Mikveh Israel Settlement

Mikveh Israel is a youth village and boarding school located in central occupied Palestine, within the Tel Aviv area. Its population in 2016 was about 426 people.

It was founded in 1870, and is considered the first Zionist agricultural school in what is known today as "Israel." It was founded by Charles Netter, a member and president of the "Alliance Israélite Universelle" organization, following the appointment of the organization's former president, Adolphe Crémieux, as Minister of Justice in France in April 1870.

The school was established on an area of 750 acres (about 3.0 square kilometers) of land leased from the Ottoman government for a period of 99 years, on lands belonging to the Palestinian village of Yazur, located southeast of Jaffa. The purpose of this institution was to serve as an educational center where young Zionists would learn agriculture, in preparation for establishing villages and settlements throughout occupied Palestine, under the slogan of "making the desert bloom."

Sources:Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, the following Hebrew sources were relied upon:

• The institution's official website (Hebrew)

• Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

• Information on the village of Yazur from the aforementioned website.