At the end of the 19th century Bedouin tribes quarreled over shepherding rights in the Negev. The rivalry between the Azazma and the Terabin tribes over the lands south of Nachal Be’er Sheva was unprecedented and reached a point at which the sheiks asked the Ottoman government to intervene. “The government took advantage of the situation,” wrote the historian Araf El Araf in his book History of Be’er Sheva and its Tribes, in order to continue to rule the area and to confiscate the disputed lands.
The land was put up for sale to Jews in 1903, but the sale never took place. A group of Jews from abroad led by Moshe Smilansky purchased the land in 1936, following tedious negotiations with the Bedouin tribes. The Settlement Preparation Company purchased 20,000 dunam in the Negev - including A-Sir (Beit Eshel), Madasus (Nevatim) and Miabarach (between Nevatim and Dimona).
The Establishment of Beit Eshel
The land was purchased but the buyers did not come. It remained desolate and barren. Some of the land was leased to Arabs and other parts were planted upon by Arabs without permission. In 1939 the British Mandate government published the White Paper, which prevented Jews from purchasing additional land. At the beginning of the 1940s the leaders of the Yishuv estimated that an Arab rebellion would break out when the Second World War ended. They concluded that it was imperative to bring about the partition of the country. It was important that the barren expanse of the Negev be included as an option for future settlement, and it was therefore decided to develop the Negev. Since no more land could be purchased, activities centered on development of the Negev through privately owned land that had already been purchased. KKL-JNF transferred the land that had already been purchased in the Negev to its ownership and planned to establish three settlements: Gvulot, Revivim, and Beit Eshel.
The first step taken by KKL-JNF was to drill for water. The first drillings in the land yielded nothing. Water was only found in the last drilling at the western edge of the area only ten meters from the boundary. The settlement of Beit Eshel was established at that site and was turned over to the Moshavim movement.
One day in August of 1943 a truck arrived at a site on the southern bank of Nachal Be’er Sheva, just east of the old Turkish bridge. Five people descended from the truck. Three were members of the “HaYogev” settlement group who had received the assignment of settling the site. The five unloaded a tent, a kerosene stove, beds and products. They also unloaded a small D2 tractor that had been brought from Kvutzat Kinneret who were forced to accept the orders of the settlement movement and “donate it” after it had been given it to them on loan from the Settlement Administration. A few hours later the settlers found themselves alone on the empty plain. Without further ceremony or festive speeches they began to plow the fields the next day.
This was the beginning of Beit Eshel, one of the first three settlements in the Negev – a sister settlement to Gvulot and Revivim.
In the Beginning
After the initial establishment of Beit Eshel the building of the settlement began. The plan for the site was almost identical to that of the other settlements that were built in Gvulot and Revivim. It included a square central 40x50-meter courtyard surrounded by stone walls with slits to shoot through. The courtyard had one gate on the north-eastern side. A five-room house known as “the castle” was built on the western side adjacent to the northern wall with wooden beams and arched ceilings. The houses in the other two settlements had only four rooms.
One room served as a kitchen, another a dining room, and the other three served as living quarters. The residents of Beit Eshel lived in one room, and the other was used by KKL-JNF workers and members of other institutions during their stay in the Negev. The third room was used by Aminadav Altschuler, a member of the Zuckerman Company who dealt with the KKL-JNF lands in the Negev. In the corner of the courtyard was a two-storey security house where some of the members lived.
One of the members of Beit Eshel talks about the atmosphere there in 1944:
“We were located just two kilometers from Be’er Sheva, which was then an isolated town and a center for trading sheep, wool, camels and date-fiber ropes…Some of the Arabs in Be’er Sheva were hostile and others received us with hospitality…We were under orders from KKL-JNF and were researching the meteorological and agricultural conditions of the site in its name and at its expense. Our objective was to establish a Moshav in Beit Eshel. Meanwhile, we numbered 20 men and two women. Some of our members were still in the British army and some were waiting in the north…until there was a possibility of establishing farms. Everything was run on a communal basis.”
Beit Eshel became the first “kibbutz-moshav” in the country.
Life in Beit Eshel
In 1946 the members of Beit Eshel decided to move the children of the settlers to the Negev. They designated the dining room and kitchen in the arched house for this purpose. Yosef Weiss of KKL-JNF who was extremely helpful to the setters, objected, but admitted that the settlers were right.
The children arrived together with a doctor who received his salary from KKL-JNF and Kupat Cholim. A special building was built on the north-western corner of the courtyard for the infirmary. After the children arrived the first storey of the security house became the dining room and a kitchen was built next to it. The second storey remained as living quarters for single members.
With the establishment of the settlement a guard station was set up at Beit Eshel. The seven guards that served there were members of Beit Eshel. A communication room was built above the armory next to the second storey of the security house. There was also a “slick” - or secret weapons cache - in the courtyard where illegal weapons were kept in addition to the legal ones that belonged to the guards.
One of the important jobs designated to the members of Beit Eshel was to plow the lands that had been purchased without actually planting them. This was done in order to show who its owners were. Approximately 30,000 dumans that were plowed by the members in various areas of the Negev later became the settlements of Shoval, Nevatim, Mishmar HaNegev, Hazerim, Urim, and Hazala (west of what is now Ramat Hovav).
The members of Beit Eshel occupied themselves with numerous projects. They conducted agricultural experiments, mainly in raising wheat and oats in the conditions of the northern Negev. They attempted to locate sources of water and to utilize rainwater for growing fodder. They cultivated forest trees, orchards and vegetables. The experiments were conducted under the guidance of the central experimental station in Rehovot, which is now the Vulcani Institute. The first experiments in Israel in raising vegetables in detached medium were conducted in Beit Eshel. This is now an accepted method in Israel and is used on a commercial basis.
The settlers also developed several of their own production branches such as providing transport services using their two trucks, renting out their D6 tractor for earth-moving jobs, running a garage for repairing machinery, and a factory for producing tin products for chicken houses. The laying-hen chicken house, cowshed, bakery and vegetable garden provided produce for neighboring settlements as well. The members of Beit Eshel also accompanied KKL-JNF personnel and researchers on excursions in the Negev. When these production branches were not sufficient, they established a temporary work brigade in Nes Tziona.
Beit Eshel became a success story and a lively, active settlement. Tamarisk, eucalyptus, and acacia trees were planted in the surrounding area – some of which are still standing today. There were several small lawns and flower beds in the courtyard. The social life thrived as more members joined the community and members of various settlement groups met and married. Additional cabins, mud huts and tents sprung up to accommodate the growing population.
Leaders of the Yishuv visited Beit Eshel often. Groups of hikers and police officers as well as British government figures arrived, eager to view the wonder that had sprung up in the desert. The success of Beit Eshel resulted in the establishment of 11 new settlements in the Negev that were designed to ensure that the Negev remained part of the area designated for the Jewish State by the Partition plan. Beit Eshel soon acquired neighbors – Nevatim to the east and Hazerim and Hazala to the west.
In 1947 the settlements of the Negev were connected to the water pipelines. The Jewish agency received permission from the British Mandate government to establish a mobile guard to guard the pipelines. This guard had two bases – one in Nir Am and the other in Beit Eshel. Members of the guard were added to the local populations of the settlements. On the eve of the War of Independence Beit Eshel had more than 100 residents – including 11 children.
Preparations for the establishment of the Moshav began in 1947 following the initiative of members of the “HaYogev” settlement group. The architect Richard Kaufman prepared plans for the settlement, but the initiative was halted by the outbreak of the war. That year additional representatives of the settlement institutions were occupied with developing the Negev. The Zuckerman Company offices also built an elaborate cabin in Beit Eshel outside the wall. No one managed to live in the cabin, since the War of Independence broke out immediately after it was built, and the cabin was destroyed in the first Egyptian shelling. Members of Beit Eshel used every scrap of material from the ruined cabin to build shelters and fortifications - even the nails. In retrospect the cabin prevented numerous losses.
The Voices of Approaching War
In the summer of 1947 following the visit of the six-member committee of the UN, which recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, the members of Beit Eshel began to suffer harassment from the neighboring Arab population. Their proximity to Be’er Sheva, which was previously considered an advantage – now made the situation of the settlement more difficult. Members of the settlement were subjected to stone-throwing, thefts, and vandalism. From October 1947 only armed convoys could make the drive to Beit Eshel. In April Aharon Baruch was beaten while driving a tractor in an isolated field, and in August Aharon Muchtar was stabbed to death while riding on a bus from Gaza to Be’er Sheva.
After the decision of the UN to partition the country on 29th November 1947, the Negev was cut off from the north of the country. Beit Eshel, together with the neighboring settlement of Nevatim, was also cut off from the remainder of the Negev. The British Mandate government disbanded the mobile guard and the guard unit, and they were replaced by a unit of the Palmach.
Beit Eshel had a special role to play in December when hundreds of Arabs from Hebron and Bedouins from the Negev attacked Nevatim,. A Piper plane belonging to the Haganah landed in Beit Eshel. Upon their own initiative, members of the settlement and Palmach fighters loaded the plane with hand grenades and a machine gun, and a Palamach fighter joined the pilot. The Piper flew over Nevatim and the fighter fired the machine gun from the air, and dropped grenades. This was apparently the first attack ever launched by the “Israeli air force”, and the action determined the fate of the battle and drove off the attackers.
Members of Beit Eshel were aware of their difficult position and of the fact that they were cut off from the center of the country. Members of Beit Eshel began to store food, gasoline, and tools, and to build fortifications. Moshe Rosensweig, a member of the Palmach, was fatally injured while laying mines around the settlement. Several Palamach fighters who were killed in action in the area were also buried in Beit Eshel.
In December of 1947 two convoys that crossed Be’er Sheva were attacked and Avino'am Greenberg, a member of Beit Eshel, was injured and lost a leg. A Piper plane dropped corn flour for the children of the settlement. At the beginning of January 1948 British police officers from Be’er Sheva came to Beit Eshel headed by Major Born. They proposed that the settlement be evacuated under their jurisdiction. Members of Beit Eshel even did not even discuss the proposal, but feared for the fate of the children.
Borne took it upon himself to evacuate the children and mothers. This was a dangerous undertaking even for the British. Borne organized three convoys. They arrived in Beit Eshel at night, and after a heartbreaking parting 11 children and eight mothers boarded the convoy and left the settlement. Since they were afraid to cross Be’er Sheva in such a conspicuous convoy, they bypassed the city and moved on dirt roads until they arrived in Khan Yunis, where they were stopped by armed Arabs. If they had known that Jews had been hiding in the convoy, the journey would have ended in a massacre. At that critical moment one of the British hopped out, mounted the armored car, and shouted: “This is the British Police!” The Arabs allowed the convoy to pass unharmed.
The convoy reached Nir Am and the mothers and children continued from there to Kfar Vitkin, where they spend the remainder of the war.
In March 1948 members of Beit Eshel had the opportunity to meet with Yigal Alon, then commander of the Palmach. Ze’ev Grossovinsky, a member of Beit Eshel, recalls that in answer to the demands of the residents of Beit Eshel, Alon responded: “The overall situation is not good. You are cut off and isolated. We cannot help you or send weapons. Your chances of are definitely not good. We trust that you will fight well and be thankful if you succeed in staying alive at all.”
The Egyptian Attack
On 16th May, 1948 the Egyptian army entered Be’er Sheva, intending to continue on to Hebron and Jerusalem. Beit Eshel – which numbered approximately 50 people – prepared for a siege. They had a small amount of antiquated weapons including Italian rifles, a Schwarzlose machine gun left over from the First World War, four submachine guns, two two-inch mortars, and two grenade launchers.
On 20th May the units of the Egyptian army took up positions opposite Beit Eshel and began a massive shelling of the settlement with artillery and mortars. Within an hour and a half the tiny settlement had been hit by 200 shells, and within three hours almost all the houses were demolished and most of the farm animals were killed. The Egyptians aimed their artillery fire in the direction of the prominent security house. Moshe Albert - a Palmach soldier and commander of the area of Beit Eshel and Nevatim – was killed on the first day of the shelling when he went up to the security house in an attempt to rescue the communication device.
After the shelling the Egyptians attempted to attack the site. Infantry moved under cover of tanks in the direction of Beit Eshel, which did not return fire in order to save ammunition. Suddenly without any apparent reason, the Egyptians retreated. At the end of the war an Egyptian officer who was taken prisoner explained that the commander of the assault had gotten his arm stuck in the mortar after inserting a shell. The shell exploded and injured his arm, as well as causing other casualties in the Egyptian camp. This is what stopped the infantry advance.
It should be remembered that the main objective of the Egyptians was to advance towards Jerusalem and Beit Eshel was not in their way. This is possibly the reason why the Egyptians sufficed with placing the settlement under siege and firing mortars and machine guns from a distance, while choosing to avoid losses that would have been inflicted if they had attempted to attack the settlement.
Members of Beit Eshel had to continue living in the bunkers and trenches until Be’er Sheva was freed on 20th October. Immediately after the day of the attack and destruction of 20th May, members of Beit Eshel began digging trenches and fortifications, built bunkers and shelters, covered the well house with dirt, and encompassed the area with communication canals. Most of the work was done by hand under fire in accordance with the proverb: “Sweat saves blood.” One of the members who had been a soldier in the Hungarian army proved to be an expert in building fortifications and digging trenches, and many of the members were familiar with construction work. This is the reason that no more losses occurred in Beit Eshel, despite the fact that the settlement was hit by a total of more than 3,000 shells that were fired on a daily basis over a period of five months. During the war from October 1947 until May 1948 only six supply convoys were able to reach Beit |Eshel, all of which arrived under fire and suffered casualties. The Bedouins harvested the crops that remained in the fields and cut down the trees.
Luckily the members of the settlement were able to pave two landing strips for planes using the D6 tractor that they had bought. One landing strip was paved near the settlement in a field that led to the fields from the courtyard. This strip could accommodate only small Pipers. It was not used for long since it was exposed to Egyptian fire. The second landing strip was paved in Nevatim and could accommodate Dakotas with four engines. Planes began to use this strip from August of 1948. Members of Beit Eshel received them at night, loading supplies on their backs and walking back to the settlement.
Beit Eshel stood up to the battle. On 20th October 1948 the IDF captured Be’er Sheva and lifted the siege on Beit Eshel. The day after the capture of Be’er Sheva a tragedy occurred when a tender from Beit Eshel drove over a land mine on its way to the city. Zeev Greenberg was killed in the explosion. Several days after Be’er Sheva was conquered, David Ben-Gurion visited Beit Eshel and declared: “Anyone who underwent the war in this hell deserves a medal of the highest honor.” The defenders of Beit Eshel received the Flag of Independence, which is displayed today in the office of Moshav HaYogev.
The members, exhausted in body and spirit, traveled north to be reunited with their families in Kfar Vitkin. They never returned to Beit Eshel again, but members of HaYogev wanted to return to the site and requested that the Moshavim movement add new members to their group. With the exception of one family, no one agreed to go back to the Negev. At that time the parents of many of the members began to arrive in the country, and many members left to be with them
The Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency refused the request of members of the group to build larger houses in Beit Eshel from cinder blocks that were being used at the time. The irony of this decision was that members of the group were eventually granted their request and later established a new Moshav in the Jezrael Valley called HaYogev. The plan for their houses later became a standard for new moshavim that were built at the time.
Epilogue
Beit Eshel remained abandoned and forgotten. Only the remains of the buildings, the trenches and the well house remained – silent evidence of what occurred there in the past. Gideon Sapir, a long-standing member of the KKL-JNF in the south, organized school children who came from Be’er Sheva to Beit Eshel, planted a grove of trees at the site every Independence day, while former members of Beit Eshel came to relate the story of the site.
Approximately three years ago during the Succot holiday of 2005 what little was left was almost obliterated as well. A hippodrome for horses was planned at the site and the grove of Beit Eshel was designated as the site for a horse racing track. Some of the fortifications and remains of the castle were damaged during the preparations for construction. Protests began to be heard, and Beit Eshel was saved from being obliterated at the last minute.
The courtyard of Beit Eshel is now being restored and renovated in three stages. The first stage is now taking place and includes the renovation of the courtyard and the buildings within it. During the second stages 37 dunams surrounding Beit Eshel will be converted into a garden within the framework of Park Be’er Sheva, and will include presentations about the agriculture in Beit Eshel and the story of the battle that took place at the site during the War of Independence. An area of offices for the “Green Campus of the South” is also planned near the site that will house the offices of the KKL-JNF and the Nature Preservation Society. During the third state a memorial exhibit will be built in the courtyard of the castle about the history of Beit Eshel that will include a documentary film.
“The renovation of Beit Eshel is being made as part of the KKL-JNF project for developing Nachal Be’er Sheva Park,” explained Itai Freeman, head of the Nachal Be’er Sheva park project. “The park will extend over both sides of the river for a length of 8 kilometers and will cover 3,500 dumans. At this stage a promenade is being paved that will extend for three and a half kilometers along the length of the river, and an amphitheater, an artificial lake and a sports area will be built near Beit Eshel. The site of Beit Eshel will be one of the gates to the park.”