During the celebrations for Israel’s 50th anniversary in 1998, Israel’s senior publicists were polled to name the most effective public relations campaign in Israel’s history. The winner? A 1965 campaign to publicize the new law prohibiting picking wildflowers.
Until the law was passed, families and groups of schoolchildren, along with their teachers, picked flowers as a pastime. Entrepreneurs sold bouquets in cities and along the side of the road.
Uzi Paz described the campaign in his recent book, Le-Ovdah U-le-Shamrah: Shmurat Teva be-Yisrael. To Work It and to Preserve It: Wildlife Preservation in Israel. An excerpt appeared in the February-March 2010 issue of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel’s magazine, Bishvil Hateva. As the acting director of nature preservation department in the Ministry of Agriculture, Paz got the idea when the law to protect national parks and nature reserves was being developed. Paz knew the importance of preserving wildflowers no matter where they grew.
Once the law passed, the public needed to develop awareness. How would people know which flowers were included in the ban? Bracha Levi Avigad designed this poster with illustrations of the protected flowers and a warning: “It’s forbidden to pick them!” The poster was sent to government offices, banks, and medical clinics and most important, every school and kindergarten in the country. Children began to educate their parents about which flowers not to pick. On Fridays, newspapers published pictures of seasonal flowers, and radio hosts discussed the flowers on the air. Reporters flooded the agricultural ministry with requests for more information.
The children of the ‘60s internalized the message of protecting nature and became the true guardians of Israel’s wildflowers.
Photo credit (anemones): Free Israel Photos
Author: Hannah Katsman
Hannah learned environmentalism from her mother, a conservationist before it was in style. Once a burglar tried to enter their home in Cincinnati after noticing the darkened windows (covered with blankets for insulation) and the snow-covered car in the driveway. Mom always set the thermostat for 62 degrees Fahrenheit (17 Celsius) — 3 degrees lower than recommended by President Nixon — because “the thermostat is in the dining room, but the stove’s pilot light keeps the kitchen warmer.” Her mother would still have preferred today’s gas-saving pilotless stoves. Hannah studied English in college and education in graduate school, and arrived in Petach Tikva in 1990 with her husband and oldest child. Her mother died suddenly six weeks after Hannah arrived and six weeks before the first Gulf War, and Hannah stayed anyway. She has taught English but her passion is parental education and support, especially breastfeeding. She recently began a new blog about energy- and time-efficient meal preparation called CookingManager.Com. You can find her thoughts on parenting, breastfeeding, Israeli living and women in Judaism at A Mother in Israel. Hannah can be reached at hannahk (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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