HaMagen (defense organization)

[2] According to HaMagen's David Tsalevich, some of the organization's members were disgruntled HaShomer would-be inductees, who were not accepted despite extensive trial periods.

[2] After negotiations, HaMagen was selected to guard four southern villages: Ruhama, Gedera, Be'er Tuvia, and Ekron (today Mazkeret Batya).

[2] Although HaMagen was accused of benefitting from the gold transferred from the British to the Nili, the economic situation of most of the guardsmen (except in Ekron) was dire.

As soon as HaShomer returned to operate in the southern town Rehovot, they officially asked the Judea Workers' Union to boycott HaMagen.

The request was presided over by Levi Eshkol and Avraham Herzfeld, and denied on the grounds that HaMagen's own regulations forbade competition with HaShomer.