor" at
said that in addition to af- the university.
forestation and land recla-
The Wiesenthal Center
mation, JNF continues to said Luitjens should be dis-
clear the way for access missed even if all efforts
roads linking settlements in failed to have him extra-
Galilee, the Negev and dited to The Netherlands to
Arava.
serve a 20-year sentence on
As of 1983, he said, charges of wartime collab-
more than 6,000 kilomet- oration with the Nazis.
ers of roads have been
Robert Kaplan, Canada's
paved by JNF engineers. Solicitor General, in declar-
An additional 2,000 ing he was refusing to
kilometers of roads will extradite Luitjens, said the
be completed by 2000.
charge of collaboration for
"A key aspect of JNF which Luitjens was tried
work," Cohen told the JNF and convicted in absentia in
fund raisers, representing 1948, was not covered by the
40 regional offices of the extradition treaty between
nation-wide organization, Canada and The Nether-
"is settlement site prepara- lands.
tion. This includes leveling
and grading soil and creat- Reagan Names
ing the infrastructure for Crime Panel
construction. As of 1983
WASHINGTON —
JNF has prepared the land
for almost 1,000 com- President Reagan last week
munities and population named a 20-member or-
centers throughout Israel. ganized crime commission
The accelerated pace in the to study the problem of or-
next 17 years will achieve ganized crime and recom-
an additional 1,600 sites mend judicial and legal
prepared for new com- changes.
The commission will be
munities."
headed by Judge Irving R.
In recent years, Cohen Kaufman of the U.S. Court
noted, JNF has, in coopera- of Appeals Second Cirucit.
1