Ma'abarot

For the kibbutz, see Ma'abarot (kibbutz)

File:Maabarah children.jpg

Children in a ma'abara in 1952

The Ma'abarot (Hebrew: מעברות) were refugee camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of new Olim (Jewish immigrants) arriving in the newly independent state of Israel.

The Hebrew word Ma'abara derives from the word ma'avar (Hebrew: מעבר, transit). Ma'abarot (plural) were meant to be temporary communities for the new arrivals. Immigrants housed in these communities were refugees from Europe and the Middle East.

Over time, the Ma'abarot metamorphosed into towns, or were absorbed as neighbourhoods of the towns they were attached to, and residents were provided with permanent housing. The sudden arrival of over 130,000 Iraqi Jews in Israel in the early 1950s meant that almost a third of Ma'abarah dwellers were of Iraqi origin. At the end of 1949 there had been 90,000 Jews housed in Ma'abarot; by the end of 1951 this population rose to over 220,000 people, in about 125 separate communities. Ma'abarot residents were housed in tents or in temporary tin dwellings. Over 80% of residents originated in the Middle-East (due to the Jewish exodus from Arab lands).

Conditions in the Ma'abarot were very harsh, with very many people sharing sanitation facilities. In one community it was reported that there were 350 people to each shower and in another 56 to each toilet.

The number of people housed in Ma'abarot began to decline in 1952, and the last Ma'abarot were closed sometime around 1963. Ma'abarot which became towns include Kiryat Shmona, Sderot, Beit She'an, Yokneam, Or Yehuda and Migdal HaEmek.

Israeli satirist, Ephraim Kishon produced a satirical film about the Ma'abarot called Sallah Shabbati. The film was nominated for an academy award and is regarded as an Israeli classic.