Mishmar David ( he, מִשְׁמַר דָּוִד, ''lit.'' David's Guard) is a

community settlement A community settlement ( he, יישוב קהילתי, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of village in Israel and the West Bank. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the village's residents are organized in ...

in central

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located in the

Shephelah The Shephelah or Shfela, lit. "lowlands" ( hbo, הַשְּפֵלָה ''hašŠǝfēlā'', also Modern Hebrew: , ''Šǝfēlat Yəhūda'', the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel str ...

near

Mazkeret Batya Mazkeret Batya ( he, מַזְכֶּרֶת בַּתְיָה) (lit. "Batya Memorial") is a local council in central Israel located southeast of Rehovot and from Tel Aviv. Mazkeret Batya spans an area of 7,440 dunams (7 km²). In it had a pop ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Gezer Regional Council Gezer Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית גזר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Gezer'') is a regional council in the Central District of Israel. Established in 1949, it had a population of 20,700 in 2006. List of settlements The council covers fiv ...

. In it had a population of . In 2003 it became the first kibbutz to be privatised.

History

The village was founded as a kibbutz in 1948 by

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

survivors from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

and former soldiers, and was named after David Marcus, a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

of Romanian Jewish heritage, who assisted Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and later became the country's first general. It was established on the land of the depopulated

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village of Khulda. During the 1970s the kibbutz absorbed several immigrants from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Its economy was based on growing

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family ( Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for ...

s and

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

, as well as a printing press. The communal lifestyle was diminishing by the 1990s; the kibbutz's dining hall closed in 1994, and in 1999 the system of being paid according to needs was abolished. In 2003, following a vote of 50 in favour and only one against, it was converted to a community settlement, the first kibbutz to do so. The kibbutz had debts of £18 million,Pioneering dream ends as kibbutz goes private
The Guardian, 6 May 2001 and would sell a chunk of land to build 350 new homes, whilst the rest of the land was returned to the state. Each kibbutz member was given shares in the printing press business. During an archeological salvage excavation in 2006, prior to the commencement of building, the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...

announced that they had discovered an ancient

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

settlement covering six dunams in Mishmar David.Evidence of ancient settlement uncovered in IAA excavations at Mishmar David
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 December 2006 The discovery included a never-seen-before round building dated to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

- Islamic period, with a diameter of around 10 metres and a

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

mosaic floor covered with geometric patterns and a

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

motif.

References

{{Gezer Regional Council Community settlements Former kibbutzim Privatized kibbutzim Populated places established in 1948 Populated places in Central District (Israel) Romanian-Jewish culture in Israel 1948 establishments in Israel