Britannia Park
Britannia Park is a forest and recreation area in Israel, in the Judean lowland.
The forest was planted by the Jewish National Fund starting in the 1950s, and with the financial aid of British Jews, after whom the park was named. The area now covered by the park includes land associated with Palestinian villages depopulated during the 1947–1949 war.
History
Britannia Park was created in the 1950s as part of large-scale afforestation projects carried out by the Jewish National Fund with financial support from British Jewish donors; the park was named in recognition of that support.The area now covered by the park includes lands associated with several Palestinian villages that were depopulated during the 1947–1949 war; scholarly sources and village histories record that nearby localities such as Dayr al-Dubban and Dayr Abu Salama were depopulated in 1948.
Some historians and commentators have documented how, in the decades following 1948, parts of the depopulated village lands were incorporated into state land and planted with forests and picnic sites by the JNF; the planting of forests and creation of recreation areas on former village sites has been the subject of critical attention by heritage groups and scholars.
Advocacy and heritage organizations such as Zochrot and Stop the JNF argue that planting and development have obscured or covered the remains of former villages and call for recognition of the pre-1948 Palestinian presence on the land; these perspectives are reflected in publications and tours documenting the former village sites.