4
31°21′7″N / 34°46′27″E
October 9, 2011. Earthwork preparation for the planting of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Ambassador Forest as part of its afforestation campaign to provide a green belt around the city of Beersheba (Heb., Beʼer Sheva‛/Arabic, Bīr a-Ssab‛). The JNF is a nongovernmental Zionist organization founded in 1901 for the purpose of buying land, on behalf of world Jewry, for the foundations of a Jewish state in Ottoman-controlled Palestine. Today the JNF is active in afforestation and presents itself as a “global environmental leader.” In the summer of 2010, the homes of the Abu Jāber, Abu Mdīghem, and Abu Freiḥ families, of the al-Tūri tribe, which were on the site surrounding the two remaining trees, were demolished, and the families expelled. The land is currently claimed by the Bedouin community as part of the surrounding area of the unrecognized village of al-‛Araqīb (see 56, 72).