Tower and Stockade

The establishment of new Jewish settlements was legally restricted by the Mandatory authorities, but the British generally gave their tacit accord to the Tower and Stockade actions as a means of countering the Arab revolt.

[3] All of the major settlement groups (mostly the kibbutz and moshav movements) took part in the campaign, which consisted of setting up a protected perimeter, with a defensive wall around it and a guard tower in the middle.

[4] What is less well known is the fact that the British authorities were rather lax at implementing restrictions against such Jewish activities at a time when their main security concern was the Arab revolt, thus "Tower and Stockade" settlements were always created by day, not by night - against some still prevailing myths.

In the very different political and security climate of the final months of the Mandate, a similar act of creating facts on the ground happened in April 1948 at Bror Hayil, when much of the work was indeed done during the night.

[5] The invention of the "Tower and Stockade" system is attributed to Shlomo Gur, founding member of Kibbutz Tel Amal (now Nir David), and was developed and encouraged by the architect Yohanan Ratner.