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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The Pioneer Fighting Youth (Noar Halutzi Lohem--Nahal) was an
organization that combined military service with agricultural
training in a tradition that recalled the vision of the original
Zionist pioneers. The primary activity of Nahal, one of the
"functional commands" within the IDF organizational structure, was
the establishment and maintenance of military and agricultural
outposts or settlements. Nahal's military missions were to provide
advance warning, to serve as a first line of defense against ground
attack along the borders, to prevent infiltration, and to assist
and support Israeli occupation authorities in the territories. Its
nonmilitary missions were to develop previously unused land for
agriculture, to assist in the socialization of immigrant and
delinquent youth, and, since 1967, to assert Israeli rule in the
immediate area surrounding new settlements. Many military
commanders, however, felt that the program siphoned off some of the
best quality recruits for lower priority duty. Under pressure from
the army, the system was altered so that only about one-third of a
conscript's service was in agricultural training and on a kibbutz,
the remaining time being devoted to regular military activities.
In 1988 Nahal had an estimated total strength of 5,000 men and
women who had volunteered upon call-up. The basic unit was the
platoon, which ranged from about twenty to eighty young people
depending on assignment. A small headquarters served as a command
element for a number of platoons located in the same general area.
Platoons were assigned either to reinforce existing frontier
settlements or to establish new ones in areas unsuitable for
development by the civilian population. Strategic considerations
were fundamental in selecting locations for Nahal units. Some sites
were later abandoned as no longer useful; others became permanent
civilian settlements.
Data as of December 1988
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