page_title: Ma'abarot
section_title: Early Ma'abara
hierarchical_section_title: Ma'abarot / History / Early Ma'abara
caption_attribution_description: A family of new immigrants moving into one of the huts at a Ma'abara near Tel Aviv. משפחה של מהגרים עוברת לאחת מבקתות המעברה ליד בתל אביב
context_page_description: Ma'abarot were immigrant and refugee absorption camps established in Israel in the 1950s, constituting one of the largest public projects planned by the state to implement its sociospatial and housing policies.
  The ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Jewish immigrants arriving to the newly independent State of Israel, replacing the less habitable immigrant camps or tent cities. In 1951 there was 127 Ma'abarot housing 250,000 Jews, of which 75% were Mizrahi Jews; 58% of Mizrahi Jews who had immigrated up to that point had been sent to Ma'abarot, compared to 18% of European Jews.
  The ma'abarot began to empty out by the mid-1950s and many formed the basis for Israel's Development towns. The last ma'abara was dismantled in 1963. The Ma'abarot became the most ensuring symbol of the plight of Jewish immigrants from Arab lands in Israel; according to Dalia Gavriely-Nuri, the memory of these camps has been largely erased from Israeli memory.
context_section_description: The first ma'abara, in Kesalon, built atop the emptied Palestinian village of Kasla in the Judean Hills, became functional in May 1950 when 150 families were settled there. In July Giora Yoseftal had 70,000 immigrants shifted into the ma'abarot, and by the following year a further 50,000 were relocated in them as the batei olim, already at capacity, were closed. Plans to provide immigrants with jobs requiring heavy physical labour, and with housing and plots of agricultural land in outlying areas, were generally unsuccessful, with many migrating back to camps near cities and towns on finding themselves ill-equipped or unprepared for the task. The camps were under the guidance of two religious parties, Agudat Israel and Mizrachi and violent confrontations broke out over issues of forced secularization, which were opposed by Yemeni Jews, and several people were shot dead or died during these clashes, variously at Ein Shemer, Beit Lid and Pardes Hanna in the first half of 1950.
  The early ma'abarot consisted of tents, one for each family, and, in those conditions, infants were separated from their mothers and placed in children's housing where nursing personnel had almost exclusive control and parental access was highly restricted. On occasion these children were transferred to hospitals without consulting their families, and parents encountered great difficulties in travelling out from the ma'abarot to these distant facilities. Cases exist of parents arriving at hospitals only to be informed their child had died, occurrences which fed into what became a narrative of suspicion that the state putatively engaged in having the missing children adopted out to childless couples..
  Eventually hut-shaped canvas tents were added, followed by tin or wooden shacks. Sanitary conditions were dismal. According to a journalist who visited the Migdal Gad maabara, "in the whole camp there were two faucets for everyone. About a thousand people. The toilets had no roof and were infested with flies." In one community it was reported that there were 350 people to each shower and in another 56 to each toilet. Infant mortality - the pre-state Yishuv had achieved one of the lowest rates in the world- was high, reaching 157 deaths per 1000 live births. All these facts generated harsh criticism.
  When the ma'abarot plan was first implemented, the Jewish Agency was responsible for providing utilities such as water, electricity and sanitation. After this responsibility was transferred to the local authorities, the Jewish Agency claimed it could no longer oversee maintenance due to financial and manpower constraints.
caption: Moving into a new home in the ma'abara
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