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FRIDAY, DECEMBEFi 1,,19.87

Secret Operations Brought
Date Palm Back From Exile

YITZCHAK DINUR

Special to The Jewish News

I

t may come as a surprise,
but not a single one of
Israel's prolific date plan-
tations is more than 50 years
old. After five centuries of ex-
ile, this age-old cultivated
fruit tree has been reintroduc-
ed to Israel for commercial
cultivation.
Dates have been indigenous
to the Middle East since an-
tiquity. The date palm is the
tree portrayed in ancient il-
lustrations of the Tree of Life.
It is among the seven
agricultural species which
characterized the Land of
Israel in biblical times, and
dates continued to be an im-
portant crop even after the
destruction of the Temple,
particularly in the Jordan
Valley, and the oases around
the Dead Sea and down to
Eilat.
From the time of the
Crusaders, however, through
a succession of invasions and
wars, date growing slowly
declined. By the 15th century,
there were no commercial
groves in the country.
In the second half of the
19th century a change began,
as date palms from Egypt
began to appear around Gaza
and in a few villages
established by Egyptian set-
tlers near the Sea of Galilee.
These few trees, and the or-
namental, but non-fruiting,
date palms seen on arrival to
the Holy Land at Jaffa, serv-
ed as inspiration for the palm
trees in the 19th century
lithographs produced by some
innocents abroad in their ac-
counts of the Holy Land.
Date palms are not pro-
pagated by seeds but from
suckers, offshoots that arise
from the base of the trunk.
Each palm produces only a
few offshoots, which must be
separated when they are
three to six years old and
have roots. It is not easy to
transport the bulky offshoots
over distances, making it very
difficult to establish date
cultivation in new places. To
these objective difficulties is
added the prohibition on ex-
porting the offshoots by most
governments of countries
where dates are grown.
Apart from Israel, Califor-
nia is the only place in the
world where dates have been
established from offshoots
transported over long
distances. In Israel, the work
was done by a group of vi-
sionaries, who established a

plantation at Kibbutz Kin-
neret in the Jordan Valley, in
memory of the beloved
poetess Rachel, who died
there in 1931.
In 1933 when Rachel's friends
in the kibbutz alongside the
Sea of Galilee decided to go
plant a grove of date trees,
they initiated the return of
the date to Eretz Israel. There
had been earlier unsuccessful
efforts to reintroduce the date,
but the few existing trees had
been grown from seeds and
were worthless.
The man directly responsi-
ble for the successful rein-
troduction was Benzion
Yisraeli, who made eight
perilous journeys during 1933
to 1938, and later in 1955, to
bring back the offshoots from
various parts of Iraq, Iran,
Kurdistan and Egypt. Several
times he had to smuggle the
plants out — a considerable
achievement considering
their size. The largest ship-
ment was brought to Israel in
1955 by Yani Avidov of
Nahalal, Yisraeli's assistant
and successor in the project
after Yisraeli's death in 1955.
This great shipment of
63,000 date saplings was
smuggled at great danger
from Iraq, through Iran, and
transported on an Italian
freighter which "unexpected-
ly" put into Haifa port to
unload them. These offshoots
were first acclirriatized in the
Bet Shean Valley, not far from
Kinneret, and from there
distributed throughout Israel.
Several years later, at con-
siderably less risk, another

shipment was brought from
California.
A laboratory for date
culture was established later
on at Kibbutz Tzemach in the
same area, playing an impor-
tant role in improving Israeli
date cultivation. Recently a
number of date palms have
been propagated there by
tissue culture, for the first
time anywhere, but they have
not yet begun fruiting.
There are now 150,000 date
palms in Israel, almost all in
the Jordan Valley and its con-
tinuation, the Arava, as far
south as Eilat. Most of these
trees have not yet begun bear-
ing fruit. Some 4,500 tons of
fruit are produced annually,
and this figure is eventually
expected to rise to 15,000
tons.
Historically, all parts of the
date palm have been utilized,
but today only the fruit is im-
portant in Israel. At Passover
time, a date "honey" is pro-
duced and marketed. A
popular new product in Israel
is a date paste which can be
used as a sandwich spread, a
filling for cakes and cookies,
as well as for charoset at
Passover. In addition to fully
supplying its own needs,
Israel today supplies all the
dates consumed in Europe.
The successful revival of
date cultivation in the Jewish
state is typical of the land
that has been resettled by its
exiled people. Like the Jewish
nation, the date palm was ex-
iled from Israel and, with the
Jewish people, it has return-
ed home.

World Zionist Press Service

Education Is Made
Of Moving Moments

EDITOR'S NOTE: The
following letter was written by
Ethan A. Gilan, this year's
recipient of the Harry and
Sarah Laker Israel Youth
Scholarship. The grant is
awarded to members of Cong.
Beth Achim for study in Israel.

Dear Laker Family,
Greetings from Jerusalem!
I wanted to inform you that
averting a threatened strike,
Hebrew University opened its
doors this past week .. .
Although my classes have
only begun this week, I feel
my education here started
from the moment I stepped off
the El Al plane some weeks
ago. Israel has provided the
most provocative forum for

debate: In my relatively short
time here I have gained in-
sight on such issues as the
cancellation of the Lavi
fighter plane, the trials of
Demjanjuk and Vanunu, the
"movie wars" between the
Orthodox and secular of
Jerusalem, the continued
debate on the future of the oc-
cupied territories and the
most recent struggles concer-
ning the proposed interna-
tional peace conference, just
to name a few.
However, you should not get
the impression that one can
only learn in Israel through
crisis or controversy. There
have been several moments
that have made my stay
already quite memorable.

