Despite a ban on using ill-gotten objects in holiday rituals, many hack away at trees before Succot.
By EHUD ZION WALDOKSjerusalem forest 224(photo credit: )
According to Halacha (Jewish law), nothing stolen can be used at all for ritual uses, but that didn't stop some people seen over the Succot holidays sawing down aravot (willow) trees at the Aminadav Forest just outside Jerusalem and near Ein Kerem.
Willows are supposed to be beaten on the floor on Hoshana Rabba, the day before Simhat Torah.
Witnesses report seeing a bearded man wearing a large kippa sawing the willows. Next to him were two saws and big bags. He was heard saying into his cellphone that he was "cutting 400 more." There were reportedly aravot all over the ground next to him.
Others in the forest, seeing that the man cutting the willows was not being stopped, started cutting willows for their own use.
Contacted by The Jerusalem Post, representatives of Keren Kayemet LeYisrael (KKL) said cutting and removing the willows was indeed illegal and that they would send an inspector immediately. They implied that this was not the first time people had stolen willows and other trees from its forests.
KKL admitted on Wednesday it was hard to prevent people from stealing willow branches in the run-up to Succot. While inspectors are sent out in response to the public's complaints and go out on patrol, it is often hard to catch violators, since the branches are everywhere and perpetrators escape before inspectors arrive, KKL Law Enforcement Unit head Amikam Riklin told the Post.
Moreover, the 10-man enforcement unit has responsibility for about one million dunams of forest across the country, Riklin noted. While receiving support from Nature and Parks Authority inspectors on occasion, it is still a small force dealing with a very large area.
Their main focus is to prevent the illegal cutting down of trees, primarily for firewood. As the weather turns cold and the price of oil is still sky high, Riklin said they expect many more people to try and save money by cutting their own firewood.
Riklin added that willow branches, one of the four species used in religious practices during the holiday, grow wherever there is running water and not just on KKL land.
"It's not like it's a big tree, so it's hard to catch them," he said.
KKL spokeswoman Orit Hadad added that when thieves came in trucks to cut down trees, it was easier to catch them.
In an effort to reduce thievery before the holiday, Hadad said, KKL offered s'chach (branches to cover the succa) at several different centers to try and discourage people from cutting down their own. Cutting down trees, palm fronds or willow branches on KKL land or nature reserves is prohibited by law.
Hadad said they had not considered offering willow branches to the public, as well, before the holiday.
As winter approaches, firewood will also be available for those in need, Hadad said. The difference is that the firewood KKL provides is gathered through natural culling rather than the wholesale destruction of healthy trees.
In addition to enforcement and distribution, Hadad said, KKL also attacks the issue on the public education front.
"Where there is more cutting down of trees for firewood, we run seminars in schools to educate people not to do it," she said.
Regarding prolific tree thieves, Riklin said there was a problem with certain criminal elements in the Druse community.
"There is a serious situation of increasing violence by illegal tree cutters against inspectors," Riklin said, particularly among some Druse in the Carmel area. Inspectors have almost been run down by thieves attempting to escape or resist arrest.
"I am happy to say that the police take it very seriously. The police help us catch them and interrogate them," he said, adding that he felt obliged to point the finger at a specific element of a generally law-abiding population.
"As winter approaches, we catch most of the criminals. However... some of the judges don't understand the problem of cutting down trees. The defendants get off with a fine of NIS 500, and they don't confiscate the murder weapon - the saw. If [the criminal] got the proper punishment, he would never repeat his actions. Apparently we aren't a country with enough tradition, or that cares enough for the environment," Riklin lamented.
"A criminal who cuts down a tree is one who will also perpetrate acts against the state, because the tree does not belong to me, it belongs to the public," he warned. "Everyone picnics under them and it provides shade to all sectors of society."
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