Magen Forest Some landscapes hold more than one story. The Magen Forest is exactly that kind of place: planted in 1969 to serve as a green belt and lung for Kibbutz Magen in the Western Negev, at the edge of its wooded grounds lies the Maon Ruins, a remarkable archaeological site containing the remains of an ancient Jewish synagogue from the Byzantine era, and a striking mosaic nearly 1,500 years old, still visible today.
Over time, incendiary attacks from the Gaza Strip, together with the accumulative effects of drought and decay, have resulted in a sharp reduction in the forest’s tree density, as well as soil quality due to erosion. Rehabilitating the Magen Forest is part of a larger drive by KKL-JNF to restore the Gaza Envelope communities that were destroyed and evacuated as a result of the Oct 7 attack.
When you plant a tree here, you not only become part of a long continuum of life in this place –you are also part of a green future being woven anew, one planting at a time. The trees planted here provide shade and beauty for visitors, support the region’s biodiversity, and strengthen something deeper still: the connection between what once was here, and our responsibility for what will be here in the future.
This is a chance to touch an ancient layer of the land, to be part of its ongoing renewal – and to leave something of yourself behind, too.
