Hassan Hir al-Din, 60, a resident of Mashhad, near Nazareth, took a personal initiative: distributing palm branches to Jews ahead of the Sukkot holiday.
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Hassan cut down the palm tree in his yard, along with professionals - and told the pruning contractor to trim the tree's branches. He then spread the word in several places that anyone who needed palm branches to thatch a sukkah was welcome to come and get them.
"This tree has a worm that gnawed at the trunk, we had to uproot the tree," says Hassan in a conversation with Haredim 10. "I saw Haredi and religious children carrying branches from all sorts of places, I said, 'What a shame: it's a big tree with lots of branches, Jews can use it as a thatch for the sukkah.'".
""I posted it in several places, and Haredi people came from the Galilee region - the former Upper Nazareth, there is a neighborhood in Upper Nazareth that only has Haredi people, they came from there. Instead of putting the tree on the crane and the truck, I said, 'What a shame' - I asked the pruning contractor to cut off all the branches.".
Hassan adds: "It wasn't planned, it wasn't something I said: I have a palm tree I want to cut down and divide. There was a situation where we had to cut it down, I thought we could do a good deed, and divide it.".
"Good deeds don't need many reasons. I was surprised by the good responses. It was exciting to see them come and say thank you... a great sense of satisfaction.".
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