Canada Park

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Canada Park is a recreational area west of Jerusalem adjacent to Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut. It was founded by the Jewish National Fund on the site of the former Palestinian villages of Imwas, and Yalu, demolished by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War by order of then commander Yitzhak Rabin due to the corridor's strategic location and control of the route to Jerusalem. Israel said the residents aided the Siege of Jerusalem and the Egyptian commandos in their attack on Lod days before. The residents of the three villages were offered compensation but were not allowed to return.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] ^[6] The former residents of the villages fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and Jordan, where most of them remain today according to the Palestinian Authority.^[7] Established in 1973, Canada Park is now a picnic area and tourist destination.

[edit] Founding of Canada Park

In 1973, Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal - then President of the Jewish National Fund of Canada - spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million to establish Canada Park as a picnic area accessible to Israelis from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Jewish National Fund of Canada remains responsible for the upkeep of the park today through charitable donations