Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1998, Page 72

The Caravan of Memories

Israeli Make-Believe: Kibbutzim Are Profitable

By Andrew I. Killgore

 “This Kibbutz does make a profit. And that’s not Zionist propaganda.” The speaker was the handsome young Israeli leader of a 5,000-acre Israeli kibbutz about 15 miles northwest of Beersheba toward Ashkelon on the Mediterranean. The year was 1959 and, as U.S. consul in Jerusalem, I was part of a visiting consular corps group sponsored by the governor of Israel’s Jerusalem district.

The disarmingly frank kibbutznik leader had no way of knowing that I had grown up on a farm in Alabama and knew a lot about farming. I did nothing to enlighten him, but I looked carefully around with a farmer’s practiced eye.

In a word, the whole setup looked sleek. The many small houses, actually like a village, seemed well-constructed, painted and well-maintained. Sidewalks looked new, machinery did, too. Beautiful lawns were neatly trimmed.

The kibbutz seemed too prosperous to be real. Farming is a hard life with not much money left over to dress up things. Also there were a lot of people, between 300 and 400. I thought to myself, “Could this farm really support that many people?”

The kibbutznik’s statement quoted above had been in response to my question on whether the kibbutz was turning a profit. After 15 to 20 minutes of more looking around I then asked, “Where did you get your land?”

Unhesitatingly, as if to buttress his assertion that his kibbutz was profitable, the smiling Israeli responded, “From the Jewish National Fund.”

Established in 1901 to acquire land that would be vested in perpetuity in “the Jewish people,” the JNF was active during the British Mandate of Palestine, acquiring land from Palestinians. After Israel was established in 1948, the Israelis simply took additional land that they wanted.

Covenants relating to land, such as Israel’s perpetual ownership, are unenforceable in democratic America, and thus have no legal standing. But they are a distinct part of “democratic” Israel.

Eventually I asked another question. “Where did you get your machinery and the buildings?” As expected, the answer was, “From the Jewish National Fund.”

I looked around some more. The people were generally young, good-looking and friendly. They also showed me the arrangements for separating the young children from their parents. Even though they seemed proud of the system, the idea turned me off and I was sure it would not work in the long run.

As our party prepared to leave the kibbutz and make its way back to Jerusalem, I asked the altogether charming young Israeli leader a final question. “Are you paying back the Jewish National Fund?”

With an air of finality, as if to clinch his original statement that the kibbutz was indeed making a profit, the young man replied: “No, but next year we will start paying interest.”

I have been bemused ever since by the kibbutz leader’s apparently sincere conviction that his kibbutz really was making a profit. If I could only have secured terms like these from my government, I might never have left the farm in Alabama.