• DOI:10.1080/13531042.2016.1140878
• Corpus ID: 147395057

The kibbutz and the ma’abara (transit camp): The case of the Upper Galilee kibbutzim and Kiryat Shmona, 1949–1953

@article{Goldstein2016TheKA,
  title={The kibbutz and the ma’abara (transit camp): The case of the Upper Galilee kibbutzim and Kiryat Shmona, 1949–1953},
  author={Amir Goldstein},
  journal={Journal of Israeli History},
  year={2016},
  volume={35},
  pages={17 - 37}
}

• Amir Goldstein
• Published 2 January 2016
• Sociology
• Journal of Israeli History

Abstract This article examines the relations between the kibbutzim of the Upper Galilee and the Khalsa (Kiryat Shmona) transit camp in its early years. This test case represents a microcosm of the encounter between veteran pioneers and new immigrants, between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim, between those who regarded themselves as the avant-garde of the Labor Zionist movement and new immigrants whose fate symbolized the mass aliyah. The kibbutzim played a decisive role in the establishment of Kiryat Shmona. Their sense of responsibility, compassion, and their genuine desire to help develop social and communal services were no less powerful than their trend towards isolation. However, the kibbutz members’ orientalist views undermined their ability to attain their objectives. Faced with what they perceived as the paternalistic approach of the kibbutzim, the inhabitants of the transit camp, especially the Yemenite immigrants, refused to submit to the powerful pressure exerted upon them to abandon their traditional Jewish culture and manifested their loyalty to their own values.