Ramat HaKovesh () is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in central Israel. Approximately 7 kilometers northeast of

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...

and south-west of Tira. The kibbutz falls under the jurisdiction of

Drom HaSharon Regional Council The Drom HaSharon Regional Council () is a regional council located partly in the Sharon region and partly in the Central Coastal Plain region of the Central District of Israel. The council's headquarters are located on Highway 40 near Neve Ya ...

. In it had a population of .

Etymology

Ramat Hakovesh was named for "Hakovesh," the Jewish pioneering group that established the kibbutz, reflecting the

Labor Zionist Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the Left-wing politics, left-wing, socialism, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist ...

ideal of

manual labor Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual'' ...

and the agricultural "conquest" of barren land.

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 Arabs 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 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 ...

. The kibbutz was founded by

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

youth from the

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

and HeHalutz movements, including Jews from

Wizna Wizna is a village in Łomża County of Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, situated on the Narew River. Wizna is known for the battle of Wizna which took place in its vicinity during the 1939 Invasion of Poland at the start of World ...

. A Vishnivean group of the HeHalutz movement

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

in 1926. They formed the nucleus of kibbutz "HaKovesh", which initially camped near

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

. In 1936, they moved to a parcel of land purchased from an Arab family where they engaged in farming despite years of ongoing sniping and violence. On 16 November 1943 the British military searched the kibbutz for arms on the pretext of searching for deserters from the Polish Army, which was then stationed in Palestine.In the violent confrontation, a kibbutz member, Shmuel Wolynetz, was killed, 14 people were wounded, and 35 were arrested In November 1945, following the

Night of the Trains The Night of the Trains (or Operation Party) was a sabotage operation of the British railways in Palestine (" Palestine Railways") on November 1, 1945. The operation was one of the first carried out by the Jewish Resistance Movement, before its ...

, a

Palestine Police The Palestine Police Force (, ) was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from ...

squad with dogs tried to break into the kibbutz. Upon orders from Jerusalem to withdraw, it was declared off-limits to British forces.

Economy

The kibbutz owns and operates Duram Rubber Products Company, a manufacturer of technical rubber products. Duram Mask A.C. Ltd., a subsidiary. manufactures the Duram Escape Mask, special emergency escape masks for personal use in situations of smoke, fire, chemical spill or chemical/biological terror attack. Kibbutz Ramat Hakovesh operates a wedding and banquet hall, Pekan Garden. PowerCom, a company based in Ramat Hakovesh, produces a remote monitoring system that collects data from solar systems and sends information to an online server that can be accessed from computers anywhere in the world.

Notable people

* Sara Levi-Tanai (1910–2005), choreographer and song writer. Lived in the Kibbutz from 1940 to 1945.

Gallery

References

{{Authority control Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1932 Populated places in Central District (Israel) 1932 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Polish-Jewish culture in Israel