Introduction
Of the more than 500,000 Jews now living in Palestine, 125,000 persons are engaged in farming and incognate agricultural pursuits. The Jewish farming population is settled in 250 agricultural colonies of varying types and sizes.
Three distinct categories, each of which is described and known by a different Hebrew name, are discernible in the development that has taken place between 1878 and 1940. A Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine may have the character of (a) Moshava, (b) Moshav Ovdim, or (c) Kvutza or Kibbutz.
A Moshava is a settlement of freeholders: independent farmers who own their land as their private property.
A Moshav Ovdim is a settlement of smallholders who do not own the land as their private property but who hold it under a hereditary lease. Th eland, belonging to the Jewish National Fund, is national property leased to the settler for a 49-year period. Each settler in a Moshav Ovdim has the land tilled by him and his family clearly delimited. He enjoys full property rights in regard to the plantation, livestock, buildings and farm equipment. The settlers practice cooperation in all matters affecting the colony as a whole such as the purchase of livestock, seed and necessities, and in the sale of the produce, as well as in the maintenance of the necessary institutions.
A Kvutza is a communal settlement established on nationally owned land (belonging to the Jewish National Fund). The land is granted to the settlers as a group under the terms of the Jewish national Fund lease. The estate is worked in common. All property is owned by the community. A Kvutza comprises the land under cultivation, the living quarters, the buildings and the public institutions.
The principle of the Kvutza also apply to a communal settlement of a similar name: Kibbutz. The Kibbutz differs from the Kvutza only in its size or scale of operations. A Kibbutz is a settlement that has a larger land area and a greater number of members.
The term Kibbutzim is also applied in describing groups of agricultural workers which cultivate nationally owned land but have not yet been permanently settled on a definite piece of land. The Kibbutz lives in temporary quarters and is largely dependent for its maintenance on the wages earned by its members outside of their settlement. Nearly all Kvutzoth (plural for Kvutza) existing in Palestine today began as Kibbutzim (plural for Kibbutz).
The history of the Jewish agricultural resettlement of Palestine may be conveniently divided into time periods.
(a) Preliminary Period. In 1859 the Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris, France, founded Mikveh Israel as the first Jewish agricultural training school in Palestine on an area of 2,600 dunams situated four kilometers southeast of Jaffa. Charles Netter, general secretary of the Alliance Israelite Universelle is credited with the initiative of establishing the first Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine in modern times. The Alliance obtained the land from the Turkish government on the basis of a lease of 49 years, renewable thereafter. In 1878 a group of Jerusalem Jews made the first attempt to establish the first agricultural settlement which they named Potach Tikvah (Gate of Hope). This attempt was not successful.
(b) The Hovevei Zion Period, which began in the years 1880-1883, when he first wave of immigration from Russia brought a number of settlers, including the idealistic pioneers who went under the name of BILU (initials for the Hebrew sciences: Beth Iaacov Loohu U'Nolchah -- "House of Jacob, Come, Let Us Go," Isaiah II.5). Aided by the Hovevei Zion, these settlers laid the foundations for the colonies Petach Tikvah, Rishon le Zion, Zichron Yaakov, and Rosh Pinah.
(c) The Rothschild Period, which covers the span between 1883 and 1899. Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris, France, known in the annals of Palestinian colonization as the Nadiv Hayadua (famous philanthropist), reorganized the Hovevei Zion villages, converted them into vine-growing settlements and established at Rishon Le Zion the famous wine cellars bearing his name.
(d) The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) Period, which covers the span between 1899 and 1907. In 1899 the administration of the Rothschild colonies was taken over by the JCA under whose auspices new settlements, on a cereal-growing basis, were founded in lower Galilee.
(e) The Zionist Period, which covers the span between 1905 to 1940.
The difference in the type and character of the various agricultural settlements may largely be traced to the dates and characteristics surrounding their establishment. Those colonies which were founded in the first three periods in the history of Palestine colonization were in most cases founded on the private ownership principle. Those establishments in the subsequent development both prior to the issuance of the Balfour Declaration on November 22, 1917 and after, were in most cases founded, with the funds supplied by the Zionist movement and with the land provided by the Jewish National Fund, on the collective principle.
The Fifth Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland, in December, 1901, established the Keren Kayemeth Leisrael (Jewish National Fund) as the instrument of the Zionist movement for the acquisition of land in Palestine as national and inalienable property. The first settlement established on Jewish National Fund land was that of Degania on the Trans-Jordan side of Lake Kinnereth. Degania was founded in 1909. It is known as the "Mother" or as the first of the Kvutzoth. The Kvutza system was subsequently found to be the most effective and suitable for the settlement of larger numbers of agricultural workers. The system was evolved largely in accordance with a plan recommended in 1910 by Dr. Franz Oppenheimer, a German-Jewish agricultural expert who made the first experiment at the colony Merhavya in the valley of Jezreel.
All Kvutzoth are organized as cooperative societies functioning under the Cooperative Societies' Ordinance promulgated by the Palestine administration in 1933. All Kvutzoth function on the basis of a written constitution, common to all. The constitution lays down, broadly, the following principles: (a) the government of the Kvutza is vested in the general meeting of all members of the Kvutza; (b) general meetings must be held annually and whenever required by not less than one-third of the members of the Kvutza; (c) members have one vote each which is expressed by show of hands [rest of sentence illegible]; (d) a simple majority of votes at a general meeting binds all members of the Kvutza; and (e) a committee of management is elected by the general meeting for one year.
The committee of management, commonly known as the Secretariat, is composed of three or more members and usually meets once a week. No official status is accorded to the chairman of the committee.
Each member of the committee of management has different duties. One member is usually secretary-treasurer; one is the labor organizer and a third is the Mukhtar, who deals with external affairs relating to the government and the neighboring Arab villages. In the larger Kvutzoth there are other Secretariat members who deal with the purchase and distribution of supplies. The committee of management is usually assisted by a number of small standing committees elected by the general meeting of household management, farm management, labor, education and culture. Although any working member can be elected to the Secretariat, it is usually the more experienced men and women who are elected and reelected to these posts.
Of the approximately 250 colonies and settlements that exist in Palestine at the present time, 150 have been established on the land belonging to the Jewish National Fund under a leasehold which aims at attaining the following objectives: (a) the settler who has little or no money obtains land for a farm without incurring heavy debts. The ground rent is fixed for a period of many years, so that he is protected against arbitrary increases. (b) The system assures that farms will be kept at a normal size, because the holdings can be neither enlarged nor broken up into smaller units. The soil is protected against undue exploitation. A limit is set to the farmer's indebtedness. (c) The land remains Jewish in perpetuity since it cannot be transferred to non-Jews. (d) The national interests are safeguarded in connection with the settlement project. One of the main advantages is that the fundamental principle of Jewish labor is safeguarded. (e) It provides for a just division of the increase on the value of the land. The settler receiver that part of the increase which has been created through his efforts, while the balance goes to the Jewish people as the owner of the land. (f) It is a means of combating land speculation and usury.
As the site for a new settlement is chosen or when the colony is established, an appropriate Hebrew name is selected. The national settlements, built by the Keren Hayesod on the land of the Keren Kayemeth have been given their names by a Place Names Committee which functions as the headquarters of the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem and is comprised of representatives of the Keren Kayemeth Lesisrael, the Zionist Executive and the Keren Hayseod, the [illegible] Le'Umi, the Federation of Agricultural Workers, Hebrew University and the Jewish Society for the Exploration of Palestine and its Antiquities. he names are derived either from names known in the ancient history of Palestine or from local place names. In some cases they embody allusions to the topographical conditions of the environment. In other cases the settlements bear the names of generous donors who made possible the acquisition of the land or [the names] of the men and women who gained distinction in the leadership of the Zionist movement.
(Note: re-typed from a printout of a microfilm copy of the original mimeograph.)
(Note: re-typed from a printout of a microfilm copy of the original mimeograph.)
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