British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 759

CHAPTER XVII.

(b) Nir . A company for the financing of the settlements of agricultural workers. Assets in 1944: £P.1,010,808. A subsidiary of this cooperative, the Mekoroth Company, is engaged in the supply of water to agriculture. Output in 1944 : 8.5 million cubic metres. Turnover in 1944: £P.142,717.

(c) Solel-Boneh, This limited company, which recently merged with the building contracting office of the Histadruth, has in recent years developed into one of the main industrial enterprises in the country, maintaining a number of industries under a holding company called Koor. Including these subsidiaries, the Solel-Boneh employs 10,000 workers. About 60 per cent. of its output went during the war to the War Department. It has carried out important civil engineering and building works for the Government. The value of the works carried out by Solel-Boneh itself in the period from 1939 to 1944 amounted to a total of about £P.12,000,000. The industries controlled by Solel-Boneh include the Vulcan Foundries, the Phoenicia. Glass Works, a silicate brick factory, a small ship-yard, etc. It has shares in the cement factory N es her, in the soap factory Shemen and owns the Carmelia Court hotel in Haifa on Mount Carmel.

(d) Shikun. A central housing association for manual workers and clerks. It plans at present to house 2,000 ex-servicemen. It has built 3,150 houses occupied by 15,000 dwellers.

{e) The Workers' Sick Fund (Kupath Holim) is one of the most important labour institutions. Founded in 1912, that is before the Histadruth was formed in 1920, it is now serving some 270,000 men, women and children and had, on the 1st of July, 1945, 139,597 members. It is estimated that nearly half of the Jewish population of Palestine look to this institution for health services. It runs two hospitals, a number of convalescent centres and sanatoria, and 274 clinics. In 1944, these clinics received 2,476,500 visits of patients. The income of Kupa: Holim in 1944 was £P.l,090,123, and the expenditure was £P.l,195,359. It has recently made special provision for the treatment of disabled ex-servicemen.

45. Financial institutions of the Histadruth ere :-

(i) The Workers' Bank founded in 1921. Paid up capital

£P.277,000; deposits: £P.2,060,629, both figures as at the 31st October, 1945. Its principal function is to provide long term credit for agricultural settlements and cooperative societies belonging to the labour movement.

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