在建国后的头二十年里，以色列人对1948年大灾难（Nakba）的真相会被揭露一事怀有深深的焦虑，也对巴勒斯坦难民返回其在如今已成为以色列的领土上的城镇和村庄的前景感到“噩梦般”的恐惧。小说家A. B. 耶书亚（A. B. Yehushua）的早期重要作品之一《直面森林》于1963年出版。小说开篇即写1948年一个巴勒斯坦村庄被摧毁，并在其废墟上种植了犹太民族基金会（JNF）的森林。

In the first two decades of the state Israelis had a deep anxiety about the discovery of the truth about the 1948 Nakba and the ‘nightmarish’ prospect of Palestinian refugees returning to their towns and villages in what had become Israel. Facing the Forests, one of novelist A. B. Yehushua’s first major works, was published in 1963. It opens with the destruction of a Palestinian village in 1948 and the planting of a JNF forest on its ruins.

这部小说讲述了一名以色列学生的故事，他对拉丁十字军的历史“痴迷”。这名学生想要歇息、寻求独处，于是找到一份森林看守人的工作。他抵达犹太民族基金会（JNF）森林中的守望小屋时，发现一个舌头被割掉的阿拉伯男子和他的女儿。学生到达后不久便开始噩梦缠身，时刻预感到灾难将至。随着夏天过去，学生开始渴慕那名男子的女儿。两人之间的紧张关系不断升级，突然，男子放火焚烧森林，整片森林化为灰烬。黎明时分，学生“望向冒着烟的山丘，皱起眉头。就在那烟雾与薄霭之中，被毁的村庄在他眼前浮现；以抽象画般的基本轮廓重获新生，如同一切过往与被掩埋之物”。学生未能看清他对拉丁十字军的研究所揭示的真相，而大火却将其显露出来。小说以森林的毁灭和阿拉伯村庄的重新出现作结（Yehoshua 1975: 385）。

The novel recounts the story of an Israeli student who is ‘obsessed’ with the history of the Latin Crusaders. The student, looking for a break and solitude, finds a job as a forest ranger. When he arrives at the watch house in the JNF forest he finds an Arab man whose tongue had been cut out and the man’s daughter. Shortly after his arrival the student begins to suffer from nightmares and he is constantly anticipating a catastrophe. As the summer continues the student begins to desire the man’s daughter. The tension between the two escalates and suddenly the man sets fire to the forest and the whole forest burns down. At dawn the student ‘turns his gaze to the fire-smoking hills, frowns. There out of the smoke and haze, the ruined village appears before his eyes; born anew, in its basic outlines as an abstract drawing, as all things past and buried’. While the student fails to see the truths unearthed by his research on the Latin Crusades, the fire reveals it. The novel ends with the destruction of the forest and the re-emergence of the Arab village (Yehoshua 1975: 385).

JNF的森林，如卡梅尔国家公园，成为以色列及以色列希伯来文文学中犹太复国主义民族复兴的象征，代表欧洲犹太复国主义计划在古老家园和圣地景观中“扎根”的成功。儿童常以树木命名，儿童希伯来文文学也把幼树描写为孩子（Zerubavel 1996）。Ilan（树）、Oren（松树）、Tomer和Tamar（分别为棕榈树的男性和女性形式）、Amir（树梢）、Elon或Allon（橡树）等名字在以色列非常常见。 “巴勒斯坦橡树”（بلوط فلسطين）的天然林地曾覆盖历史上巴勒斯坦的许多地区，尤其是上加利利、卡梅尔山、塔博尔山（阿拉伯语：Jabal al-Tur）以及其他丘陵地带。加利利地区一些当地巴勒斯坦穆斯林传统甚至赋予古老橡树以神圣性。这种古老的巴勒斯坦橡树及其叶子，不仅在巴勒斯坦，也在世界许多国家被视为力量与坚韧的象征。欧洲前基督教时代以及中世纪基督教对巴勒斯坦橡树的崇敬传统，也广为人知。

The JNF’s forests, such as the Carmel National Park, became an icon of Zionist national revival in Israel and in Israeli Hebrew literature, symbolising the success of the European Zionist project in ‘striking roots’ in the ancient homeland and sacred landscape. Children were often named after trees and children’s Hebrew literature described young trees as children (Zerubavel 1996). Names such as Ilan (tree), Oren (pine tree) Tomer and Tamar (male and female for palm tree), Amir (tree top), or Elon or Allon (oak tree) are very common in Israel. Natural woodlands of ‘Palestine Oak’ ( (بلوط فلسطين covered many areas of historic Palestine, especially in upper Galilee, Mount Carmel, Mount Tabor (Arabic: Jabal al-Tur) and other hilly regions. Some local Palestinian Muslim traditions in Galilee have even attributed holiness to ancient oak trees. The ancient Palestine Oak tree and its leaves have been seen as a symbol of strength and endurance not only in Palestine but in many countries across the world. European pre-Christian and medieval Christian traditions of veneration of Palestine Oak trees are well known.

橡树的叶子在传统上也是德国军队徽章的重要组成部分，并且在美国陆军中象征军衔。在古代巴勒斯坦，这种树在当地神话中拥有自己的崇拜，源于当地的宗教传统；它与生命相联系，据信自世界之初便已生长（Niesiolowski-Spano 2011: 132–137）。

The leaves of the oak were also traditionally an important part of German army regalia and symbolise ranks in the US army. In ancient Palestine, this tree had its own cult in local mythology, derived from local religious traditions; it is associated with life and is supposed to have grown since the beginning of the world (Niesiolowski-Spano 2011: 132–137).

但在以色列,对犹太民族基金会(JNF)欧洲风格森林的崇拜,也已成为一种虚构的犹太复国主义世俗集体记忆的核心。以色列历史学家、记者阿莫斯·埃隆(Amos Elon)生于维也纳,原名阿莫斯·斯特恩巴赫(Amos Sternbach),1933年移居巴勒斯坦,后将姓名改为阿莫斯·奥克(Amos Oak)。与此类似,1948年帕尔马赫(Palmah)指挥官伊加尔·阿隆(Yigal Allon)原名伊加尔·帕伊科维奇(Yigal Paicovitch),后改名为听起来像希伯来语的"阿隆"(Allon,意为橡树)。正如我们在上文所见,这种"古老森林"和森林崇拜的传统源自中欧的浪漫民族主义观念。2004年,阿莫斯·埃隆因对1967年以来以色列的发展感到失望而迁居意大利。在《以色列人》(The Israelis)一书中,

But the worship of the JNF (European-style) forests in Israel has also become central to an invented Zionist secular collective memory. Israeli historian and journalist Amos Elon, who was born in Vienna as Amos Sternbach and immigrated to Palestine in 1933, changed his name to Amos Oak. In similar vein, General Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmah in 1948, was born Yigal Paicovitch and changed his name to the Hebrewsounding Allon (oak tree). As we have seen above, this tradition of the ‘ancient woods’ and wood worship was derived from central European notions of romantic nationalism. In 2004 Amos Elon moved to Italy, citing disillusionment with developments in Israel since 1967. In The Israelis:

《创始人与儿子》中，埃隆写道：“很少有事物能像‘犹太民族基金会森林’那样，如此生动地象征着犹太复国主义的梦想与理据”（Elon 1983: 200）。以色列仿照欧洲风格的森林与重新造林政策获得了西方的支持。在“圣土”与“圣景”中种植欧洲式森林，证明了以色列（进而言之西方）在东方所进行的事业具有不容置疑的伦理价值。造林在物质与象征层面上也与欧洲大屠杀相连，数以千计的树木被种下，以纪念遇难的社群和个人（Elon 1983: 200）。然而对巴勒斯坦人而言，很少有事物能比这更好地体现自1948年大灾难（Nakba）以来犹太民族基金会那臭名昭著的角色（Jamjoum 2010）。

Founders and Sons, Elon writes: ‘[F]ew things are as evocatively symbolic of the Zionist dream and rationale as a “Jewish National Fund Forest”’ (Elon 1983: 200). Israel’s European-style forests and reforestation policies enjoy Western support. Planting a European-style forest in the ‘sacred soil’ and ‘sacred landscape’ confirms the undeniable ethical value of Israel’s (and by extension the West’s) project in the East. Afforestation is also linked, materially and symbolically, to the European Holocaust, and thousands of trees have been planted in memory of the lost communities and individual victims (Elon 1983: 200). For Palestinians, however, few things better encapsulate the notorious role of the JNF since the Nakba (Jamjoum 2010).