Giv’at Hashlucha Settlement

Giv’at Hashlucha is a kibbutz located in central occupied Palestine. It is situated approximately 4 km east of Beit Sheva near the Yarkon River. The kibbutz was established on May 1, 1925, on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of Majd al-Yaba in the Ramla district. It was founded by a group from the Hashomer Hatzair movement, a pioneering Zionist organization that originated in Klesov (Klesiv), Ukraine (formerly Poland). The kibbutz was named after three workers from Beit Sheva who were accused of espionage during World War I, when Palestine was under the Ottoman Empire. They were imprisoned in Damascus, subjected to torture, and died in 1916.

There was a regional agricultural school on the outskirts of Giv’at Hashlucha. Isaac Rabin, later Prime Minister of Israel, studied there between 1935 and 1937. Later, the site was named after Rosa Cohen, Rabin’s mother. Today, the site functions as an urban farm and a teacher training college.

In 1953, Giv’at Hashlucha was relocated to its current site on the land of the recently depopulated Palestinian village of Majd al-Yaba.

Today, the Tel Aviv Elderly Care Institution is located in Giv’at Hashlucha. It was one of the largest dining halls in the British Mandate Palestine, operating within the kibbutz, designed by Israeli architect Arieh Sharon, along with other buildings on the kibbutz.

Before the establishment of the occupation government and what is now called Israel, Giv’at Hashlucha was one of the kibbutzim where the Palmach trained. It also housed weapons caches for the Haganah. Later, it was raided by the British Army during Operation Agatha. As of 2021, its population was 900 settlers.

Sources:

Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, we relied on Hebrew sources: the settlement’s Hebrew website / Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.

The village of Majd al-Yaba is referenced from the Palestine Memory website.