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Yosef Weitz (; 1890–1972) was the director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). From the 1930s, Weitz played a major role in acquiring land for the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in the British Mandate of Palestine.
In 1932, when Weitz joined the JNF, there were only 91,000 Jews in Palestine (about 10% of the population) who owned just 2% of the land. Weitz oversaw the program to purchase properties from absentee landlords and run the Palestinian tenant farmers off their land. However it soon became clear that the purchase of small lots of land would not get close to fulfilling the Zionism' dream of creating a Jewish state in the region of Palestine and that it would be necessary to force the exodus of the Arab population. Due to Weitz's role in the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, he became known as the "Architect of Transfer".Ilan Pappe, 2006, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
He also became known as the "Father of the Forests" for his work in afforestation, which was done largely to cover up the destroyed Palestinian villages.
In the middle of 1941, Weitz began to develop a plan for the practical realisation of Arab transfer. Between 22 June and 10 July, he wrote:
A Historical Survey of Proposals to Transfer Arabs from Palestine, 1895-1947, p. 137-138. Internet Archive.During the 1948 Palestine war, ~750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the newly created Jewish state. Weitz firmly believed that Israel should not allow them to return, and he convinced Israeli leaders to raze the empty Palestinian homes and villages in order to prevent the return of the refugees.
On April 18, 1948, Weitz wrote about the list of villages he wanted to be ethnically cleansed first:
He was spurred on by David Ben-Gurion, who told Weitz he wanted a billion trees planted within a decade. In 1949, he proposed a division of labor between the Israeli government and the JNF. The government would engage in applied research in planting techniques, especially in arid areas, and the development of a timber industry. It would also establish plant nurseries. The JNF would improve indigenous forests, work in afforestation of hilly regions, stop the encroachment of sand dunes and plant windbreakers. Weitz saw plant nurseries and afforestation as a vital source of employment for the masses of olim arriving in the early days of the state. He was guided by the belief that developing a work ethic was imperative for acculturation.
In 1966, Yatir Forest in the Negev was planted at Weitz's urging. He "envisioned rolling back the desert with trees, creating a security zone for the people of Israel". Our History, Jewish National Fund-USA. Named for the biblical town of Jattir, it is now Israel's largest planted forest.
Weitz's forestry strategy emphasized the economic utility of forests and the importance of the Pinus halepensis as the hardiest of local species. As a result, Israel’s forests for its first twenty years were largely and were later affected by natural pests. Weitz frequently clashed with the nascent conservation movement which objected to the Jewish National Fund's approach to tree planting, such as pine tree plantations on Mount Gilboa which threatened an endemic plant, Iris haynei (also known as Iris Gilboa).Tal, Alon.
In his capacity as director of the Forestry Department, he initiated projects to destroy Arab property, ordering personnel to create obstacles for Arabs attempting to return to cultivate their fields, to destroy villages, and to render habitable other villages in order to enable Jewish settlement. He had discussed these activities with Ben-Gurion on June 8, and according to his diary, gained the latter's approval. On June 22, 1941 he wrote in his diary: "The land of Israel is not small at all, if only the Arabs were removed, and its frontiers enlarged a little, to the north up to the Litani River, and to the east including the Golan Heights...with the Arabs transferred to northern Syria and Iraq...Today we have no other alternative...We will not live here with Arabs."
With regard to the problem of expelled Palestinians endeavouring to return later in 1948, Weitz suggested to Ben-Gurion on September 26 that a policy of relentless harassment ( hatrada) by every available means was necessary in order to quash any such return.
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