Yosef Weitz

Yosef Weitz (Hebrew: יוסף ויץ; 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 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 even get close to fulfilling the Zionists' dream of creating a Jewish-majority state in Palestine. It was necessary to force a massive exodus of the indigenous population. Due to Weitz's role in the expulsion of the Palestinians, he became known as the “Architect of Transfer” - with 'tranfser' being a euphemism for the ethnic cleansing that would reach its peak in the Nakba of 1948.^[1][2]

He also became known as the "Father of the Forests"^[3] for his work in afforestation, which was done largely to cover up the destroyed Palestinian villages.^[4]