by Jeremy Ben-David, Founder, Managing Partner, JMB Davis Ben-David
“Necessity is the mother of invention” goes the saying. 77 years ago, the tiny population of Israel had to be resourceful in order to not only survive, but so as to build a future for itself. Located in a semi-arid area of the world, where the fertile soil is always thirsty for seasonal rains, where the winter lasts from November to March, and hot desert weather systems and cold, wet northerly systems do battle for supremacy, the availability of a reliable and plentiful water supply was always going be one of Israel’s major challenges. As long ago as 1959, a man by the name of Simcha Blass, noticed a tree on Kibbutz Hatzerim in the Negev Desert, that was thriving despite the arid conditions. This tree stood out among others that were struggling to survive. On closer inspection, he saw that a pipe running nearby had a small leak, causing water to drip slowly and consistently onto the tree’s roots.
Blass realized that the slow, steady drip of water was more effective at nourishing the tree than traditional irrigation methods. This insight led him to consider the potential of a controlled drip system for irrigation. Blass began experimenting with different materials and designs to create a system that could deliver water directly to the roots of plants in a controlled manner. In the early 1960s, Blass partnered with Kibbutz Hatzerim to test and implement his drip irrigation system. This collaboration led to the founding of Netafim in 1965, which commercialized the technology and made it widely available to countries worldwide.
Blass’s invention revolutionized agriculture by significantly improving water efficiency and crop yields, making it possible to cultivate crops in arid regions and conserve precious water resources.
The invention of Simcha Blass has become, over the years, but a single story out of thousands. These days, the question isn’t whether Israel will have any innovations; it’s what they will be, who they will benefit and how transformative they will become. Anyone who has followed Israel’s continually expanding development sectors over the years will know that.
However, 66 years ago, when Blass observed that tree, managing to survive against all the odds in the arid desert, he couldn’t have known that both the tree and its supply of life-giving water would become a metaphor for the State of Israel through the years.
The letters that make up the number 77 in Hebrew also form a word “oz” which means strength. Despite the challenges, Israel has become a hub of innovation which benefits humanity in its entirety. The spread of drip irrigation throughout the world is both literally and figuratively, a mere drop in the bucket of humanity-improving innovation coming from Israel.
This is the message to the people of Israel as we celebrate our birthday, even as we go through challenging times; and this is the message from the people of Israel to the world!
