On the dirt path leading from the entrance to Kibbutz Kinneret to the southern Jordan River park, passengers will notice a solitary grave and a monument, telling two exciting stories.
In the grave lies Yosef Salzman, one of the pioneer founders of Kibbutz Kinneret. Salzman was murdered in an ambush of four Arabs in the first month of the group's formation in 1913 and was buried where he was killed.
Benzion Garden commemorates Benzion Israeli, a pioneer of agriculture and settlement in the Land of Israel and one of the founders of Kibbutz Kinneret. Israeli has many rights in settlement and defense. However, he is most identified with the return of palm trees to the Land of Israel. Israeli was not the first - as early as 1924, a delegation from the Zionist Organization brought palm groves from Egypt, but their planting failed. Then, Israeli went on a secret mission to Iraq in 1933 to smuggle date threads to Israel. They were planted in Kibbutz Kinneret and distributed from there. Israeli traveled eight times to Iraq, Persia, Egypt, and Al-Arish to bring palm groves to Israel.
Benzion Israeli was killed in the Maagan disaster. A light aircraft crashed on a crowd at a memorial service held at Kibbutz Maagan in 1954. He was buried in the Kinneret Cemetery, with the palm tree adorning his tombstone.
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