Decision to turn kibbutz into moshav angers anti-privatization group - Haaretz

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Tue., January 01, 2008 Tevet 23, 5768

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Last update - 06:44 01/01/2008

Decision to turn kibbutz into moshav angers anti-privatization group

By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel, Privatization

News of a United Kibbutz Movement decision to turn Kibbutz Natur on the Golan Heights into a moshav has raised considerable ire among the Collective Task Force, a body opposed to the privatization trend in the kibbutzim.

Currently, the majority of the 270 kibbutzim are no longer pure collectives - only 80 remain.

Former MK Omri Ron, a Collective Task Force leader, described the support expressed by the Secretary of the United Kibbutz Movement Gavri Bargil to the change as "a serious failure."

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"After they 'sold' Shomriya and gave each family a lot of money so that they would agree to leave, Bargil promised that, in the future, anything that has to do with the small kibbutzim would be brought up for discussion," Ron said. "Now Natur is being turned into a moshav, without any discussion." Only 12 kibbutzim are considered "small," with less than 25 members.

The Collective Task Force maintains Natur's case comes in response to the increase in the number of kibbutz youth who are interested in continuing to live in collectives and who could supplement the declining populations in small kibbutzim.

"At Natur they made no attempt to do this," Ron said. "Now it has become a moshav and, in a short while, it will become a religious community. What does that have in common with the Kibbutz HaArtzi movement?"

"The members of Natur are not soldiers to fight ideological battles," Bargil said. "They conduct themselves as independent, thinking people, and it is unfortunate Omri did not understand their viewpoint on how to bolster their community."

Related articles:

Natur is third kibbutz in last 100 years to become moshav

In clash of developer vs. kibbutz, the developer wins

The life and times of a kibbutz, 60 years on

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