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ThePalestine Jewish Colonization Association (Hebrew:חברה להתיישבות יהודית בארץ־ישראל), commonly known by its Yiddish acronymPICA (Hebrew:פיק"א), was aZionist organization established in 1924 to facilitateJewish land purchase in Palestine and for establishingJewish settlements in Palestine.[a] The PICA played a significant role in laying the foundations what would become theState of Israel. The association disbanded in 1957.
TheJewish Colonization Association (JCA or ICA) was founded byBavarianphilanthropist BaronMaurice de Hirsch in 1891 to helpJews fromRussia andRomania to settle inArgentina.[1][2] Baron de Hirsch died in 1896 and thereafter the JCA began to also assist the Jewish settlement in Palestine.[2] At the end of 1899Edmond James de Rothschild transferred title to his colonies in Palestine, plus fifteen million francs to the JCA. In 1924, the JCA branch dealing with colonies in Palestine was reorganized by Baron de Rothschild as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association,[1][3] with his sonJames de Rothschild appointed as president for life.[4]
Between 1895 and 1899, Rothschild's development agency and PICA planted Palestine’s first major forest inHadera, primarily aiming to drain swamps. The developers sourced 250,000eucalyptus seeds fromAlgeria, where French settlers had cultivated large eucalyptus forests. In the 1920s, the once-dominant eucalyptus trees were replaced bypine trees, which were hardy, fast-growing, and contributed to a more European-like landscape.[5] After the1929 Palestine riots, PICA extended its support beyond forestation, helping to rehabilitate agricultural colonies that had been damaged in the unrest.[6]
From 1927, the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA)—successor to the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA)—competed with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate over lands at Caesarea. British Mandatory topo-cadastral maps indicate that JCA/PICA held the largely barren tracts north of theCaesarea–al-Shuna road, while the Church owned the more fertile, cultivated area to the south. Amid the upheavals of 1936–1939, thePatriarchate opened secret negotiations to dispose of its Caesarea holdings to PICA; surviving correspondence names intermediaries (including PICA solicitor Mr. Ferragi and Mr. Hamishwili) and records Patriarch Timotheos.[7]
James de Rothschild, who died in 1957, instructed in his will that PICA should transfer most of its land in Israel to theJewish National Fund.[8] On December 31, 1958, PICA agreed to vest its right to land holdings inSyria andLebanon in the State of Israel.[9]
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