Shmerat colony

Shomrat is a kibbutz in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories, located in the Western Galilee along the coastal highway, north of Acre (Akka). The kibbutz was established on 29 May 1948 by members of the Hashomer Hatzair socialist-Zionist youth movement from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania, on land that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Manshiyya, north of the kibbutz’s current location. It also included land from al-Sumayriyya.

Some of the founders had fought as partisans against Nazi forces in Europe, while the majority were survivors of various Nazi concentration camps. Many of the kibbutz founders arrived in Palestine as part of the Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration) movement and were held in displaced persons camps in Cyprus. Initially, they resided at a government experimental agricultural station near Acre, moving to the current site in 1950.

In August 1988, a high-profile gang rape occurred in the kibbutz, which led to significant changes in Israeli law regarding sexual assault.

As of 2022, the population of the kibbutz was 688 settlers.

Sources:
Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, Hebrew-language sources were used: the Hebrew settlement website / Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
Villages of al-Manshiyya and al-Sumayriyya – Palestine Remembered.