A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday for Kibbutz Samar, the first settlement of Hashomer Hatzair’s Hakibbutz Haartzi movement to be created south of the Beersheba line. The kibbutz, which is located about 35 kilometers north of Eilat, is between Yotvata to the north and the Timna Cooper mines to the south.
The settlement comprises about 100 members, some of whom have recently ended military service. They come from kibbutzim and cities in Israel and include volunteers from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia who came to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Some 60 housing units will be constructed for the members who have already begun marketing their first crop of vegetables and fruits.
Natan Peled, secretary of Hakibbutz Haartzi, said the new settlement indicates his movement’s policy to give top priority to settling the Galilee, the Arava and Negev in the south, and the security belt on the Golan Heights. He said this was the right type of settlement, not the unwarranted empty efforts of other groups, an apparent reference to the attempts by the Gush Emunim movement to set up settlements on the West Bank in violation of government policy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
