Beginnings

Kvutzat Kinneret 1937

Kvutzat Kinneret, like Degania Alef, evolved from the agricultural training farm founded in 1908 known as Havat Kinneret (Kinneret Farm) or Hatzer Kinneret (Kinneret Courtyard). The kvutza, or 'group', was established within the Kinneret Farm in 1913 by a small number of idealistic pioneers who believed in the communal way of life and sharing all material goods. In 1929, the group settled at their current, permanent location higher up the hill. Kinneret is the only kibbutz west of the Jordan River that settled on the rocky slopes rather than the valley.^[3] Beekeeping and the sale of honey were among the earliest economic branches.^[4]

The early settlers planted date palms but found that the dates were of inferior quality. In the 1930s,^[5] 75,000 high-quality date palm saplings were smuggled out of Iraq aboard a ship supposedly heading for Italy. The cargo was transported across the Shatt al-Arab waterway to the Iranian side, and from there through the Suez Canal to Cyprus, where it was put on board a ship to Haifa.^[6]

Yemenite group

In 1912, the pioneers at the Kinneret Farm and Degania^[7] were joined by ten Yemenite Jewish families who worked in draining swamps, as also in growing vegetables. Because of cultural differences between the Yemenite and Ashkenazi workers, the former were lodged in the two noisy and oil fumes-filled storage rooms of the so-called "motor house" of the water pumping station, received less than half the land and earned half the wages of Ashkenazi workers, and were not invited to join the kvutza. Once the kvutza leadership decided that they must leave, water was withheld from them, as was milk for their children. Due to the poor living and working conditions, many children and adults died, not least of malaria. In 1930, after eighteen years at the site, they were finally compelled to leave the area. The ten families resettled in Kfar Marmorek (see photo), then a new workers' moshav and now a suburb of Rehovot.^[8][9][10] Although they had contributed a great deal to develop the area, the Arabic-speaking, religiously observant Yemenites were not considered suitable to join the kibbutz. Once the Motor House was transformed into a museum in 1994, a plaque placed there and commemorating the Yemenite pioneers was removed by kibbutz members; the ensuing legal battle was ongoing as of 2009.^[10]