(ANSA) - Milan, October 26 - The Israel pavilion at the Expo world's fair on Sunday celebrated a forest planted in Tiberias in 2013 in honor of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the late archbishop of Milan.
    The forest planted by Israeli NGO Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL) and the tourism ministry has over 5,000 trees and is located near Tiberias in Galilee, an area the cardinal loved and which is highly symbolic for both Christians and Jews.
    "For us Jews, the tree is a symbol of life," said KKL Italy Director Shariel Gun. "There's a Hebrew saying that every human being is the tree of life, because every person is born of the earth...so whenever someone is born or dies, we plant trees in their honor so that the person's life can last longer than their years on Earth".
    The forest was planted to honor the cardinal because he was "a man who made interfaith dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims his life's work," said Gun.