Ma'anit () is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in northern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located just south of the town of

Pardes Hanna-Karkur Pardes Hanna-Karkur () is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of . It has been characterized as having a hipster culture. History An Arab village named Karkur had stood at this location by the time the Palestine Ex ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Menashe Regional Council The Menashe Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Menasheh'') is a Regional council (Israel), regional council near the city of Hadera, on Israel's north-central Israeli Coastal Plain, coastal plain in the southern Haifa District. It is named after ...

. In it had a population of .

History

The kibbutz was established in 1942 by members of the

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

movement who

fled ''Fled'' is a 1996 American Buddy film, buddy action comedy film directed by Kevin Hooks. It stars Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin as two prisoners chained together who flee during an escape attempt gone bad. Plot An interrogator prepa ...

from

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, with some arriving during

Aliyah Bet ''Aliyah Bet'' (, "Aliyah 'B'" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, many of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany or other Nazi-controlled countries, and la ...

, during

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

persecution. Its name refers to the first furrow ploughed in a field. The analogy was presented in

Avraham Herzfeld Avraham Herzfeld (also Harzfeld) (; 5 June 1891 – 30 August 1973) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. Biography Avraham Herzfeld (born Avraham Postrelko) was born in Stavisht, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) in 1891. He attended a ye ...

's speech about settlement in the area: He saw the establishment of the kibbutz as being the first of many. Due to its location near

Wadi Ara Wadi Ara (, ) or Nahal 'Iron (), is a valley and its surrounding area in Israel populated mainly by Arab citizens of Israel, Arab Israelis. The area is also known as the "Triangle (Israel), Northern Triangle". Wadi Ara is located northwest of t ...

, the kibbutz was on the front line during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

and was attacked by the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), also referred to as the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was formerly known as the Royal Iraq ...

Economy

Galam Ltd., a company that produces starch and glucose for the food industry, is based in Kibbutz Ma'anit. In 2010, Galam recorded annual sales of $137.6 million, half of it from export. After developing a new natural sweetener derived from the

stevia Stevia () is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweetness, sweeter than sugar. It is extracted from the leaves of ''Stevia rebaudiana'', a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds in stevia are ...

plant, the company signed a contract with

Corn Products International Ingredion Inc. is an American food and beverage ingredient provider based in Westchester, Illinois, producing mainly starches, non-GMO sweeteners, stevia, and pea protein. The company turns corn, tapioca, potatoes, plant-based stevia, grains, fru ...

, which grows and processes stevia in South Africa.Israeli company develops new natural sweetener
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References

{{Authority control Czech-Jewish culture in Israel Czechoslovak Jews Slovak-Jewish culture in Israel Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1942 1942 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Haifa District Polish-Jewish culture in Israel