KKL-JNF to invest NIS 284 million in development of southern Israel

The KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund announced Wednesday that it will invest NIS 284 million ($95 million) to strengthen southern Israel.

Two of the kibbutzim worst hit by the Hamas invasion, Be’eri and Kfar Aza, will each receive NIS 20 million ($6.7 million) over three years for physical rehabilitation and commemoration.

The sum includes NIS 15 million ($5 million) to enable Kibbutz Kfar Aza to decide how to memorialize those who were massacred when Hamas invaded on October 7, 2023. Terrorists slaughtered 64 of the kibbutz’s 787 residents, and abducted 19 to the Gaza Strip. Those kidnapped were eventually returned, either dead or alive.

A KKL-JNF statement said this particular funding decision followed a dispute with the Heritage Ministry, which had offered NIS 2 million ($670,000), conditioned on its involvement and veto power over the nature of the commemoration.

“The agreement with Kfar Aza will stipulate that no party has veto power over how the community chooses to commemorate October 7, allowing residents to determine how they tell their story and honor those who were murdered and those who fell,” the statement said.

The bulk of funds will be dedicated to long-term development across the Lachish region, the Western Negev, the Beersheba metropolis, and the Arava in the country’s far south.

Over NIS 110 million ($37 million) of the total sum will be earmarked for the Gaza border region, where some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were murdered by invading Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

At Kibbutz Holit, also hit hard on October 7, 2023, NIS 5 million ($1.7 million) is to be allocated over three years for memorial initiatives.

NIS 12 million ($4 million) will be added to a previous grant of NIS 10 million ($3.4 million) to help prepare Kibbutz Beit Nir for the expected arrival of 46 families that have decided not to return to Kibbutz Nir Oz. Beit Nir is around an hour’s drive northeast of Nir Oz.

NIS 800,000 ($269,000) will be shared equally between the Eshkol and Sha’ar HaNegev regional councils to help fund events commemorating October 7. These will include an annual regional memorial event to be held jointly by the two councils and the kibbutz and moshav movements.

NIS 40 million ($13.4 million) will be directed toward preparing agricultural land. Of this, NIS 30 million ($10 million) will be used to develop 6,700 dunams (over 1,600 acres) within the Eshkol Regional Council, the worst hit on October 7, 2023.

NIS 15 million ($5 million) will support mission-driven groups and graduates of pre-military academies moving to rural communities in the Nitzana area, the Arava, the approaches to Arad and the Gaza border region. Particular emphasis will be placed on Gaza border communities, with NIS 12 million ($4 million) allocated annually. Nir Oz will receive support for four mission-driven groups as part of efforts to rebuild and strengthen the badly hit kibbutz.

KKL-JNF Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky said, “For the first time, we are looking at the entire south as one major national mission. We understand that creating the conditions for growth requires us to act on every possible front, using all the tools at our disposal.”

A year ago, KKL-JNF announced a special rehabilitation budget of NIS 750 million ($220 million) to help restore and develop communities in northern Israel and the Gaza border area that were severely affected by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the ensuing multifront war.

The new funds are in addition to that pledge.