Mikveh Israel Colony

Mikveh Israel is a youth village and boarding school located in the central part of the occupied Palestinian territory, within the Tel Aviv district. As of 2016, its settler population was 426. Established in 1870, it was the first Zionist agricultural school in what is now known as Israel. Mikveh Israel was founded by Charles Netter, a member of the French organization Alliance Israélite Universelle and its president, following the appointment of its former president Isaac Crémieux as French Minister of Justice in April 1870. The school was built on 750 acres (3.0 square kilometers) of land leased from the Ottoman government for 99 years, on territory belonging to the Palestinian village of Yazur, located southeast of Jaffa. The institution was intended to serve as an educational center where young Zionists could learn agriculture and go on to establish villages and settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories, with the goal of "making the desert bloom." Sources: Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, Hebrew sources were used: the settlement’s official Hebrew website and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Information on the village of Yazur was taken from .