Tower and Stockade

Tower and Stockade
Official Award Medal, 5723-1963

The bloody riots which broke out in Palestine in 1936, marked the first chapter of a daring settlement development in the outlying areas. The aim was to extend the frontiers of the Jewish settlement and to take possession of land previously legally acquired. The aim was to prepare everything needed well in advance so that on the very first day a wooden wall reinforced by gravel, could be put up around the new settlement. Up went a watchtower, defense posts were dug and wooden barracks for dwellings were erected. Such wall and watchtower settlements were established in the Jordan Plain and Valley, in the Upper and Lower Galilee. Hanita, on the Northern Border, was set up in 1938 to be followed by Aylon and Hatzovah.

Obverse: To the left: "25 years since the acquisition of Western Galilee". Above to the right, the emblem of the Regional Council of Sulam Tzur. Beneath, a schematic map of three "Wall and Watchtower" settlements in Western Galilee.

Reverse: In the center, a part of a verse from Chronicles 2 (14:6) "Let us ... make about them walls and towers". The letters form a stylized representation of "Wall and Watchtower" settlements. Beneath, the date -5698-5723:1938-1963. Round the rim, the English version of the quotation and the source.

Edge: The State emblem. On both sides - "State of Israel" in Hebrew and English.

Designer: Obverse - Rothschild and Lippman ("Roli"). Reverse - Gabriel Neumann.

Engraving: Kretschmer

Mint: Kretschmer.