Another difficult experience during that pioneering year was the first plowing:
“The local Arabs gathered with shabarias (curved knives) and clubs. They did not agree to let us plow, because plowing symbolized our ownership of the land. I stood aside with Dr. A. Burdonsky from the Kfar Saba clinic. Suddenly, Michael grabbed the reins of the first horse and began to plow. At that moment, the Arabs began to attack. Mustafa, an Arab, lunged at him from the front with a knife in hand. Only the quick thinking of Asher Salomon saved Michael’s life - he grabbed the shabaria and tore it from the attacker’s hand. Then the Arabs attacked with clubs, and the next day, while the young men lay bruised and beaten, the British arrived, arrested them, and took them to Tulkarm for trial! I think we feared the British more than the Arabs.”
In the days that followed, the settlement began to develop into a central hub for planting orchards, which created a shortage of manpower. The Histadrut Executive Committee responded to the call from Kfar Yavetz pioneers and sent reinforcements - 20 religious pioneers from Bachad (the Religious Pioneer Alliance), members of a nucleus group from Kibbutz Rodges. This was the first Bnei Akiva group established on the lands of Dr. Selbendy, rabbi of the Dirkeim community in Germany, not far from Petah Tikva, where the “Aliyah Institution” in Kfar Avraham would later be established. They had arrived in Israel after Hitler rose to power. The Jewish Agency arranged housing for them and built a two-story house with a dining hall.
Among the members of this group were several outstanding individuals, including Aryeh Koenigsberger, who would later play key roles in the religious Zionist movement in Israel. They assisted the small band of Kfar Yavetz settlers until they decided to form their own independent settlement. In 1937, they were sent to establish the first HaPoel HaMizrachi group in the Beit She’an Valley: Tirat Zvi.
Michael, who after a short time was already speaking colloquial Arabic, underwent various training courses through the Haganah and learned to use both light and heavy weapons provided by the organization. Every night, he traveled to a squad commander’s course in Tel Mond, until he eventually became a regional commander (Ma’az). He then trained the newly arrived young men - including the founders of Tirat Zvi - many of whom remembered for years the grueling night training sessions he conducted, after they had already broken their backs during the day working with hoes…
From: Meizlish, Shaul. “The Father of Religious Settlement – The Life Story of Michael Hazani”