11 Points in the Negev

11 points in the Negev refers to a Jewish Agency plan for establishing eleven settlements in the Negev in 1946, prior to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel.

History

A plan to establish eleven "points" of Jewish settlement in the Negev was devised in order to assure a Jewish presence in the area prior to the partition of Palestine. This followed the publication of the Morrison-Grady partition proposal, in which the Negev was to be part of an Arab state. Together, the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency, the Haganah and the Mekorot water company launched a drive to settle the Negev in order to have the Negev included as part of a Jewish state. six of the eleven points were associated with 'Socialist Zionist' groups, three with Hashomer Hatzair and three with other groups assoicated with the Labour Zionist tradition such as Habonim Dror and Paolei Zion.

The confessions of Yaakov Sharrett

According to an article by Sarah Helm on Yaakov Sharrett

In 1946, two years before the Arab-Israeli war, Yaakov and a group of comrades moved to the area of Abu Yahiya to help spearhead one of the Zionists most breathtaking land grabs. As a young soldier, Sharett was appointed mukhtar – or chief - of one of 11 Jewish outposts established by stealth in the Negev. The purpose was to secure a Jewish foothold to ensure Israel could seize the strategic area when war came. Draft partition plans had designated the Negev, where Arabs vastly outnumbered Jews, as part of an Arab state, but Jewish strategists were determined to take it as theirs. The so-called “11 points” operation was a huge success, and during the war the Arabs were virtually all driven out, and the Negev was declared part of Israel.

For the daring frontiersmen involved, it was a badge of honour to have taken part and Yaakov Sharett seemed excited by his memories at first. “We set off, with wire and posts and tracked through Wadi Beersheva,” he says. I flick open a laptop showing photographs of the Arab well, now an Israeli tourist spot. “Yes,” says Yaakov, amazed. “I know it. I knew Abu Yahiya. A nice man. A tall, lean Bedouin with a sympathetic face. He sold me water. It was delicious.” What happened to the villagers, I wonder? He pauses. “When war came, the Arabs fled - expelled. I somehow don’t remember,” he says, pausing again. “I returned afterwards and the area was quite empty. Empty! Except,” and he peers at the photo of the well again. “You know, this nice man was somehow still there afterwards. He asked for my help. He was in a very bad way - very sick, and barely able to walk, all alone. Everyone else was gone.” But Yaakov offered no help. “I said nothing. I feel very bad about it. Because he was my friend,” he says. Yaakov looks up clearly pained. “I regret it all very much. What can I say?” And as what was to be our short interview ran on, it became clear that Yaakov Sharett regretted not only the Negev venture, but the entire Zionist project as well.

Before 1948, the Negev constituted the British administrative district of Beersheva and the district of Gaza, which together made up half the land of Palestine. Touching the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, the terrain had vital access to water. So not surprisingly, the Zionists, who had to date succeeded in purchasing just 6 percent of Palestinian land, were determined to seize it. However, given that about 250,000 Arabs lived in the Negev, in 247 villages, compared to about 500 Jews in three small outposts, a recent Anglo-American partition plan had divided mandate Palestine between Jews and Arabs, apportioning the Negev region as part of a future Palestinian state. A British ban on new settlement had also hindered Zionist attempts to alter the status quo. Arabs had always opposed any plan that envisaged the Palestinians as “an indigenous majority living on their ancestral soil, being converted overnight into a minority under alien rule,” as the Palestinian historian, Walid Khalidi, summarised it.

In late 1946, however, with a new United Nations partition plan in the making, the Zionist leaders saw it was now or never for the Negev. So the “11 points” plan was launched. Not only would the new settlements boost the Jewish presence there, they would serve as military bases when war broke out, as it inevitably would. Everything had to be done in secret due to the British ban and it was decided to erect the outposts on the night of 5 October, just after Yom Kippur. “The British would never expect the Jews to do such a thing the night after Yom Kippur,” says Yaakov. “I remember when we found our piece of land on the top of a barren hill. It was still dark, but we managed to bang in the posts and soon, we were inside our fence. At first light, trucks came with pre-fabricated barracks. It was quite a feat. We worked like devils. Ha! I will never forget it.”

On the night of October 5–6, after the Yom Kippur fast, the settlers, including members of Kibbutz Ruhama and Gvulot, set up camp at eleven pre-determined locations in the Negev. The eleven settlements were (in alphabetic order):

• Kibbutz Be'eri - Its founders were members of the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed movement(Federation of Young Students and Workers, most commonly translated as Working and Studying Youth - colloquially known as Noar HaOved and abbreviated No'al an Israeli youth movement, a sister movement of Habonim Dror, and affiliated with the Labor Zionist movement), who had been preparing in Maoz Haim, as well as some Hebrew scouts. It was named after Berl Katznelson, as Be'eri was his Pseudonym.
• Kibbutz Gal On - From Kibbutz Artzi/Hashomer Hatzair.
• Kibbutz Hatzerim - Led by Yaakov Sharrett (son of Moshe Sharrett the second Prime Minister of Israel).
• Kibbutz Kedma
• Kibbutz Kfar Darom - established by Hapoel HaMizrachi's kibbutz movement.
• Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev - settled by members of Borochovi Youth, a youth group affiliated with Poalei Zion.
• Kibbutz Nevatim
• Kibbutz Nirim - From Kibbutz Artzi/Hashomer Hatzair - named after the Nir brigade of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, some of whose members helped establish the kibbutz
• Kibbutz Shoval - From Kibbutz Artzi/Hashomer Hatzair - founded by members of Hashomer Hatzair and settlers who had survived the Patria disaster.
• Kibbutz Tkuma
• Kibbutz Urim group founded in Ra'anana in 1945 by Bulgarian immigrants from the (Labour Zionist) Gordonia and Maccabi Youth groups, but most of the later settlement came from North Americans from Habonim.