The Israeli volunteering movement preceding the 1956 war

This article deals with the Israeli volunteering movement that preceded the outbreak of the 1956 war and centred on two public endeavours: the Defence Fund (Keren HaMagen) designed to help fund acquisition of weapons and the Fortification of the Frontier (Bitzur Hasfar), a framework that sent volunteers to work on fortifications and assist frontier settlements. These two endeavours were an expression of David Ben-Gurion's pioneering outlook that sought to blend voluntary components and the use of the central powers of the state, parallel to putting Israeli society on the necessary footing in the year that preceded the Sinai war. Keywords: 1956 warSinai campaignDefence FundfortificationsIsraeli frontierpioneeringmobilizationvoluntary movement Notes 1. On ‘statist pioneering’ see Henry Near, “Pioneers and Pioneering in the State of Israel: Semantic and Historical Developments, 1948–1956,” Iyunim Bitkumat Israel 2 (1992): 116–49 [Hebrew]; Moshe Lissak, “Building Institutions from a Ben-Gurion Perspective,” in David Ben-Gurion as a Labour Leader, ed. Shlomo Avineri (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1988), 108–17 [Hebrew]. 2. For more on attempts to encourage a pioneering movement in the 1950s, see Paula Kabalo, “Dialogues with Young People: David Ben-Gurion's Youth Campaigns, 1939–1954,” Israel Affairs 14, no. 2 (April 2008): 218–36; Zvi Zameret, “The Rise and Fall of the ‘Mobilized Zionism’,” Cathedra 67 (March 1993): 136–64 [Hebrew]. 3. Israeli historiography has devoted very little attention to the Defence Fund and the Fortification of the Frontier. Most mentions of the two projects are in the context of discussion of Israeli security policy and deterioration of the military situation leading up to the 1956 Sinai war. See for example: Mordechai Bar-On, Challenge and Quarrel: The Road to the Sinai – 1956 (Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Publishers, 1991), 66–73 [Hebrew]. At the same time, one can find some research of the two projects that relates to discourse on the breakdown of values in Israeli society during these years, and claims in some circles that these two movements were, in essence, part of attempt to forge a ‘nation in uniform’. See Uri Ben-Eliezer, The Emergence of Israeli Militarism, 1936–1956 (Tel Aviv, Dvir Publishers, 1995), 304–8 [Hebrew]; Yona Hadari, Messiah Rides a Tank: Public Thought Between the Sinai Campaign and the Yom Kippur War 1955–1975 (Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishers, 2002), 56–60 [Hebrew]. 4. On the military escalation in this period see: Motti Golani, Israel in Search of a War: The Sinai Campaign, 1955–1956 (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1998); Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); David Tal, Israel's Day to Day Security Conception: Its Origin and Development 1949–1956 (Sede-Boqer: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1998) [Hebrew]. 5. On the research debate over Israeli policy and a ‘preventive war’, see for example: Mordechai Bar-On, “Small Wars, Big Wars: Security Debates during Israel's First Decade,” Israel Studies 5 (Fall 2000): 107–27; David Tal, “Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Dayan: Confrontation Over the Issue of Preemptive War,” Cathedra 81 (1996): 109–22 [Hebrew]; Motti Golani, “Did Ben-Gurion Oppose or Support Dayan? Israel on the Road to Preemptive War,” Cathedra 81 (1996): 123–32 [Hebrew]. 6. Protocol of Knesset Session, 18 October 1955, Divrei Haknesset (Records of the Israeli Knesset) 19, no. 4 (Jerusalem: Government Printing Office). 7. Moshe Sharett, A Personal Diary (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1978), 1230 [Hebrew]. 8. Meeting of the Israeli government, 3, 9 and 16 October 1955, Government Protocols, Israel State Archives (hereafter, ISA). 9. Moshe Sharett, Radio broadcast to the Nation, 21 October 1955, ISA 43/5427/1. 10. Sharett, Personal Diary, 1238. 11. See for example: Donations by third graders in the HACHIYAL Elementary School in Yad Eliyahu, to the President of the State of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, ISA 105/85/12. “Donations to the Defence Fund,” Davar, October 24, 1955. For more coverage of the Defence Fund in the Hebrew press, see Mordechai Berger, Arms for Israel: The Defence Fund (Jerusalem: Israel Tax Museum, 1968), 19–20 [Hebrew]. 12. See for example: From the Secretary of the President of the State of Israel, to the Students of the Flatbush Yishiva in New York, 20 December 1955, ISA 130/2467/9. Report from the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, 27 December 1955, ISA 130/2467/9. 13. From the Governor's Assistant in Civil Matters on Behalf of the Military Governor for the North, to Military Government Headquarters, Contributions to the Defence Fund, 10 November 1955, ISA 102/17118/28. 14. From the Secretary of Government Employees Association in Nazareth, to the Advisor in Arab Affairs in the Prime Ministers Office, 26 October 1955, ISA 102/ 17118/28. And also Ha'aretz, November 27, 1955. 15. “The Arabs of Israel and the Defence Fund,” Haboker, November 6, 1955. 16. State Comptroller's Bureau, 31 October 1955, ISA 59/12533/10. 17. Government Meeting Protocol: 23 October, 30 October and 6 November 1955, ISA. 18. State Comptroller's Report on the Defence Fund, 25 December 1955, ISA 59/12533/10. 19. Protocol of Meeting of the Federation Executive, 10 November 1955, Levon Labour Archives. 20. Protocol of the Meeting of the Defence Fund Public Committee, 8 November 1955, ISA 59/12533/10. 21. Defence Fund National Committee, Final Account of Operations, May 1956, Central Zionist Archives, S 80/324. 22. Protocol of the Meeting of the government, 1 January 1956, ISA. 23. Protocol of the Meeting of the government, 15 January 1956, ISA. Protocol of the Meeting of the government, 15 January 1956, ISA. 24. Protocol of the Meeting of the government, 29 January 1956, ISA. 25. Protocol of the Meeting of the National Committee of the Defence Fund, 5 January 1956, ISA 59/12533/10. 26. From Yaakov Dori to Ben-Gurion, 13 January 1956, ISA 43/5427/2. 27. Protocol of the Meeting of the Government, 15 January 1956, ISA. 28. Protocol of the National Committee of the Defence Fund, 15 December 1955, ISA 59/12533/10. 29. “The Names of Those Dodging Fulfilment of their Duties to the Defence Fund Published,” Davar, March 11, 1956. 30. Protocol of Meeting of the Defence Fund National Committee, 22 March 1956, ISA 59/12533/10; “Turmoil in Tel-Aviv Municipality's governing Council,” Ha'aretz, October 27, 1955; Knesset Deliberations, 24 October 1956, Divrei Haknesset (Records of the Israeli Knesset) 19, no. 5; Protocol of the Meeting of the Federation of Labour's Executive, 10 November 1955, Lavon Labour Archive. 31. Protocol of the Meeting of the government, 19 April 1956, ISA. 32. From the “Report on the Operations of Yahav Defence Fund” published in Jerusalem in May 1957 (No publisher cited. Source: The National Library, Jerusalem). 33. Closing Meeting of the Defence Fund Public Committee, 9 May 1956, ISA 59/12533/10. 34. Protocol of the Knesset Session, 2 November 1955, 19, no. 6, Divrei Haknesset (Records of the Israeli Knesset). 35. Chief-of-staff Moshe Dayan in a government meeting, 30 October 1955, ISA. 36. Adriana Kamp, “‘Migration of Peoples’ or ‘a Great Inferno’: State Control and Resistance on the Israeli Frontier,” in Mizrahim in Israel: A Critical Observation into Israel's Ethnicity, ed. Hannan Hever, Yehouda Shenhav and Pnina Mutzafi-Haller (Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute and Kibbutz Hameuchad Publishers, 2002), 36–67. 37. See for example the words of Ben-Gurion in a government meeting, 1 January 1956, ISA. 38. Protocol of the government Meeting, 4 December 1955, ISA. 39. For additional reading on this topic, see Devora Hacohen, The Grain and the Millstone: The Settlement of Immigrants in the Negev in the First Decade of the State (Tel Aviv: Am Oved Publishers, 1998). 40. Protocol of the government Meeting, 11 and 18 December 1955, ISA. 41. Protocol of the government Meeting, 11 December 1955, ISA. 42. See Ben-Gurion's comments in the government Meeting, 11 December 1955 and 1 January 1956, ISA. 43. Protocol of the Knesset Session, 2 January 1956, 19, no. 14, Divrei Haknesset (Records of the Israeli Knesset). 44. Protocol of the Government Meeting, 1 and 15 January 1956. 45. Protocol of a Meeting of the Federation of Labour Executive, 5 January 1956, Lavon Labour Archives. 46. The 8th Convention of the Federation of Labour, 18–20 March 1956, Tel Aviv: General Federation of Labour Publishers, Lavon Labour Archives. 47. Protocol of the Government Meeting, 27 November 1955, 18 December 1955, ISA. 48. Report of the Committee for Preparation of a Program for a State of Emergency, 12 January 1956, Labour Party Archives, 2-007-96-956. 49. Special pamphlet for the Defence Fund issued by the Jerusalem Workers Fund, 18 October 1955, Lavon Labour Archives. 50. Decision of the Coordinating Committee of the Federation of Labour, 22 January 1956, Lavon Labour Archives. 51. Davar, February 22, 1956. 52. Decision of the Coordinating Committee of the Federation of Labour, 1 March 1956, Lavon Labour Archives. 53. See Protocol of a meeting of the IDF General Staff, 26 February with Shimon Peres, IDF Archives, and also Davar, March 6, 1956. 54. Operation ‘Wall’ Order #1, 27 February 1956, IDF Archives 159/59/7. 55. Protocol of a Meeting of the IDF General Staff, 26 February 1956, IDF Archives. 56. From Uzi Narkis, Chief of Operations, Operation ‘Wall’ Orders #5, IDF Archive 159/59/7. 57. On the summery of the Operation, see Meeting of the Federation of Labour Executive, 19 July 1956, Lavon Labour Archives. 58. Executive Summery of the Consummation Celebration of Operation ‘Wall’, 1 October 1956, IDF Archives 776/58/106. 59. Chief Education Officer, Operation ‘Wall’ – Educational Publicity, 8 March 1956, IDF Archives 776/58/9. 60. From the Youth and Pioneer Affairs Department of the Zionist Federation, to the Leadership of the Youth Movements, Fortification of Frontier Settlements, 2 March 1956, IDF Archives 776/58/9. 61. Meeting of Dayan with Writers, 29 January 1956, IDF Archives, 778/58/106. 62. “Fortification Operation of IDF Soldiers,” Davar, March 9, 1956. 63. Decision of the Meeting of the Federation Central Committee, 27 November 1955, Levon Labour Archives. Also: From the Central Committee “From the City to the Village,” Memorandum to Members of the government, 19 December 1955, ISA 43/3325/25. 64. Decision of the Meeting of the Federation Central Committee, 28 March 1956, Lavon Labour Archive. 65. 8th Convention of the Federation, 18–20 March 1956, Tel Aviv: General Federation of Labour Publisher, Lavon Labour Archives. 66. 8th Convention of the Federation, 18–20 March 1956, Tel Aviv: General Federation of Labour Publisher, Lavon Labour Archives 67. From the Jerusalem Workers' Council to the Fortification of the Frontier Public Committee, 2 May 1956, Levon Labour Archives, IV 250-361-2306. 68. “In Memory of Haim Miler,” Shoulder to Shoulder: The Volunteer Endeavour to Fortify the Frontier (Merchavia: Kibbutz Haartzi Press, 1957). 69. From the Secretariat of Mishmar Hanegev to the Jerusalem Workers' Council, 11 January 1956, Levon Labour Archives, 250-36-2306. 70. Moshe Alon, “In Summary of the Volunteer Campaign for Fortification of the Frontier,” Levon Labour Archives, IV 2307-250-36-1. 71. Tzila Paz, “With Those Mobilized to Assist the Frontier,” Hed Hachinuch: Weekly of the Teachers' Federation in Israel, Issue 16, April 5, 1956. 72. Protocol of a Meeting of the Government, 18 March 1956, ISA. 73. “To the Fortifications,” Hed Hachinuch, Issue 14–15, March 25, 1956; Baruch Shabtai, “In Summary of the Campaign,” Hed Hachinuch, Issue 32–33, June 28, 1956. 74. Shabtai, “In Summary of the Campaign.” 75. Hed Hachinuch, Issue 20, April 26, 1956. 76. “Decision of the 32nd Council of the Kibbutz Haartzi,” Hashavua Bkibbutz Haaretzi, 6th Year, Issue 30 (274), April 20, 1956

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