Mishmeret () is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in central Israel. Located in the Sharon plain near

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

and the

HaSharon Junction The HaSharon Junction (), commonly known as Beit Lid Junction (), is a key road junction in the Sharon region of Israel. It intersects Highway 4 and Highway 57. The junction serves as a large transportation hub for dozens of Egged and Kavim bu ...

and covering 3,800

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Lev HaSharon Regional Council Lev HaSharon Regional Council () is a regional council in the Sharon region of the Central District of Israel. History The council was established in 1984, unifying Hadar HaSharon and Northern Sharon regional councils, and covers 18 villages wi ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Before the 20th century the area formed part of the Forest of Sharon. It was an open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

dominated by Mount Tabor Oak, which extended from

Kfar Yona Kfar Yona () is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It is located between the cities Netanya and Tulkarm, about 8 km east of Netanya in the central junction between Highway 6 (Israel), Highway 6 and Highway 4 ...

in the north to

Ra'anana Ra'anana () is an affluent city in the southern Sharon, Israel, Sharon Plain of the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It was founded in 1922 as an American-Jewish settlement, 1 km south of the village of Tabsur, where a ...

in the south. The local inhabitants traditionally used the area for pasture, firewood and intermittent cultivation. The intensification of settlement and agriculture in the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

during the 19th century, under the Ottoman empire led to deforestation and subsequent

environmental degradation Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

. Mishmeret was founded in 1946 by

demobilised Demobilization or demobilisation (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or becaus ...

soldiers from the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

near the

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village of Miska, which was depopulated in April 1948. During the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

the community moved to

Herut Herut () was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. Some of their policies were compared to those of the Nazi party. Early y ...

, and was re-established after the war on its present site. The layout of Mishmeret follows a pattern widespread at the time of its establishment: Homes were built along both sides of the village roads with fields and farmyards behind each one. The Hebrew term is "kfar magevet” (towel village), denoting its elongated shape. In March 2019 a house in the moshav was hit by a rocket fired from the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

Economy

Today the moshav farms chickens, flowers, exports sweet potatoes and other vegetables. In 2015 the ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'' newspaper cited Mishmeret as an example of a "luxury" moshav.The Transformation of the Moshav: From Chicken Coops to Mansions
Haaretz, 26 June 2015

References

{{Lev HaSharon Regional Council Moshavim Populated places established in 1946 Populated places in Central District (Israel) 1946 establishments in Mandatory Palestine