Kfar Hittim

Kfar Hittim ( _he. כפר חיטים) was the first communal moshav in Israel and the first moshav to use the Tower and stockade method. The village belongs to the Lower Galilee Regional Council, Israel. It is adjacent to Tiberias and to Hittin.

The lands on which the village resides nowadays were bought by the Jewish National Fund in 1905. This acquisition, which was the first land acquisition of the JNF was carried out with the help of David Chaim, an Ottoman citizen who worked previously for Edmond James de Rothschild. This acquisition was unsuccessful, since the 2000 dunams which were acquired were scattered to 400 small sections, in between the lands of the arabic village Hitin. In order to take possession of the land, a first attempt to settlement there happened in 1913, but this experience failed on the account of frictions with the neighbouring Arab population, the shortage in water and the division of the lands.

In 1924 a second attempt was made to build a settlement in the place. Forty families established the village on those lands. The settlers lived in wooden sheds and established a barn, a chicken coop for all families, a synagogue and a water tower.

In the 1929 Palestine riots the village was attacked, but the attack was fended off by the settlers and the British police. Later the village suffered from a lot of settlers leaving, until it was abandoned completely in 1933.

In December 1936, 11 settlers came and rebuilt the village in the Tower and stockade method. The ideal of the settlement was a communal village which consisted of cooperative work, but permitted privacy for each family.

In 2008, it was announced that a new golf course resort, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. would be constructed at a cost of $150 million, on land owned by the moshav. The resort which should open in 2011, will cater for between 600-900 people as well as creating 300-400 jobs. [citeweb | url=http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2019&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Culture | title=US-Israeli developer brings golf to Israel's historic Mount Arbel | accessdate=2008-03-11]

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