Tower and Stockade (Hebrew:חוֹמָה וּמִגְדָּל,romanized: Ḥoma u'migdal,lit. 'wall and tower') was a settlement method used byZionist settlers inMandatory Palestine during the1936–39 Arab Revolt. The establishment of newJewish settlements was legally restricted by the Mandatory authorities, but the British generally gave their tacit accord to the Tower andStockade actions as a means of countering the Arab revolt. During the course of the Tower and Stockade campaign, some 57 Jewish settlements including 52kibbutzim and severalmoshavim were established throughout the country. The legal base was aTurkish Ottoman law that was still in effect during the Mandate period, which stated that buildings erected in one night didn't require a building permit and couldn't be demolished by authorities.[1]
During the Arab Revolt, these settlements provided safe havens on land that had been officially purchased by theJewish National Fund (JNF),[2] protected Jewish populations, particularly in remote areas, on these Jewish-owned land and maintained "facts on the ground." These settlements would eventually be transformed into fortified agricultural settlements, and served for security purposes (as defences againstArab raiders) as well as creating contiguous Jewish-populated regions, which would later help determine the borders of theUN-proposed Jewish state.The operation was run by theHaganah and led byMoshe Sharett.[3]All of the majorsettlement groups (mostly the kibbutz andmoshav movements) took part in the campaign, which consisted of setting up a protected perimeter, with a defensive wall around it and aguard tower in the middle. While many of these settlements were not officially approved by the British Mandate authorities, existing settlements were not dismantled, based on the Turkish Ottoman law still valid at the time. Due to the threat of immediate attack, at least as much as to any need to comply with the clauses of this law, the construction of the Tower and Stockade settlements had to be finished very quickly, usually in the course of a single day.[4] What is less well known is the fact that the British authorities were rather lax at implementing restrictions against such Jewish activities at a time when their main security concern was the Arab revolt, thus "Tower and Stockade" settlements were always created by day, not by night - against some still prevailing myths. In the very different political and security climate of the final months of the Mandate, a similar act of creating facts on the ground happened in April 1948 atBror Hayil, when much of the work was indeed done during the night.[5]
The invention of the "Tower and Stockade" system is attributed toShlomo Gur, founding member of Kibbutz Tel Amal (nowNir David), and was developed and encouraged by the architectYohanan Ratner.[6] The system was based on the fast construction of a perimeter wall from pre-fabricated wooden moulds, which would be filled with gravel and enclosed withbarbed wire fencing. On average, the enclosed space formed a yard of 35 x 35 metres (1dunam). Within this protected yard, the pre-fabricated wooden observation tower and the four sheds sheltering the initial 40 settlers were erected. The constructions were located within eyesight of neighbouring settlements and with accessibility for motor vehicles.[2]
A model of ahoma u'migdal was constructed for the Land of Israel Pavilion at the 1937World Exposition in Paris.[7]
57 were constructed between the last days of 1936 and October 1939.[8]
The buildings were prefabricated bySolel Boneh, the construction arm of the Jewish trade union,Histadrut.[9]
In 1940 two more outpost were built in the northernHula valley,She'ar Yashuv andBeit Hillel. They, along with nearby Dafna, Dan, and the only later establishedNehalim (October 1943), were known as the "Ussishkin Fortresses", named afterMenachem Ussishkin, the president of theJewish National Fund. The initial plan had been to create one "fortress" for each of the six branches of thesettlement movement existing at the time. The site designated for a sixth "fortress", today's KibbutzSnir, was only settled after the 1967Six-Day War.
Tower and Stockade settlements by date of establishment:
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