Rosh HaNikra () 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 northern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located on the

Mediterranean coast The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eu ...

near the Rosh HaNikra grottoes and the border with

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In it had a population of .

History

The kibbutz was established on 6 January 1949 by a gar'in of

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 ...

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...

soldiers who moved there from kibbutz Hanita, along with

Zionist youth movement A Zionist youth movement () is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideology, ideological development, including a belief in Zionism, Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel. Yout ...

members and young

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

. It was built on the village lands of

al-Bassa al-Bassa () was a Palestinians, Palestinian Arab village in the Mandatory Palestine's Acre Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Acre Subdistrict. It was situated close to the Blue Line (Lebanon), Lebanese border, north of the district capital, Acr ...

, which was depopulated in 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 ...

2023 Israel–Gaza war

During the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, northern Israeli border communities, including Rosh HaNikra, faced targeted attacks by

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

and Palestinian factions based in

, and were evacuated. Hanikra

In January 2024, Hezbollah released a video of a strike on the Israeli naval base at Rosh Hanikra, on the border with Lebanon, saying it had used an Almas missile. Several subsequent videos over the spring 2024 also show to deploy the

guided missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of Propulsion, self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a targ ...

against Israeli targets.

Economy

The kibbutz grows

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s and

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

s, and raises

turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocell ...

. In 1974, kibbutz members founded a

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

company called Rahan Meristem, which included the first commercial

tissue culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissue (biology), tissues or cell (biology), cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-s ...

laboratory in the country. Rahan developed new procedures for large scale, in-vitro, clonal propagation of over 200 plant

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

including ornamental, industrial, fruit, and vegetable crops. In the mid-1980s, in-vitro propagated banana plants became the leading product. Rahan is now a center of research and consultation for the banana industry throughout the world. A formal R&D department was established in 1991 to provide technical support. Areas of expertise include molecular and classical

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

, plant cell and tissue culture, plant biochemistry and physiology,

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the Morphology (biology), morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the iden ...

and

industrial biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

. Methods have also been developed for the control of contaminating

microbe A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in ...

s, early detection and elimination of somaclonal variation, reduction of labor and fixed costs in production, etc.Matimop, Rahan Meristem
/ref> In the early 21st century, the kibbutz was privatized.

Notable people

Sacha Baron Cohen Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( ; born 13 October 1971) is an English comedian, actor and performance artist. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haf ...

, English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producerHeller, Aron

''Israelis Dig 'Borat,' Jokes in Hebrew''. 2006-12-14. Retrieved on 2008-12-29 * Nufar Edelman (born 1982), Olympic sailor *

Eitan Friedlander Eitan Friedlander (also "Fridlander"; ; born September 21, 1958) is an Israeli former Olympic sailor. Friedlander and Shimshon Brokman won the 1972 420 International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) Youth Sailing World Championship in West Germany, th ...

(born 1958), Olympic sailor * Dekel Keinan, Israeli footballer

References

External links