The KKL-JNF Board of Directors, led by Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky, approved yesterday (August 17) another significant round of assistance for communities in the Gaza border area and communities affected by the war. As part of the decision, support programs totaling NIS 57 million were approved for the communities of Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Holit, as well as Kibbutz Beit Nir, which is preparing to absorb members of the Nir Oz community. The programs combine the rehabilitation and development of infrastructure and public buildings with support for memorial and commemoration projects.
As part of the initiative, the communities of Be’eri and Kfar Aza have joined the Nir Oz community and, for the first time, each has been designated a “Special Priority Assistance Area.” A three-year program totaling NIS 20 million was approved for each community, supporting physical rehabilitation and commemoration efforts. In Be’eri, the focus will be on rehabilitating infrastructure, while in Kfar Aza, the emphasis will be on memorial projects.
In Kfar Aza, the initiative takes on additional significance following a dispute over funding for commemoration efforts in the community. After the kibbutz developed its own memorial plan, including the preservation and relocation of buildings from the Dor Tze’ir neighborhood, a memorial center, and a monument commemorating the soldiers who fell in the battles to defend the kibbutz, a dispute arose with the Ministry of Heritage over the conditions for funding the plan.
The Ministry of Heritage offered the kibbutz NIS 2 million but required involvement and veto power over the way the commemoration would be carried out. KKL-JNF, by contrast, decided to enable Kfar Aza to advance its memorial projects with NIS 15 million as part of the broader assistance program approved for the community, while preserving the community’s independence in determining the nature of the commemoration. At the direction of the KKL-JNF Chairman, the agreement between KKL-JNF and Kfar Aza will stipulate that no outside body will have veto power over the commemoration. This will allow the community to implement its own plan and tell its story and commemorate those who were murdered and those who fell in battle in the way it chooses.
The Holit community has also joined the initiative and, for the first time, has been designated a Special Priority Assistance Area. A three-year program totaling NIS 5 million was approved for memorial projects led by the community.
At the same time, and as part of KKL-JNF’s expanded policy of supporting communities in the Gaza border area, an additional NIS 12 million was approved for Kibbutz Beit Nir as part of the ongoing response to the needs of the former Nir Oz community. Forty-six families are expected to join the kibbutz.
The funding comes in addition to the NIS 10 million previously approved for residential infrastructure development in Beit Nir, following the kibbutz’s decision to welcome families from the Nir Oz community who chose not to return to live in their kibbutz but wished to continue living together as a community.
The new funding will place particular emphasis on developing infrastructure for public buildings serving the incoming community. This will enable Beit Nir to adapt its public and community infrastructure to the needs of its growing population, ensuring that the families can be integrated successfully while maintaining the services provided to the existing community.
In addition, with the goal of establishing meaningful initiatives to commemorate the memory and legacy of October 7 throughout the Gaza border region, KKL-JNF approved NIS 400,000 for each of the Eshkol and Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Councils, totaling NIS 800,000. The funds will support institutional and community memorial events marking the events of October 7. The aim is to hold one major regional event jointly organized by the two regional councils and the kibbutz and moshav settlement movements, creating a lasting focal point for remembrance and meaning for residents of the Gaza border communities.
Alongside rehabilitation and commemoration efforts, the Board approved an investment of approximately NIS 40 million in land preparation for agriculture in the Gaza border communities and surrounding region. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing 6,700 dunams in the Eshkol Regional Council, with an investment of NIS 30 million. This unprecedented-scale initiative is designed to provide the infrastructure and tools needed to support growth and renewed settlement in the regional council, ten of whose communities were designated as “red communities” and which suffered the most severe impact on October 7.
In addition, the KKL-JNF Board approved NIS 15 million to encourage population growth and bring young groups and graduates of pre-military preparatory programs to rural communities in the Nitzana area, the Arava, the eastern approaches to Arad, and the Gaza border area. Within this framework, particular emphasis will be placed on population growth in the Gaza border communities, which will receive NIS 12 million annually.
As part of this initiative, the Nir Oz community will receive support to bring four groups of young residents, representing a significant step toward renewing the community and rebuilding its future.
Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky said:
“KKL-JNF has been deeply involved in the rehabilitation of the Gaza border area since the day after October 7 and continues to be so today. We have a deep moral commitment, and this decision gives that commitment further practical expression. Wherever the state stops or fails to act, KKL-JNF answers the call and steps up to the task. This is reflected in our support for memorial projects in Holit and Be’eri, and especially in Kfar Aza, where KKL-JNF will help correct the injustice done to these communities and enable them to commemorate their heritage in the way they choose. It is reflected in the rehabilitation of the Nir Oz community, both in its own kibbutz and in Beit Nir, where 46 families from the community are expected to establish their new homes. It is reflected in the creation of significant regional memorial events by and for the communities of the Gaza border area, and in bringing young groups to the region and renewing settlement in the communities most severely affected by October 7 – with a particular focus on the Nir Oz community, which, thanks to KKL-JNF, will rebuild, grow, and once again flourish with hope and renewal. This commitment does not end today. It will only grow stronger, and every day and every hour we will continue to find new ways to support the renewal of the Gaza border communities, their towns, their communities, and their residents.”