The Tel Mond Bloc went through many phases and hardships before the establishment of a regional council within its borders: from a workers’ committee within the Land of Israel Plantations Company, through a workers’ council, to a Bloc Committee, and finally to a regional council.
In a reflective commentary written by a journalist who visited the area around the time of the council’s establishment, it was noted:
“A major - perhaps the primary - factor in the success of cooperation among the settlements was undoubtedly the social and ideological homogeneity of the settlers: nearly all were from the same wave of immigration, with similar outlooks, which led them to the same type of settlement - moshav ovdim (workers’ cooperative farms).”
A large part of this success was attributed to the Bloc Committee, which, during its nine years of existence, had accomplished significant achievements: constructing a school, paving internal roads between the settlements, establishing a regional office building, setting up a post office, cold storage facilities, and digging a well, as well as founding an immigrant neighborhood and organizing new settlements.
With the establishment of the State of Israel, the Bloc Committee acted quickly to revoke a compromise agreement that had been imposed on it by the British Mandate authorities. That agreement had excluded lands owned by the Land of Israel Plantations Company and the Ziv family from the municipal jurisdiction of the future regional council, so as to exempt the landowners from paying municipal taxes. Once the agreement was revoked, the area designated for the council’s jurisdiction expanded from 16,000 dunams to 40,000 dunams.
The Bloc Committee, together with the Municipal Department, continued its campaign to establish a regional council in Tel Mond that would include all lands in the area - including those belonging to the Land of Israel Plantations Company. From this point on, demands were addressed to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, with the hope that it would not be subject to pressure from the company.
At a joint meeting in the summer of 1949, involving all relevant parties - the Bloc Committee, the Plantations Company, Lord Ziv, and the Ministry of the Interior - a decision was reached to establish a regional council for the settlements of the Tel Mond Bloc, based on a draft ordinance prepared by the Ministry of the Interior for regional councils.
Initially, the jurisdiction of the council did not include two land sections owned by private entities, and it was only two years after the ordinance was published that these areas were incorporated into the council’s official jurisdiction.
On December 11, 1949 (20 Kislev 5710), the ordinance establishing the Tel Mond Regional Council was officially announced. The council included the settlements of: Bnei Dror, Herut, Mishmeret, Kfar Yavetz, Kfar Hess, Ein Vered, and the neighborhoods of Kfar Ziv, Shkhunat Yaakov, and Tel Mond.
On November 25, 1951, the council’s name was officially changed to the Hefer Sharon Regional Council (Mo’atza Ezorit HaDar HaSharon).
(Source: Tel Mond Documentation Museum Archive, Rina Iden, 1999, “Jewish Settlement in the Central Sharon between 1929–1939,” PhD dissertation, The Hebrew University.)