Editing Kibbutz (section)

=== Statebuilding ===
Arab opposition increased as the 1917 [[Balfour Declaration]] and the wave of Jewish settlers to Palestine began to tilt the demographic balance of the area. Arabs responded with bloody riots in [[1920 Nebi Musa riots|Jerusalem in 1920]], [[1921 Jaffa riots|Jaffa in 1921]] and in [[1929 Palestine riots|Hebron in 1929]]. In the late 1930s, Arab–Jewish violence became virtually constant; the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine]] is also known as the "Great Uprising" in Palestinian historiography.
[[File:Kibbutz Guard 1936.jpg|upright=0.7|right|thumb|A member of [[Ma'abarot, Israel|Kibbutz Ma'abarot]] on guard duty, 1936]]
Kibbutzim began to assume a more prominent military role. Rifles were purchased or manufactured and kibbutz members drilled and practiced shooting. [[Yigal Allon]], an Israeli soldier and statesman, explained the role of kibbutzim in the military activities of the [[Yishuv]]:
{{blockquote|The planning and development of pioneering Zionist were from the start at least partly determined by politico-strategic needs. The choice of the location of the settlements, for instance, was influenced not only by considerations of economic viability but also and even chiefly by the needs of local defense, overall settlement strategy, and by the role such blocks of settlements might play in some future, perhaps decisive all-out struggle. Accordingly, land was purchased, or more often reclaimed, in remote parts of the country.<ref name=Rayman>quoted in Rayman, pp. 27–28.<!--Needs a full citation, here and/or in Refs--></ref>}}
Kibbutzim also played a role in defining the borders of the Jewish state-to-be. By the late 1930s, when it appeared that Palestine would be [[Partition (politics)|partitioned]] between Arabs and Jews, kibbutzim were established in outlying areas to ensure that the land would be incorporated into the Jewish state. In 1946, on the day after [[Yom Kippur]], [[11 points in the Negev|eleven new "Tower and Stockade" kibbutzim]] were hurriedly established in the northern part of the Negev to give Israel a better claim to this arid, but strategically important, region. The [[Marxism|Marxist]] faction of the kibbutz movement, Kibbutz Artzi, favoured a [[one-state solution]] over partition, but advocated free Jewish immigration, which the Arabs opposed.

Kibbutzniks fought in the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], emerging from the conflict with enhanced prestige in the nascent State of Israel. Members of Kibbutz Degania were instrumental in stopping the [[Syria]]n tank advance into the Galilee with [[Molotov cocktail]]s. [[Maagan Michael]] manufactured the bullets for the [[Sten]] guns that won the war. Maagan Michael's clandestine [[ammunition]] factory was later separated from the kibbutz and grew into [[Israel Military Industries]].