HaOn

HaOn sits on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, opposite Kinneret Moshava and across the lake from Tiberias.[3][2] The settlement belongs to the Jordan Valley Regional Council.[6] Daria Resort's vacation village is situated on Haon Beach, with the Golan Heights reported to be less than 500 meters away.[7][8]

The Sea of Galilee's fluctuating water level has affected the immediate landscape around HaOn. During a period attributed to five arid years in northern Israel, the lake dropped to 213.57 meters below sea level, 57 centimeters below the lower red line. An island expanded near Ma'agan and HaOn, where the lakebed is higher and closer to the surface.[9]

A National Library archive description says HaOn was founded in August 1949 as a Nahal outpost near Ein Gev and moved to its permanent site in October 1949.[1] N12 reports that it was established in a demilitarized zone and moved twice early in its history following Syrian objections to its location.[4] Calcalist, drawing on Yerah Paran's recollections, instead describes three waves of settlement, with the first two locations near Ein Gev and settlement of the present site shortly after spring 1951.[2]

The founders included youth groups of Holocaust survivors from Europe alongside a small number of Israeli-born members.[2] For some survivors, the kibbutz movement offered a substitute for the nuclear families they had lost. Paran recalled that some later left after forming families of their own and questioned why they should remain in HaOn rather than move to larger cities.[2]

According to Paran's account, the present site had previously been the Arab village of Samra, whose residents were tenant farmers cultivating land owned by Bahá'ís. He said Samra's residents were expelled in spring 1951 and the kibbutz settled the site shortly afterward.[2]

Before the Six-Day War, HaOn was subjected to Syrian shelling. A 2017 historical review argues that HaOn, Tel Katzir and Ein Gev were the kibbutzim that "suffered most from Syrian fire" during the escalation of Syrian-Israeli hostility preceding the conflict.[5] A 2016 Jerusalem Post opinion article states that Syrian forces opened fire on Israeli tractors working near HaOn on April 7, 1967, and characterizes the incident as the event that sparked the war; that causal description reflects the author's framing.[10]

HaOn had 170 inhabitants as of December 31, 2004.[6] Its year of Jewish settlement is listed as 1949 in a 2019 alphabetical locality table, which records a population of 207 under the heading "Population 31.12" without stating the population figure's reference year in the cited entry.[11]

HaOn's economic history was marked by a succession of ventures that struggled to succeed. In the late 1960s, members invested in the Hamat Gader baths, but an attack a week before the facility's inauguration killed its guard and damaged the site, leading to its abandonment.[4] A holiday village established in the mid-1980s failed to recoup its investment.[3] The kibbutz also ran a date-growing branch that faced competition from Medjool dates cultivated in the Jordan Valley and the Arava.[4]

Among the more distinctive undertakings was an ostrich farm that, at its peak, held a Guinness World Record for the heaviest egg.[4] HaOn historian Yerah Paran summarized the settlement's commercial record with dry humor: "If they had opened a coffin factory in HaOn, people would have stopped dying."[12]

A gas station also operated on the kibbutz's land. Failed ventures left HaOn with debts reported at approximately NIS 68–70 million.[3][2] An earlier debt arrangement wrote off NIS 50 million, but HaOn did not repay the remaining balance as required.[3]

By 2002, HaOn had 62 members, most between the ages of 50 and 70.[3] Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided in 2002 to dismantle the kibbutz, but an interministerial process continued for five years and a final government decision followed in July 2007.[2] Most members voted in 2007 to dissolve the kibbutz and convert it into a community settlement, with the debt settlement approved in 2009.[3]

Following the settlement, the gas station was sold to Dor Alon and the holiday village was sold.[3] Agricultural lands were purchased by the Jordan Valley Farms Association for NIS 40 million, while a late-2012 agreement transferred residential lots to the Israel Land Authority for approximately NIS 14 million to fund pensions for veteran members.[2] The agreement granted 36 households ownership of their homes.[2] At the time of the Calcalist report, 58 former kibbutz residents remained in HaOn and around 100 students rented older apartments there.[2]

The transition became entangled in disputes over land marketing and the character of future development. A 2014 Israel Land Authority decision envisaged 287 housing units, with 100 to be marketed by the Settlement Division, but was never implemented.[2] The authority's legal adviser argued that the land could be worth close to NIS 200 million and should be marketed to the highest bidder. Local residents and the Jordan Valley Regional Council favored a rural community settlement for younger families and opposed development dominated by vacation homes.[2]

In 2024, a dispute between the regional council and the Israel Land Authority over plot tenders remained unresolved. The council said infrastructure was inadequate and unbudgeted, sought updated planning that included denser housing and homes suited to disabled veterans, and warned that building permits would not be issued before planning was completed. The authority disputed the council's conduct.[3]

Daria Resort's vacation village is situated on Haon Beach, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.[7] A vacation village at HaOn was later sold as part of the debt settlement approved in 2009.[3]

Yerah Paran, the kibbutz's unofficial historian and a professor, worked to preserve heritage features in and around HaOn.[4] He and friends planted a striking Bengal fig tree at the settlement in 1956.[12] Paran also worked to protect a memorial at the site of a February 1914 plane crash that killed two Turkish pilots and a nearby spring called Ein Shuayrah, whose name combines the names Sharir and Yerah.[12]

The early settlement chronology remains unresolved. A National Library description dates HaOn's move to its permanent site to October 1949, while Paran's account as reported by Calcalist places settlement of the present site shortly after the expulsion of Samra's residents in spring 1951.[1][2] The account of Samra's residents being expelled comes from Paran's recollections and should be treated as a reported, politically sensitive historical account.[2]

The timing of the kibbutz's dissolution is also described differently. N12 places the government decision in 2001 and quotes a resident who said it effectively dated to 2000.[4] Calcalist describes a 2002 decision followed by a final ruling in July 2007.[2] Ynet reports a member vote in 2007 and final approval of the debt settlement in 2009.[3] These accounts may refer to different stages of the prolonged administrative process. Reported debt figures also vary between approximately NIS 68 million and NIS 70 million, possibly reflecting different points in the financial crisis.[3][2]