Balfour Forest-al Mujaydil: a case study to show the way to action today

The Nakba wasn’t just a historical event. It has continued unabated for 70 years. Every time I leave Nazareth I pass the town where I grew up. Although I can see it and I still have the deeds to more than 100 acres of land, I cannot return and live there. I have one grandchild, a precious 4-year-old boy who I love more than anything else in the world. I dream of a day when he can live in freedom and equality in our homeland and pray that he does not have to endure the same suffering that we have gone through as a result of the racist, apartheid regime that Israel has established in our land.
Mohamed Buttu, born in Nazareth in 1939, was raised in al Mujaydil and forcibly expelled from his home in 1948. He passed away in November 2021.

Balfour Forest-al Mujaydil is a project of the Stop the JNF campaign which aims to:

amplify Palestinian voices
expose and challenge the JNF as one of the key pillars of Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism
mobilise international civil society in support of Palestinian freedom, justice, and equality
highlight the historical and current role of Christian Zionism in Israeli settler colonialism and mobilise Christian communities to support the Palestinian call for BDS

We will do this by:

presenting the story of the destroyed Palestinian village of al Mujaydil as a case study
telling the story of the survivors from al Mujaydil village, from before the Nakba in 1948 until today when they and their descendants continue to be denied freedom, equality, and justice
putting a spotlight on the planting of the JNF Balfour Forest on al Mujaydil land as a case study of Israel’s attempts to deny Palestinians their right of return
highlighting Balfour’s Christian Zionism and contrasting with how the residents of al Mujaydil represent Palestinian Christian-Muslim sumud, solidarity, and resistance against a Jewish supremacist state and ideology

What you can do now:

The project will launch with a webinar, and we will then be looking to share some introductory materials and will be developing further resources, holding workshops, and seeking invitations to speak at your events. There are opportunities to give support, and if you have more time, to get involved.

Get in touch to express your interest in this project:
- email info@stopthejnf.org
- call, text or Whatsapp +44 7587 113553

A brief background: Al Mujaydil

What is left of the Palestinian village and village land (4,654 acres) of al Mujaydil lies some 4 miles southwest of Nazareth. Agriculture was the backbone of the economy with grain as the most important crop, with 400 acres planted with olive trees. The village before 1948 was the second-largest olive producer in the district with two mechanical olive presses. In 1945, al Mujaydil was the third largest village in the village, with a population of 1,640 Muslims and 260 Christians.

Al Mujaydil had two mosques. The al-Huda Mosque was built in 1930 and was known for the elaborate system it used to collect rainfall from the roof into a well. There was an elementary Quranic school nearby, a kuttab. The village also had a Russian Orthodox Church which functioned as a school. The Roman Catholic church was built in 1903 and housed a trilingual school for boys and girls and a local clinic. There was also the Banin state school. Al Mujaydil was the site of significal social developments; 1925 the villagers modernised the traditional system of village leadership by electing a local council.

Zionist settlement on what was traditionally village land began as early as 1926 with the establishment of the exclusively Jewish Yif’at. During the Palestinian Nakba, The Catastrophe, which culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, al Mujaydil was bombed. This ‘ethnic cleansing from the air’ (Ilan Pappe) was carried out to create panic and to force Palestinians to flee their villages. Most of the villagers fled before al Mujaydil was occupied by a unit of the Golani Brigade on 15 July 1948. Those who remained were expelled and the village was completely ethnically cleansed of Palestinians. The villagers reached Nazareth by the end of July 1948. The women and men who returned to harvest their crops were met by Israeli military patrols who had the task of preventing harvesting and any possibility of return. About half of the villagers of al Mujaydil remained in Nazareth, while others fled to Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

After the intervention of the Pope in 1950, the Christian villagers of al Mujaydil were offered the opportunity to return to their homes. They refused to return without their Muslim neighbours – an inspiring act of solidarity and resistance amongst the villagers. Israel destroyed half of the houses and the al-Huda mosque. In 1952 the Jewish-only settlement of Migdal ha’Emeq was established by Iranian Jews on the ruins of the village. The remaining mosque was destroyed in 2003 to make way for a shopping mall. The monastery remains and the Orthodox St Nicholas church was renovated in 2004 by a group of al Mujaydil villagers who remained in Israel as internally displaced persons.

Balfour Forest

KKL-JNF planting of Balfour Forest began in 1928 with the first tree planted by British dignataries that included Lord Plummer, the British High Commissioner. Following the ceremonial planting, labour groups from the nearby Ginnegar settlement and Zionist activists from California were recruited for the project. By 1935, JNF had planted 1.7 million trees covering 1,750 acres.

The Balfour Forest Committee based in London raised the funds and headed by Major George Nathan. In 1920 Nathan joined the paramilitary organisation Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC), which was closely linked with the Black and Tans, and was associated with the Curfew murders in Limerick in 1921. He later became Chief of Staff of the XV International Brigade.

SNP MPs visit Balfour Forest in 2016, hosted by KKL-JNF

The forest was named in honour of Arthur Balfour, a Christian Zionist, the first to be planted in honour of a non-Jewish figure and was the JNF’s first major forestry project. Balfour signed the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, as British Foreign Secretary, declaring British government support of the Zionist colonisation of historic Palestine. The Declaration gave the green light to KKL-JNF to accelerate its part in the Zionist settler-colonial project.

Balfour Forest was a target for arson attacks during the Arab Revolt (1936-1939) and continued to be a military target for Palestinian resistance up to the Nakba. Balfour Forest, and other JNF forests were used to conceal bunkers and the clandestine military training of the Zionist militia groups the Haganah and Palmach.