Israel in Song... Beit Haarava

Beit Haarava is a kibbutz in the Judean desert, in the proximity of the Dead Sea. It was originally built in 1939 by Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany. Yet, the history of this kibbutz remind us of the vision of men who believed, as Ben Gurion would say, that the dessert could become , ought to become populated land. But could it be possible to bring life from such arid, salty land? Not many believed it would be possible. Moshe Aizikovitch a member of Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, was sent to this place to check on the possibility of developing this land for farming and agriculture, thus making it possible to build a Yishuv where new immigrants could settle. Its proximity to the Dead Sea made this enterprise extremely difficult, the evaporating salty waters of the sea, turned this arid land into salty ground were life was unconceivable; but turning dreams into reality was not foreign to the Jewish people. By irrigating the land from the flowing waters of the Jordan River, an extremely difficult and hard work that was literally performed with the own two hands of every member of this kibbutz, the pioneers began by washing the soil loaded with salt until it became fertile ground for farming; and so they did; Beit Haarava became a growing Yishuv, with pioneers, idealist, building and living, marrying and giving birth in this previously wild piece of Land.
But Beit Haarava is also in the border with Jordan and it became one of the first targets during the War of Independence; its residents were evacuated to the nearby Israeli post at Sodom, the ones that stayed behind and perished at the hands of the Jordanian legion defending their Land…


Following is the song that tells the story of Beit Haarava,sung by one of the greatest israeli singers, Arik Einstein.
Lyrics: Haim Chefer and Amos Keinan
Music: Shmulik Krauss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzshksOU9oI

This other link is from the Israeli program “Kach Haiah”, even though it is in Hebrew, the images from the origins of the kibbutz are worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwcn5azvvGg(first part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC-X3FSM7rs&feature=related(second part)