Thema'abarot were camps established in Israel in the 1950s as temporary settlements to provide shelter for the many immigrants who arrived in the early years of the state (sing.ma'abara, pl.ma'abarot). Today, the period during which these camps were active is considered a controversial historical episode. Although thema'abarotwere intended as a quick, practical solution to a critical situation, they were accompanied by significant problems that left deep wounds among broad sections of Israeli society.
The establishment of the State of Israel was followed by an unprecedented wave of immigration. All immigrants originally arrived at the Sha’ar Ha’aliyah immigrant camp in the northern city of Haifa, where they underwent an absorption process. As the volume of immigration increased, the Jewish Agency quickly set up more and more immigrant camps to absorb the overflow of new immigrants.
Within a few months, these new immigrant absorption camps also became overcrowded, with problems ranging from insufficient infrastructure to poor hygiene and food shortages. Moreover, the camps were surrounded by fences, and residents were forbidden to work. At the beginning of 1950, there were about 100,000 people in the temporary camps, suffering from severe distress, frustration and helplessness.
Overcrowding, Poverty and Poor Sanitation
In March 1950, Levi Eshkol, then head of the settlement department at the Jewish Agency, initiated the idea of thema'abarot in order to solve the overcrowding in the temporary absorption camps, stop the immigrants’ dependence on the establishment/state and integrate them into the population. Thema'abarot camps provided temporary housing in the form of tents or tin or wooden shacks, and public institutions such as a daycare center, kindergarten, school, employment bureau, grocery store and health clinic. Unlike the absorption camps, in the new camps, residents were required to support themselves.
In 1953, about 130ma'abarot were established to house about 250,000 persons. The extremely harsh conditions in these new camps included severe poverty due to a lack of jobs, acute overcrowding, poor sanitation and limited water and electricity, which forced dozens of families to share showers, toilets and taps, and unbearably difficult weather conditions, particularly in the summer and winter
For many, life in thema’abarot aroused feelings of discrimination and frustration, intensified by the fact that at the end of 1952, the vast majority of residents were immigrants from Islamic countries. That same year, the camps gradually began to close as their occupants moved into permanent housing, a process that lasted two decades. Many of the camps became development towns or neighborhoods in already existing towns.
Thema'abarot were a milestone in the history of the state that aroused great interest, and as such has left extensive and varied documentation. The National Library preserves many documents that reveal the camps’ human, social, political and historical aspects. The Library’s collections contain, among other things, pictures, posters and articles illustrating the hardships and struggles of life in thema’abarot, as well as brief moments of joy.
More than 100ma'abarot were established throughout the country. From the outside, one camp resembled another, but the hundreds and even thousands of families who resided in every camp made each an entire world, encompassing countless human stories.
The Castel camp was established in February 1951 near the Castel Fortress, south of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road. Immigrants from Kurdistan and Iraq, who immigrated in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, lived there in about 400 tin shacks. Over the next few years, they were joined by immigrants from Iran and Morocco. Five years after the camp’s construction, the temporary dwellings were dismantled, and residents moved to permanent homes in the Maoz Zion A and Maoz Zion B neighborhoods that were built on the site and later became part of the Mevaseret Zion local council.
The Talpiot camp, established in 1948, west of the old Talpiot neighborhood in south Jerusalem, preceded the state's official ma'abarot program. It was built on the remains of a British military camp and housed about 8,000 immigrants, mostly from Iraq and Kurdistan, who lived in overcrowded and poor conditions. Many of the camp’s residents later moved to permanent housing developments in the area, in the Katamonim neighborhood and between Hebron and Bethlehem Roads.
The Hartuv camp was established in December 1950 in the Jerusalem hills, near the former Hartuv colony that was evacuated during the War of Independence. In 1952, the camp’s residents began moving to permanent buildings erected on the adjacent hill, in a developing settlement that later changed its name to Beit Shemesh.
The Ḥiriya camp was established near the Mesubim Junction, near the British military camp at Tel Litvinsky, now the Tel Hashomer Hospital. The transit camp was also called Kfar Mesubim or Tel Litvinsky. The move to permanent apartments took years and the camp was finally dismantled in 1972. One of the transit camp buildings still exists and is inhabited to this day.
The Givat Napoleon camp was established in the southern part of the city of Acre. Most of its residents moved to permanent housing in the city in the 1950s and 1960s. However, many families lived in the camp until the 1970s and repeatedly demonstrated for the allocation of housing in the new buildings under construction in the city.
