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{{short description|National park in the Occupied West Bank}}
{{Expand|date=January 2007}}
{{distinguish|List of National Parks of Canada}}
'''Canada Park''' is a recreational area north of ] that was founded by the ] on the lands of the former ] villages of Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba. The Park was founded after the ], which marked the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the State of Israel, and resulted in the destruction and de-population of the three villages. The former residents of the villages fled to refugee camps in the ] and ], where most of them remain today. Established in 1973, Canada Park is now a picnic area and tourist destination.
]


'''Canada Park''' ({{langx|he|פארק קנדה}}, {{Langx|ar|حديقة كندا}}, also '''Ayalon Park'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thiede |first=Carsten Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b0edm6i-8QwC&pg=PA54 |title=The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ |date=2006-05-01 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-8067-5 |language=en}}</ref>) is a ] stretching over 7,000 ]s (7]) in the ] ].<ref>David Newman.
== History ==
Boundary and territory briefing, Vol.1 no.7 1995 p.16.</ref> The park is located north of ] (]-]), and is situated near the ], between the ] and ]. It was established following the ] of the ancient ] villages of ], ] and ] by ] during the Six Days War.<ref>Mundinger, Ulla. "Walking on Ruins: The Untold Story of Yalu." ''Jerusalem Quarterly'' 69 (2017): 22.</ref><ref>Davis, U. (2004). APARTHEID ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND OF CANADA.</ref><ref>Petersen, Kim. "Canada: The Honest Broker?."</ref><ref>Kanj, Jamal Krayem. ''Children of catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian refugee camp to America''. Garnet Publishing Ltd, 2010.</ref>


Today, the park is full with natural attractions, including man-made forests, ] home to many local flowers, and the remains of ancient orchards. The park also has a number of historical interest, including a ] ] fort, burial caves and ] of the ] and the ], a ], a ] that was turned into a ], the remnants of the three depopulated ] villages, and various military memorials. There are also recreation areas, springs, and panoramic several hilltop views.<ref name="jpost1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=https://www.kkl-jnf.org%2ftourism-and-recreation%2fforests-and-parks%2fayalon-canada-park%2f |url=https://www.kkl-jnf.org/%2ftourism-and-recreation%2fforests-and-parks%2fayalon-canada-park%2f |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=www.kkl-jnf.org |language=en}}</ref>
The ancient Palestinian villages of Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba were once part of what was called the "Latrun salient," which was initially settled during the ] period and was home to over 10,000 people at the time of the 1967 war. The village of Imwas also held special to significance to ] around the world, who believe that it was the site where ] first appeared after the ].


Canada Park is considered a popular tourist destination for Israelis,<ref>Tobias Kelly, Cambridge University Press, 2006 p.152.</ref> drawing some 300,000 visitors annually.<ref name="cjnews.com"></ref>
These villages were located in a strategic position that commands the road to Jerusalem and was the site of several key battles in the 1948 war. Arab irregulars enforcing the Jerusalem siege operated from the Latrun area villages.
Several convoys attempting to bring food to besieged Jerusalem were attacked and destroyed and its members killed when passing through the Latrun area.


==Features==
On June 6, 1967, the three villages were invaded and occupied in the early hours of the morning by the ]. Amos Kenan, an Israeli Journalist who served as a reserve soldier in Bayt Nuba provides the following account:
]
]
Canada Park covers an area of 7,000 dunams. It is filled with wooded areas, walking trails, water features and archaeological sites. Trees in the park include ], ], ], ] and ]. The area is also home to a range of wildlife from ]s and ]s to gray ]s and blue ]s.<ref>{{cite news|last=Coussin |first=Orna |title=Splendor on the grass |publication-place=Israel |newspaper=] |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=%20420153&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y |access-date=2008-07-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015103614/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=%20420153&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y |archive-date=October 15, 2008 }}</ref>


Historical ruins on the grounds of the park include a ] ], a ] ] ], and a Crusader ] (''Castellum Arnaldi'').<ref name="Winterp519">Winter, 2000, p. 591.</ref> Two ] ]s, a type of Jewish ritual bath, were also discovered there.<ref name="cjnews.com" /> At the foot of one of the hills that overlooks the city of ] is a large reservoir built by the Jewish National Fund for irrigating local fields.<ref name="jpost3"></ref>
"The unit commander told us that it had been decided to blow up three villages in our sector; they were Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu ... We were told to block the entrances of the villages and prevent inhabitants returning .... The order was to shoot over their heads and tell them not to enter the village... At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down the first house at the edge of the village. Within ten minutes the house was turned into rubble. The olive trees and cypresses were all uprooted. After the destruction of three houses, the first refugee column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. We did not fire in the air. There were old people who could hardly walk, murmuring old women, mothers carrying babies, small children. The children wept and asked for water. They all carried white flags.


In the middle of the park is a forest planted to commemorate over 300 American and Canadian Jews who died in Israel's wars or were victims of terror. An annual memorial ceremony is organized by the ] (AACI). In 2011, the ceremony was attended by the US Ambassador to Israel ].<ref name="jpost1"></ref>
"We told them to go to Beit Sira. They told us they had been driven out. They had been wandering like this for four days, without food, some dying on the road. They asked to return to their village ... Some had a goat, a lamb, a donkey or a camel. A father ground wheat by hand to feed his four children ... The children cried. Some of our soldiers started crying too... We drove them out. They go on wandering like lost cattle. The weak die. Our unit was outraged. The refugees gnashed their teeth when they saw the bulldozers pull down the trees. None of us understood how Jews could behave like this. No one understood why these fellaheen shouldn't be allowed to take blankets and some food." (From Israel Imperial News, March 1968.)


== Founding of Canada Park == == Establishment ==
]
After capturing the area in 1967 during the ], Israel took over the Palestinian villages in the area, which were then razed on the orders of Israeli general ], with 7,000–10,000 inhabitants expelled<ref name="Al-Haq Legal Brief"></ref><ref>] (2007). 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East, Metropolitan Books, pp. 307-410.</ref><ref name="Orenp307">Oren, 2002, p. 307.</ref> and 1,464 homes demolished.<ref name="GF2004">{{cite journal |last=Falah |first=Ghazi-Walid |date=2004 |title=War, Peace and Land Seizure in Palestine's Border Area |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=955–975 |doi=10.1080/0143659042000232054 |jstor=3993704 |s2cid=153744557}}</ref> Imwas, Yalo and ] were demolished as part of strategic plans to widen the ].<ref>, ]</ref> ], also on the grounds of the park, had been ] during the fighting in 1948 and never rebuilt.<ref>Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #337.</ref>


=== Canadian funding ===
In 1973, Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal - then President of the ] of ] - spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million to establish Canada Park as a picnic area accessible to Israelis from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Jewish National Fund of Canada remains responsible for the upkeep of the park today through charitable donations.
In 1972, Bernard Bloomfield of ], then President of JNF Canada, spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million ($80m in terms of 2010 values)<ref name="JCook">], ] 18 June 2009.</ref> for the park's establishment. The road leading to the park is named for ], the former Canadian prime minister, who opened it in 1975. The project was completed in 1984.<ref name="1000p133">Columbo, 2001, </ref>


== Residents' request to return ==
== International Law ==
The inhabitants were offered compensation but not allowed to return.<ref name="Orenp307" /> The lands of the 3 villages were confiscated and declared a closed area, and only declared 'public land' to be developed for a recreational park two years later in 1969.<ref name="Al-Haq Legal Brief" /><ref>Khalil Nijem in Rex Brynen, Roula El-Rifai (eds.), I B Tauris 2007 p.128.</ref> The settlement of ] was built on the lands of Bayt Nuba in 1970.<ref name="Al-Haq Legal Brief" /> Signage in the park indicates that it falls under the Department of Archaeology, Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, Judea and Samaria being the Israeli terms for the West Bank.<ref>Michael Riordon, ], 2011 p.166.</ref>


In 1976, Palestinian residents of Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nouba wrote to the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin asking for what they described as their "legitimate humanitarian right to return to the villages from which we were driven and expelled" in order to rebuild their houses without requesting compensation from Israel. They did not receive a reply. In 2007, the Israeli NGO ] wrote to Israel's minister of defense, ], on behalf of the residents to ask why they could not return to their homes. In 2008, the minister's office informed them that "The return of the village inhabitants not allowed for security considerations".<ref name="rr181">{{cite book |author=Amira Hess |title=Rites of Return |date=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231150903 |editor=Marianne Hirsch, Nancy K. Miller |pages=181–182 |chapter=11. Between Two Returns |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=105g_a6Ulq4C&pg=PA181}}</ref>
According to the ], the forcible displacement of people and destruction of the property of those living under occupation are considered ]. International Law also affirms the right of displaced persons and refugees to return to their original homeland, which the 10,000 formers residents Imwas, Yalu and Bayt Nuba have been prohibited from doing. A 1986 report by the ] stated the following:


In 2013, the ]'s Negotiations Affairs Department launched a campaign to have the 50-km (30 mile) Latrun Valley, contiguous to the Green Line, restored to it as 'vital and integral part of the ] as defined by the 1967 border.<ref>Herb Keinon, '']'' 7 June 2013</ref>
"One particular illustration of this situation is the fate of the inhabitants of Imwas, Beit-Nuba and Yalu, reduced to the state of wandering refugees since their villages were razed by the occupying authorities in 1967. The Special Committee considers it a matter of deep concern that these villagers have persistently been denied the right to return to their land on which Canada Park has been built by the Jewish National Fund of Canada and where the Israeli authorities are reportedly planning to plant a forest instead of allowing the reconstruction of the destroyed villages."


== Criticism ==
According to former ] and ] activist, ], the creation of the park was tantamount to complicity in ], and Canadian involvement in its creation a "cover to a war crime".<ref name="JCook" /> According to ] the function of such re-afforestation projects like that at Canada Park was to confiscate Arab land in the Palestinian territories Israel occupied after 1967.<ref name="Swedenburg2003">{{cite book |author=Ted Swedenburg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q7RTdcvtO2sC&pg=PA61 |title=Memories of Revolt: The 1936-1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-55728-763-2 |pages=61–}}</ref>


The JNF's reafforestation programme privileges pine over indigenous species, and, according to ], the choice of planting a forest based on fast-growing species was dictated by considerations of rapidly hindering a return of refugees to their land, while, as evergreens, quickly concealing the demolished village sites with year round leafage.<ref name="JCook" />
⚫ == References ==


==See also==
* http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/December/31o/Canada%20Park%20Canadian%20Complicity%20in%20a%20War%20Crime%20By%20Ismail%20Zayid.htm
*]
* http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_15_28/ai_n6260686
*]
* http://www.palestineremembered.com/al-Ramla/Imwas/
*]
* http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=210
*]
* http://intothemiddleeast.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2005/3/31/498738.html

⚫ ==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Meron Benvenisti|first1=Meron|last1=Benvenisti|title=Conflicts and contradictions|publisher=Villard|year=1986|page=|isbn=978-0-394-53647-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conflictscontrad00benv/page/200}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7itq6zYtSJwC |title=Sacred landscape: the buried history of the Holy Land since 1948|first1=Mêrôn|last1=Benveniśtî|author-link1=Meron Benvenisti|edition=Illustrated|publisher=University of California Press|year=2000|isbn=0-520-21154-5}}
*{{Cite book| last1 =Brynen| first1 =Rex | last2 =El-Rifai| first2 =Roula
| year =2007| title =Palestinian Refugees Challenges of Repatriation and Development: challenges of repatriation and development| publication-place =Canada| publisher =International Development Research Centre| isbn =978-1-55250-231-0}}
*{{cite book|title=1000 questions about Canada: places, people, things, and ideas : a question-and-answer book on Canadian facts and culture|first1=John Robert|last1=Colombo|publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd.|year=2001 |isbn=978-0-88882-232-1}}
*{{cite news|last=Cook|first=Jonathan|title=Israeli park a lesson in forgotten history|url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/israeli-park-a-lesson-in-forgotten-history|newspaper=The National|date=10 March 2009}}
*{{cite news|last=Cook|first=Jonathan|title=Canadian ambassador honoured at illegal park|url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/canadian-ambassador-honoured-at-illegal-park|newspaper=The National|date=18 June 2009}}
*{{cite web|last=Davis|first=Uri|title=Apartheid Israel and the Jewish National Fund of Canada: The Story of 'Imwas, Yalu, Beit Nuba and Canada Park|url=http://www.uridavis-official-website.info/jewish_national_fund_canada.htm|work=Address at Carleton University, Ottawa|date=24 September 2004}}
*{{cite news|last=Hepburn|first=Bob|title=Wiped Off The Map|newspaper=The Toronto Star|date=6 October 1991}}
*{{Cite book|title=Boundaries in Flux: The 'Green Line' Boundary Between Israel and the West Bank - Past, Present and Future|author=David Newman, Clive Schofield|publisher=IBRU|year=1995|isbn=978-1-897643-25-9}}
*{{cite book|last=Oren|first=M.|author-link=Michael Oren|title=Six Days of War|date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/sixdaysofwarjune0000oren|url-access=registration|page=|isbn=0-19-515174-7}}
*{{cite book|title=Memories of revolt: the 1936-1939 rebellion and the Palestinian national past|first1=Ted|last1=Swedenburg|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|year=2003|isbn=978-1-55728-763-2}}
*{{Cite book| last =Winter| first =Dave| year =2000| title =Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas| publication-place =Canada| publisher =Footprint Handbooks| isbn =1-900949-48-2}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Canada park}}
*

{{National parks in the Israeli-occupied territories}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|31|50|19|N|34|59|52|E|scale:10000|display=title}}

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Latest revision as of 17:50, 24 December 2024

National park in the Occupied West Bank Not to be confused with List of National Parks of Canada.
Canada Park

Canada Park (Hebrew: פארק קנדה, Arabic: حديقة كندا, also Ayalon Park) is a national park stretching over 7,000 dunams (7km) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The park is located north of Highway 1 (Tel Aviv-Jerusalem), and is situated near the Ayalon Valley, between the Latrun Interchange and Sha'ar HaGai. It was established following the ethnic cleansing of the ancient Palestinian villages of Yalu, Bayt Nuba and Imwas by Israeli troops during the Six Days War.

Today, the park is full with natural attractions, including man-made forests, Mediterranean woodlands home to many local flowers, and the remains of ancient orchards. The park also has a number of historical interest, including a Hasmonean Jewish fort, burial caves and ritual baths of the Second Temple period and the Bar Kokhba revolt, a Crusader fort, a Roman bathhouse that was turned into a maqam, the remnants of the three depopulated Palestinian villages, and various military memorials. There are also recreation areas, springs, and panoramic several hilltop views.

Canada Park is considered a popular tourist destination for Israelis, drawing some 300,000 visitors annually.

Features

Ruins of Byzantine church, Canada Park
Lake in Canada Park

Canada Park covers an area of 7,000 dunams. It is filled with wooded areas, walking trails, water features and archaeological sites. Trees in the park include olive, carob, pomegranate, pine and almond. The area is also home to a range of wildlife from lizards and turtles to gray ravens and blue jays.

Historical ruins on the grounds of the park include a Roman bathhouse, a Hasmonean Jewish cemetery, and a Crusader fortress (Castellum Arnaldi). Two Second Temple period mikvehs, a type of Jewish ritual bath, were also discovered there. At the foot of one of the hills that overlooks the city of Modi'in is a large reservoir built by the Jewish National Fund for irrigating local fields.

In the middle of the park is a forest planted to commemorate over 300 American and Canadian Jews who died in Israel's wars or were victims of terror. An annual memorial ceremony is organized by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI). In 2011, the ceremony was attended by the US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro.

Establishment

Map of destroyed villages and armistice lines

After capturing the area in 1967 during the Six-Day War, Israel took over the Palestinian villages in the area, which were then razed on the orders of Israeli general Yitzhak Rabin, with 7,000–10,000 inhabitants expelled and 1,464 homes demolished. Imwas, Yalo and Bayt Nuba were demolished as part of strategic plans to widen the Jerusalem corridor. Dayr Ayyub, also on the grounds of the park, had been partly destroyed during the fighting in 1948 and never rebuilt.

Canadian funding

In 1972, Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal, then President of JNF Canada, spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million ($80m in terms of 2010 values) for the park's establishment. The road leading to the park is named for John Diefenbaker, the former Canadian prime minister, who opened it in 1975. The project was completed in 1984.

Residents' request to return

The inhabitants were offered compensation but not allowed to return. The lands of the 3 villages were confiscated and declared a closed area, and only declared 'public land' to be developed for a recreational park two years later in 1969. The settlement of Mevo Horon was built on the lands of Bayt Nuba in 1970. Signage in the park indicates that it falls under the Department of Archaeology, Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, Judea and Samaria being the Israeli terms for the West Bank.

In 1976, Palestinian residents of Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nouba wrote to the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin asking for what they described as their "legitimate humanitarian right to return to the villages from which we were driven and expelled" in order to rebuild their houses without requesting compensation from Israel. They did not receive a reply. In 2007, the Israeli NGO Zochrot wrote to Israel's minister of defense, Ehud Barak, on behalf of the residents to ask why they could not return to their homes. In 2008, the minister's office informed them that "The return of the village inhabitants not allowed for security considerations".

In 2013, the Palestinian National Authority's Negotiations Affairs Department launched a campaign to have the 50-km (30 mile) Latrun Valley, contiguous to the Green Line, restored to it as 'vital and integral part of the State of Palestine as defined by the 1967 border.

Criticism

According to former Israel parliamentarian and political left activist, Uri Avnery, the creation of the park was tantamount to complicity in ethnic cleansing, and Canadian involvement in its creation a "cover to a war crime". According to Meron Benvenisti the function of such re-afforestation projects like that at Canada Park was to confiscate Arab land in the Palestinian territories Israel occupied after 1967.

The JNF's reafforestation programme privileges pine over indigenous species, and, according to Ilan Pappé, the choice of planting a forest based on fast-growing species was dictated by considerations of rapidly hindering a return of refugees to their land, while, as evergreens, quickly concealing the demolished village sites with year round leafage.

See also

References

  1. Thiede, Carsten Peter (2006-05-01). The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-8067-5.
  2. David Newman. Boundaries in Flux: The 'Green Line' Boundary Between Israel and the West Bank - Past, Present and Future, Boundary and territory briefing, Vol.1 no.7 1995 p.16.
  3. Mundinger, Ulla. "Walking on Ruins: The Untold Story of Yalu." Jerusalem Quarterly 69 (2017): 22.
  4. Davis, U. (2004). APARTHEID ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND OF CANADA.
  5. Petersen, Kim. "Canada: The Honest Broker?."
  6. Kanj, Jamal Krayem. Children of catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian refugee camp to America. Garnet Publishing Ltd, 2010.
  7. ^ Remembering the Americans and Canadians who Fell
  8. "https://www.kkl-jnf.org%2ftourism-and-recreation%2fforests-and-parks%2fayalon-canada-park%2f". www.kkl-jnf.org. Retrieved 2023-01-14. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  9. Tobias Kelly, Violence and Sovereignty Among West Bank Palestinians, Cambridge University Press, 2006 p.152.
  10. ^ Canada Park – an Israeli haven for picnickers, hikers, cyclists
  11. Coussin, Orna. "Splendor on the grass". Haaretz. Israel. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  12. Winter, 2000, p. 591.
  13. First autumn crocus blooms in Canada Park
  14. ^ Al-Haq Legal Brief
  15. Segev, Tom (2007). 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East, Metropolitan Books, pp. 307-410.
  16. ^ Oren, 2002, p. 307.
  17. Falah, Ghazi-Walid (2004). "War, Peace and Land Seizure in Palestine's Border Area". Third World Quarterly. 25 (5): 955–975. doi:10.1080/0143659042000232054. JSTOR 3993704. S2CID 153744557.
  18. Right of Remembrance, Haaretz
  19. Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #337.
  20. ^ Jonathan Cook, 'Canadian ambassador honoured at illegal park,' The National 18 June 2009.
  21. Columbo, 2001, p. 133
  22. Khalil Nijem in Rex Brynen, Roula El-Rifai (eds.), Palestinian Refugees: Challenges of Repatriation and Development, I B Tauris 2007 p.128.
  23. Michael Riordon, Our Way to Fight: Israeli and Palestinian Activists for Peace, Chicago Review Press, 2011 p.166.
  24. Amira Hess (2011). "11. Between Two Returns". In Marianne Hirsch, Nancy K. Miller (ed.). Rites of Return. Columbia University Press. pp. 181–182. ISBN 978-0231150903.
  25. Herb Keinon, 'Palestinians campaign to regain 'occupied' Latrun,' The Jerusalem Post 7 June 2013
  26. Ted Swedenburg (2003). Memories of Revolt: The 1936-1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. University of Arkansas Press. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-1-55728-763-2.

Bibliography

External links

National parks in the Israeli-occupied territories
East Jerusalem
Golan Heights
West Bank
See also: National parks of Israel

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