‘War ravaged Israel’s forests, but they are key to the nation’s healing’

Israel’s community forests will play a pivotal role in the rehabilitation of the nation following the upheaval of war, according to the country’s leading charity for woodlands.

At the COP29 climate-change conference in Azerbaijan this month Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) proposed that injured IDF soldiers and survivors of the Nova festival massacre can benefit from the natural gifts of the country’s forests through receiving specialist treatment.

The project is inspired by community forests in the Manchester area that are used as therapeutic spaces for mental and physical healthcare, offering a nature-based approach to traditional treatments.

“We are looking at the Israeli forest as the main healing ground for us, due to the fact that very difficult things happened in the forest in the south on October 7,” said Noah Tal, KKL-JNF’s director of strategic planning.

“We have a bleeding wound there, so we think that this is the place where we as a society need to start healing.”

The Nova festival site in Be’eri Forest was one of many areas devastated by October 7. Agricultural fields, ranches, and poultry farms in the Eshkol and Merhavim regions near Gaza’s border were ravaged by Hamas.

Meanwhile, more than 23,000 hectares of forested and open land in the north have been scorched since the war began due to Hezbollah’s barrage of attacks. Full restoration is forecast to take between five and seven years.

But as KKL-JNF will argue at COP29, Israel’s natural environment will be pivotal to the nation’s pathway towards recovery and renewed resilience. Tal herself has witnessed first-hand the transformative role forests can play in the physical recovery of wounded soldiers. Her husband, a member of the Armoured Corps, suffered a severe leg injury during the war and was unable to walk. He required surgery and was told his recovery would take at least eight months.

“It’s not an easy process, seeing someone close to you wounded, and not only physically, but also mentally,” she said. Knowing he faced the overwhelming task of learning how to walk again, she recommended to his physiotherapist that he do so in an open forest as opposed to within the enclosed walls of an institution.

“He started going there with a wheelchair at the beginning, and slowly he learnt how to walk again. Due to the fact that it was done in the forest, he also became stronger mentally.” To everyone’s shock, her husband recovered after just four months and soon returned to combat.

“I really think that spending time in nature had a huge impact on his ability to believe again in his body,” said Tal, who credits the forest’s natural beauty and peacefulness for giving her husband the transformative gift of optimism throughout his treatment.

October 7 did not just leave soldiers with battle scars; it also left the nation with deep psychological wounds. For KKL-JNF, the therapeutic power of forests will also play a pivotal role in the grieving and healing process of the nation.

For example, in the days leading up to Tu BiShvat, the New Year for Trees, KKL-JNF organised a tree-planting day at the site of the Nova massacre for families who lost loved ones during the attack, allowing them to reclaim the site of horror into a space of renewal.

Describing the emotional day, Tal said: “People in Israel came to that specific forest in order to say: ‘This is where the most horrible thing to happen in Israel in the last decade happened, and we want to see how we can survive that and rebuild from this point and make our roots in Israel stronger and more viable.’”

On the anniversary of the massacre this year, the KKL-JNF directorate allocated NIS four million (£833,000) towards the regeneration of the Re’im Recreation Site in Be’eri Forest and the creation of a memorial, “for whoever is feeling wounded and hurt, to give them a space to come and heal”.

As well as acting as the healing ground for grieving families, Israel’s forests are also playing a crucial role in the recuperation of vulnerable youth displaced by the October 7 attack, who may have since dropped out of formal education due to the upheaval of war.

KKL-JNF’s ‘Youth at Risk’ programme, launched last year, helps children who have fallen through the system find purpose again by engaging them in forest work – such as trimming trees, providing signs on hiking trails, and building forest furniture — fostering community, exercise, and a sense of direction for the isolated.

Since the 1980s, KKL-JNF has been dedicated to pioneering the development of ‘community forests’ across the country. More than just regular green spaces, these are vibrant hubs of recreation, leisure, and nature, catering to the unique needs of local civilians who crucially have a say in their planning.

Until 2032, KKL-JNF has allocated NIS two billion towards developing infrastructure in Israel’s forests, directing money towards building accessible hiking trails, cycling paths, picnic areas and educational facilities to enhance quality of life through nature.

The charity is eager to learn from and integrate global practices to unlock the therapeutic benefits of Israel’s woodlands. One such practice is shinrin yoku, or forest bathing, a Japanese method developed in the 1980s that involves mindful immersion in nature to reduce blood pressure, lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and improve memory.

“Since the beginning of the State of Israel, forests have played a main part of the quality of life here,” said Tal. “Most of them are owned by the state and are open 24/7 for free for the whole public – no one asks you where you come from, or what your religion is.

“It didn’t matter if you came from Syria, Egypt or Poland, the forest was one of the main instruments to build our society as a strong society, and I think the role of the forest today is as important as it was during the 1950s. The tree is a huge symbol of life in Judaism and Islam and in the Druze religion.”