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The United Kibbutz Movement formally recognized two classifications of collective communities: the traditional kibbutz and the "renewed" kibbutz.
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| By Ellis Shuman December 28, 2003 |
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Years after many of Israel's 255 kibbutzim began introducing social changes that drastically altered the communal farm's social principles, the United Kibbutz Movement last week formalized the changes and created a new definition of what is a kibbutz.
At a conference held at Kibbutz Ein Hahoresh, which was attended by hundreds of kibbutz representatives from around the country, the United Kibbutz Movement formally recognized two classifications of kibbutz communities.
The first is the traditional, collective kibbutz, a model still sacred to some 90 kibbutzim which have refused to abandon the communal settlement's motto of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." On the traditional collective model, all property is collectively owned and the kibbutz provides for its members' basic needs.
The new definition of 'kibbutz' is a radical change from the 93-year-old social experiment's founding principle. The 'renewed' or 'new kibbutz' allows members to be paid according to the value of their work with differential wages and adopts a policy of home ownership, where the members' homes are listed legally in their own name.
Kibbutzim which do not fit into either the traditional kibbutz model or the new kibbutz model will be listed as a communal settlement, without the kibbutz branding.
"We are undergoing a process of transition and renewal," admitted Gavri Bargil, who with Natan Tal is joint United Kibbutz Movement secretary general. "The goal today is demographic growth reached by applying differential budgets and privatizing assets. We also have to provide social security benefits to members through pensions and giving members ownership of their homes."
The redefinition of the kibbutz is intended to adapt the community to social realities and prevent further population loss. In addition, many kibbutzim are deeply in debt; collectively the kibbutz movement owes the government some $2 billion.
According to MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), two-hundred of the kibbutzim are in serious debt. Of those, 65 are defaulting on their loans and 135 manage to keep up with a payback regime. "There are certainly big problems," said Vilan, a former kibbutz movement leader.
Recently the Israeli media reported on the closing of the Kibbutz Metzuba textile factory, a move which in effect served as a death blow for the western Galilee community founded in 1941. Other kibbutzim have also become uneconomical and some have restructured as communal settlements.
The kibbutzim "were once the glory of Israel and are now pathetic trailer parks," columnist Yael Paz-Melamed wrote in Maariv.
Interviewed by the Associated Press, Vilan said that the only way to save the kibbutzim is to scale back collectivism even further. "People will live from their salaries and they will have their own houses and they will be able to balance their standard of living," he said.
In its editorial last week, the Jerusalem Post wrote, "The kibbutz has come a long way down, but its economic, social, and ideological travails are not its sectarian misfortune alone. Its troubles should not instill any satisfaction even among political rivals. The kibbutz was a beautiful creation and reflection of Israeli society, even if, as it now seems, not quite realistic. It was an Israeli icon of which this country could be proud. Its mutation and disappearance before our very eyes is nothing any of us can take lightly."
Note: The changing kibbutz is one of the subjects covered in Ellis Shuman's The Virtual Kibbutz, available on Israel Insider.
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