History
The volunteers project in the kibbutzim began in the mid 1960s with the arrival of young people from western nations curious about kibbutz life and eager to experience it first-hand. After the conclusion of the Six-Day War, the world's interest in Israel grew, and in the aftermath large numbers of volunteers arrived. At the peak of the project in the 1970s, 12,000 volunteers used to arrive every year, working in the different kibbutzim throughout Israel.
As the kibbutzim began to suffer financially in the 1980s, many elected to halt the volunteer project, in some cases hiring foreign workers from the Far East instead. Due to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in particular after the Second Intifada started in 2000, many countries ceased to cooperate with the project and as a result there was a significant decrease in the amount of the kibbutz volunteers. The decrease hit its lowest point in 2001, when only 100 volunteers arrived in Israel. Since then, the number of volunteers has grown but has never returned to 1970s levels. In 2007, approximately 1,500 volunteers came to Israel.
In total, 350,000 volunteers from 35 different countries have volunteered in various kibbutzim in Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967.
Read more about this topic: Kibbutz Volunteer
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