// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Ma'anit a good cook? It's a settlement issue.

Ma'anit מַעֲנִית (Hebrew)
Ma'anit Location within Haifa region of Israel
Coordinates: 32°27′00″N 35°02′00″E
Country	Israel
District	Haifa
Subdistrict	Hadera
Council	Menashe
Affiliation	Kibbutz Movement
Founded	1942
Founded by	Czechoslovak and Polish Hashomer Hatzair members
Population  (2024)	951

Ma'anit (Hebrew: מַעֲנִית) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located just south of the town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur, it falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council. In 2024 it had a population of 951.

Archaeology: Beidus

Baydūs, or Beidūs near Tel Narbeta in northwestern Samaria, is a multi-period site situated on a rocky hilltop overlooking the coastal plain. According to the archaeological surveys and excavations, the tell preserves building remains and ceramic evidence from the Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, and Ottoman periods, indicating long-term occupation; Early Islamic finds are especially significant and include pottery, an Arab-Byzantine m-type coin reportedly found near the village well, and an Umayyad fals recovered in excavation. The site is possibly mentioned on an Umayyad lead bulla.

In the Ottoman period, Baydūs appears in the 1596 tax register as a mazraʿa in the Shaʿrā nāḥiya, with a recorded revenue of 100 akçe. By the first half of the nineteenth century, the site was inhabited by the Qabha Bayādsa clan, who later moved to Bāqa al-Gharbiyah, preserving the memory of the site in their gentillic name.

History

The kibbutz was established in 1942 by members of the Hashomer Hatzair movement who fled from Czechoslovakia and Poland, with some arriving during Aliyah Bet, during Nazi persecution. Its name refers to the first furrow ploughed in a field. The analogy was presented in Avraham Herzfeld's speech about settlement in the area: He saw the establishment of the kibbutz as being the first of many. Due to its location near Wadi Ara, the kibbutz was on the front line during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and was attacked by the Iraqi Army.

Economy

Galam Ltd., a company that produces starch and glucose for the food industry, is based in Kibbutz Ma'anit. In 2010, Galam recorded annual sales of $137.6 million, half of it from export. After developing a new natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant, the company signed a contract with Corn Products International, which grows and processes stevia in South Africa.