Ein Zeitim

Ein Zeitim (Hebrew: עין זיתים, lit. Spring of Olives) was an agricultural settlement about 2 km north of Safed first established in 1891.^[1]

Ein Zeitim עין זיתים Spring of Olives
Agricultural settlement
Ein Zeitim
Coordinates: 32°59′49.92″N 35°29′9.25″E
Country	Ottoman Empire (1891–1917)
Subsequent countries	Mandatory Palestine (1917–1948) Israel (1948–1951)
First established	1891
Founded by	Dorshei Zion society from Minsk
Area
• Total	4.3 km2 (1.7 sq mi)
Population  (1947)
• Total	100
Eventually ceased to be populated and became part of a military base.

History

2018 street map overlaid on 1942 map

1942 map without overlay

Northern suburbs of Safed (2018, white text and light grey streets) overlaid on a Survey of Palestine map from 1942 (black text, red urban areas and black streets), showing the relative location of Ein Zeitim (top, centre-left) north of the Palestinian villages of Biriyya and Ein al-Zeitun.

Villages around Safad, 1945

Ein Zeitim was founded^[when?] by members of the Dorshei Zion (Seekers of Zion) society, a Zionist pioneer group from Minsk.^[2] Despite strong opposition by the Turkish government, the settlers managed to establish farms^[when?] with olive groves, orchards and dairy and poultry.^[3]

Ein Zeitim was built^[when?] 800m north of the Arab village Ein al-Zeitun, which had commonly been called Ein Zeitim in Hebrew and had been a mixed Arab-Jewish village during the Middle Ages.^[4]

In 1891 some speculators bought 430 hectares of land about 3 km north of Safed, and sold it to a party of laborers. Unable to work the land properly, the new owners transferred it to Baron de Rothschild, with whose assistance 750,000 vines and many fruit-trees were planted in the course of six or seven years, and during this time a number of houses were built. The population in 1898 was 51.^[5]

The village was abandoned during the first World War and only a handful of residents returned at the end of the war.^[6] The 1922 census of Palestine recorded a population of 37 inhabitants, consisting of 30 Jews and 7 Muslims.^[7] During the 1929 Palestine riots, three residents were killed and the remainder left.^[6] Six Muslims and one Jew were recorded there in 1931, living in four houses.^[8] An attempt to revive the village in 1933 failed.^[6]

Builders in Kibbutz Ein Zeitim, 1947

In 1946 the village was reestablished after the Jewish National Fund acquired the land.^[6] It had a population of 100 in 1947,^[3] but by the end of 1951 the population had fallen to 40.^[9] Eventually, it ceased to be populated and it became part of a military base.

View of Ein Zeitim. 1947