Pardes Hanna-Karkur

Pardes Hanna-Karkur is a town within the Haifa District of Israel. In 2017 it had a population of 41,142. In 1913, 15 rectangular kilometers of land was purchased by the Hachsharat Hayishuv society from Arabs in Jenin and Haifa for 400,000 francs. Two years later, the land became offered to a private investor, Yitzhak Shlezinger, the Odessa Committee and the First London Ahuza society. This land became the middle of Karkur, Moshav Gan Hashomron and Kibbutz Ein Shemer.

Until real settlement started out, the place became guarded with the aid of Hashomer, which planted eucalyptus timber to circumvent a Turkish law that allowed the Ottomans to expropriate lands in the event that they were no longer cultivated for 3 years. The early settlements did now not fare properly. Shlezinger went bankrupt and bought his land to the Jewish National Fund. The London Ahuza society was hoping to settle English Jews on the land, but succeeded best in part. Eventually the Jewish National Fund and the London Ahuza society joined forces to establish Karkur.