June 18, 1890
Avraham Granovsky, who changes his name to Granot after immigrating to the Land of Israel and signs the Israeli Declaration of Independence, is born in Moldova.
Granot earns his doctorate of law from the Universities of Freiburg and Luzon in 1917. Beginning to work for the Jewish National Fund in The Hague in 1919, he immigrates to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 and continues his work with the JNF in Jerusalem.
Under his leadership, the JNF acquires thousands of dunams — a dunam is a quarter of an acre — securing territory for the future Israeli state. As a result of his success, Granot is appointed the director-general of the JNF in 1940. During his tenure, he pioneers initiatives to invest tens of millions of dollars to build settlements across Israel, including the Negev, and to plant millions of trees, reforesting barren areas. These initiatives develop infrastructure for the young country and create thousands of jobs for new immigrants.
Granot is also an academic. He lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and serves on the board of governors for that institution and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He writes many books, five of which are translated into English. His most important book, The Land System in Palestine History and Structure, is published in 1952 and explains in great detail how Arab land ownership and land tenure methods economically handicapped Palestine’s majority-Arab population, essentially neutralizing the Arabs as an effective and unified voice against Zionist development.
Granot is elected to the First Knesset as part of the Progressive Party, then immediately resigns after being re-elected so he can continue his work with the JNF in 1951. He dies July 5, 1962.
