Yizre'El

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YIZRE'EL

YIZRE'EL (Heb. יִזְרְעֶאל), kibbutz in northern Israel at the foot of Mt. Gilboa affiliated to Iḥud ha-Kevuẓot ve-ha-Kibbutzim. In the War of Independence the strategically situated Arab village of Zaʿrīn served as a vantage point from which Arab units harassed Jewish settlements in the Harod Valley and tried to block communications with nearby Afulah. A *Palmaḥ group took the village in an attack on May 30, 1948. A few weeks later a group of Israel-born youth established the kibbutz on the abandoned site. Immigrants from Australia and other English-speaking countries later joined the kibbutz. Farming was highly intensive, based on field crops, almonds orchards, fishery, poultry, and dairy cattle. The kibbutz owned Maytronics for the manufacture of advanced pool-cleaning equipment and Yizrael Tamuz for cables, wires, electronic enclosures, and packaging. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 515, dropping to 464 in 2002.

website:

www.yizrael.org.il.

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed,)]

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