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The Origins and Development of the NAHAL Brigade in the Israel Defense Forces, 1949-1999 by Joshua Nathan Peters Bachelor of Arts, Honours, University of Victoria, 2003 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Academic Unit of History Supervisor: David A. Charters, Ph.D. History Examining Board: R. S. Turner, Ph.D. History, Chair Sean Kennedy, Ph.D. History Miron Rezun, Ph.D. Political Science and Economics This Thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies The University of New Brunswick April, 2008 © Joshua Nathan Peters, 2008 Library and Archives Bibliothdque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'6dition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-63745-6 Our file Notre refinance ISBN: 978-0-494-63745-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, pr§ter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada To my grandfather, the late Lazar Peters C.M. D.F.C. who inspired me to study history. I am eternally grateful. 111 Abstract The Fighting Pioneer Youth (known in Hebrew by its acronym NAHAL) is a unique formation in the Israel Defence Forces that combines agricultural work with traditional military service. Founded in the wake of the 1948 War of Independence, NAHAL originally drew its membership from various self-contained cells from left- leaning Zionist youth movements that had pushed for its creation. This enabled the youth movements, who had been at the forefront of the Zionist project before the establishment of the State of Israel, to continue to have some influence in the post-1948 nation-state political reality. Since its founding NAHAL has adapted to the changing military needs of the IDF as well as to larger pressures facing Israeli society as a whole. The best means of understanding NAHAL is by placing the organization and its guiding ideology within a civil-military relations theoretical framework. With a theoretical framework in place, it becomes easier to show how and why NAHAL expanded both in military and non- military ways and what the results of that expansion imply. 111 Acknowledgments I must firstly give thanks to my supervisor, Dr. David Charters, without whose support and enduring patience I would have never completed this thesis. I must also thank Dr. R.S. Turner of the University of New Brunswick History Department who I think has heard me talk about this thesis more than anyone else. I am very grateful to both of them for their continued support. I must thank the Gregg Center for the Study of War and Society for providing me with the funds for my research trip to the IDF Archives, Shirley Reuveni at the IDF Archives for her assistance and Judith Botbol for her translation help. I would never have gone on to graduate work without the steady support of Dr. Gregory Blue and Dr. David Zimmerman of the University of Victoria History Department. Thank you to Dr. A. Peter Gary of Victoria B.C. for insisting that I have talent and sechel. Thank you to Katie whose support and patience has been endless, and to my friends and family, especially my father Michael, without whose help this thesis would never have seen the light of day. IV Glossary GADNA: Hebrew acronym for G 'dudei No 'ar, or Youth Battalions, a paramilitary organization run by the Israel Defence Forces as a means of preparing Israeli high school youth for their mandatory military service. GADNA serves both as a military indoctrination and youth movement program offering survival, marksmanship and orienteering courses. Garin (plural: garinim): literally 'seed,' 'cell,' or 'nucleus.' A garin begins as a cell of a Zionist youth movement while its members are still in high school. When it is time for the garin members to be drafted, they volunteer to the IDF as a garin and are put in NAHAL. Haganah: literally 'defence,' the Haganah was the mainstream underground defence force of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine. He'achzut (plural: he 'achzuyot): a NAHAL military-agricultural settlement. Usually a he 'achzut is run according to the communal or co-operative ideology of the garin that is manning it. IDF: Israel Defence Force. IZL: Hebrew acronym for Irgun Tsva 7 Le 'umi, or National Military Organization. IZL is also known as ETZEL, NMO or simply the Irgun, and was the largest Jewish terrorist organization in Mandatory Palestine. The IZL was led by Menachem Begin. Kibbutz (plural: kibbutzim): a communal agricultural settlement. LEHI: Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, or Israeli Freedom Fighters. Led by Avraham Stern, LEHI was a small and radical right-wing Jewish terrorist organization in Mandatory Palestine. It was also known as the Stern Gang, and was responsible for the murder of UN special envoy Count Bernadotte. MAPAI: Hebrew acronym for Mifleget Po 'alei Eretz Israel, or Land of Israel Worker's Party. Led by David Ben-Gurion, MAPAI was a left-wing social democratic party that dominated Israeli politics until the mid-1960's. It later helped found the Israeli Labour Party. MAPAM: Hebrew acronym for Mifleget haPo 'alim haMe 'uchedet, or United Workers Party. A far-left Israeli Marxist-Zionist party with Stalinist leanings. Moshav (plural: moshavim): a co-operative agricultural settlement. NAHAL: Hebrew acronym for No 'ar Halutzei Lohem or Fighting Pioneer Youth. A formation in the IDF combining military service with agricultural and later urban 111 development activities. NAHAL is pronounced NA-chal with 'ch' representing a uvular fricative (like the German 'ach'). PALMACH: Hebrew acronym for Plugot Machatz, or Assault Companies. The P ALMACH battalions were the elite strike force of the Haganah during the late British Mandate period as well as during the 1948 War of Independence. SHLAT: Hebrew acronym for Sherut L 'lo Tashlim, or Unpaid Service. SHLAT is the IDF designation for the period of time NAHAL members spend as farmers or labourers rather than as normal soldiers. Yishuv: literally 'settlement,' the Yishuv was the name for the pre-1948 Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine. VI Table of Contents Dedication ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Glossary v Introduction 1 1. Civil-Military Relations Theory, Zionism and NAHAL 12 2. The Establishment of NAHAL 40 3. Happy Days: NAHAL 1949-1973 63 4. NAHAL 1973 and Onwards: Decline and Reformulation 80 Conclusion 98 Bibliography 104 Curriculum Vitae Vll VITA Introduction Military history is a field which relates two very different subjects. On the one hand, military history studies ideas and how they relate to warfare. More than just tactics and strategy, military history discusses the development of military technologies, the organization of military formations, analyses the impact of unquantifiable factors like morale and experience on the course of a battle, the ideologies which shape military development and even muses on the philosophy of war and peace. On the other hand, military history studies the violence humans have inflicted on one another since the beginning of, well, history. Military history examines the effect raw violence has on the individual, on societies, on the nature of warfare and how it is - or is not -fought. It is the interaction of these two subjects, violence and ideas, that informs my thesis. During the course of my research, it surprised me to discover that while Theodore Herzl's publication of Der Judenstaadt represented the beginning of Zionism as a popular liberal-bourgeois political movement in Western Europe, Zionism had been an active force among left-wing radical Jewish students in Eastern Europe for some time. Early bourgeois Zionism quickly gained the financial backing of notables like Moses Montefiore and Edmund de Rothschilde, but it was the unemancipated, unassimilated students that would eventually be responsible for the successful mass settlement and founding of a Jewish state in Palestine. It would be these same young people who would go on to form the core of the Labour Zionist leadership which ran the State of Israel for its first 29 years. The Israel Defense Forces is a young army. As of this writing it is not yet 60 years old. But it is also an army comprised of young people, perhaps more so than any VITA other modern army.
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