The Zionist movement always expected the Negev desert would be part of the future Jewish state. But London and Washington had other ideas.

In August 1946, a joint British-American committee proposed what came to be known as the Morrison-Grady plan, which would have divided Mandatory Palestine into semi-autonomous Jewish and Arab provinces under British rule. The Negev was to be controlled exclusively by the British.

A remarkable display of Zionist unity thwarted that danger.

The Zionist leadership decided to fight the British-American plan by establishing facts on the ground. In the weeks leading up to the High Holidays that year, Zionist factions from across the political and religious spectrum united to plan the overnight creation of eleven new Jewish settlements in the Negev, to take place immediately upon the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Describing one of the scenes that unfolded in the moments after Yom Kippur ended, a young Religious Zionist participant recalled a legend concerning the Ba’al Shem Tov, founder of Chassidut, and the custom of blessing the new moon immediately after the fast.

One year, he wrote, clouds obscured the moon as Yom Kippur drew to a close, making it impossible to recite the blessing. The Ba’al Shem Tov “began to concentrate very intensely on some mystical formulas in an effort to bring out the moon,” to no avail. Meanwhile, his followers began their post-Yom Kippur custom of singing and dancing, and their enthusiasm drew their leader into their joyous circle. “The moon suddenly appeared and lit up the sky,” the young settler wrote. “Said the Ba’al Shem Tov: ‘What my intense concentration did not accomplish was brought about by the joy of the Chassidim.’”

“If the Ba’al Shem Tov had been standing the evening after Yom Kippur in Be’erot Yitzchak, and had seen hundreds of chalutzim [pioneers], hand on shoulder, tightly interwoven, surrounding chain-wise the main vehicles loaded with provisions and dancing joyous dances before ascending to the eleven new yishuvim [settlements], he would have placed himself in the center, jumped to the very heavens and drawn the moon from behind the clouds, saying, ‘What political means, discussions, and conferences cannot accomplish, the Chassidim of Eretz Yisrael accomplish through the burning joy of creation.’”

Changing the map

What they created, on the “Night of the Eleven Points,” were Jewish outposts across the Negev and the adjoining Gaza region.

The settlers came from a variety of Zionist factions, united in purpose and passion. Some of the settlements were established by members of Labor Zionist youth movements, including the sites they named Be’eri (the pen name of Labor Zionist icon Berl Katznelson), Mishmar HaNegev, and Urim. Three others – Shoval, Gal-On, and Nirim – were created by members of the further-left Hashomer Hatzair movement. Two, Kfar Darom and Tekuma, were established by the Religious Zionists of Hapoel Hamizrachi.

“The map of Palestine was changed yesterday when eleven new Jewish settlements were established in a sweeping dawn-to-dusk action,” the Palestine Post (later the Jerusalem Post) reported. “At dawn, scores of vehicles brought men and building materials” – other accounts estimated that 300 of the 1,000 settlers were women – “to the eleven chosen sites, stretching from Gedera to Rafah, and by darkness tents and fences had been erected and the beginnings made on the construction of the first huts.”

Unity in America, too

American Zionists were united in their support for the settlement initiative.

Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, co-chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council – the umbrella for all major US Zionist groups – called the creation of the settlements “a magnificent tribute to the indefensible spirit of the Yishuv.”

The US Labor Zionist journal Furrows hailed the new communities as “the reply of the Yishuv to every attempt by the British to convert the Jewish homeland into a ghetto.”

The “courage and resourcefulness” of the settlers “brought a thrill of pride and admiration to the whole Jewish world,” the editors of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle wrote. Framing the episode in quintessentially American terms, the paper asserted that “the operation can be compared only with the magnificent spirit which spurred the pioneers to conquer the American West.”

An unconquerable spirit

That spirit has been manifest again and again in the years since, as the “eleven points” communities have borne the brunt of being situated along Israel’s front lines. During the 1948 War of Independence, the eleven towns played a crucial role in fighting off Egyptian advances and ensuring that the Negev would become part of the Jewish state.

During the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, Be’eri and Nirim were especially hard-hit. But today, rebuilding proceeds and life is slowly but steadily resuming, as their courageous residents draw on the inspiration of 1946 to navigate the challenges ahead.

A cartoonist’s perspective

This political cartoon by Arie Navon – later one of the most famous cartoonists in Israeli history – appeared in the Labor Party daily newspaper Davar on October 9, 1946.

Titled “This Week in Sport,” it features two goalkeepers. One, smoking a pipe – the cartoonist’s standard symbol for the British – is labeled “Anti-Zionist Regime,” with eleven balls in his net. The other, the Jewish goalkeeper, has just one ball in his net, labeled “Rafiah” – a reference to the Rafiah prison camp in the Negev, where the British detained thousands of Jewish political prisoners in the 1940s (note the barbed wire structure behind the Jewish goalie). The landscape in the background features eleven towers and a flag reading “The Negev.” The caption at the bottom, “11:1,” gives the score.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is the author of numerous books on Jewish and Zionist history, including the Historical Dictionary of Zionism, co-authored with Chaim I. Waxman.