Differences in the landscape of Israel in the first century and the present

Openline radio program on 19 Jun 2021

Michael Rydelnik:

To say that there was no wood in the land of Israel in the first century is certainly a mistake. Of course there were trees, part of the problem is people look at the land today as it is..., there's still trees there, there's no question about it. Here's the great secret that people don't know about the land of Israel, it looked entirely different in biblical days than it does now. Here's why. From 1500 to around 1900, 1517 I think until 1917, the Ottoman empire controlled the land of Israel. It was under Ottoman empire from Turkey. It was ruled from Istanbul. One of the things that the Ottomans did was they put up a tree tax and people were charged taxes based on the trees that they had on their property. So, guess what people did? What do you think they will do to avoid taxes? They cut down the trees ...and as a result of that, they cut down the trees and they lost the top soil and the land became very infertile. The land of milk and honey became the land of desert and swarm. Part of the birth of modern Israel was to reclaim the land and that's why the Jewish national fund has been planting trees all over Israel.