Life In Kibbutz Thrives As Shells Fly Overhead

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 17

Life In Kibbutz Thrives As Shells Fly Overhead

(N.Z.P.A.-Rtuter— CopurisM) KHFAR RUPPIN (Israel). Several thousand Israeli farmers in the Jordan Valley have been living under a crossfire of bullets and shells since the end of the sixday Middle East war more than two years ago. Sometimes their villages come under gunfire as well, More often they are ringside spectators as the boom of cannon echoes off the hills of Gilboa, where King Saul fought his last battle with the Philistines about 3000 years ago. Their children sleep in specially constructed concrete bunkers, deep underground, and when they sit down to supper they never know whether the meal will be interrupted by the whine of an approaching shell. When their armour-plated tractors leave for the fields, military mine • sweeping vehicles lead the way along earth tracks hugging the Jordanian border. But only a few miles away holiday-makers by the hundreds bathe along the banks of Lake Tiberias, looking up casually when supersonic jets roar as they come in for rocket attacks on Arab guerrilla positions in the valley further south.

One of the settlements is Khfar Ruppin, a kibbutz set on a grassy hill overlooking the Jordan River, which is only 400 yards away. The kibbutz fishponds and fields sometimes end only 20 yards from the river. On the other side, in tall grass abandoned by Arab farmers after the 1967 war, a slight movement may mean that guerrillas are setting up “Bangalore torpedoes” or a light mortar that will bombard the settlement after dark. Further away, in an Arab village that now lies empty, shattered by Israeli guns, the sun glints off the binocular of a Jordanian Army officer as he tries to spot camouflaged Israeli positions for the night’s artillery duel. In spite of fighting and the inevitable tragedies—a 15-year-old girl was killed by shrapnel outside the dining hall during a sudden morning attack a few months ago —the inhabitants of Khfar Ruppin have never been so active or prosperous. Production Rise “Since the start of the trouble we have been swamped with volunteers, office workers who come here for the week-end, and students on holiday. Our production- has even gone up,” says the kibbutz security officer, Mr Menachem Giland. At 44, Mr Giland is already a veteran at Khfar Ruppin. An immigrant from Czechoslovakia, he came after the

Second World War in which he served as an officer in the British Eighth Army's Jewish Brigade. The children of these first settlers are the tall, heavyboned “sabras” (native born) of whom Israelis are so proud. Mr Giland is proud of the kibbutz accommodation for children. They all sleep in underground bunkers until the age of eight The bunkers, designed to withstand the impact of exploding shells, are under the children’s playrooms. They are air-conditioned, have their own kitchens and electric generators, and sleep 10 children and a nurse in comfort.