In 1938, the Municipal Affairs Department of the Histadrut, acting in line with its policy, initiated a meeting in Tel Mond with representatives of local settlements and neighborhoods to explore the idea of forming a regional council. A positive decision was reached. Unfortunately, the process of establishing the Tel Mond Regional Council dragged on for eleven years (1938–1949) due to opposition from the Melchett and Ziv families, who owned land in the area and held considerable influence within the British Mandate administration in Palestine. These families opposed the establishment of a municipal body, fearing the imposition of taxes by the future regional authority.
To overcome this obstacle, the Municipal Affairs Department agreed to seek a way to reduce the tax burden and, in the meantime, initiated negotiations with British Jews - owners of private estates in the region who also held sway over the British government. However, the outbreak of World War II brought these efforts to a halt. Only after the war did the Bloc Committee resume its efforts to establish a regional council in the area.
Following attempts to persuade the Land of Israel Plantation Company and Lord Ziv to withdraw their opposition, an agreement was reached in early 1939 that the Histadrut’s Municipal Affairs Department would submit proposals for a council constitution for the Tel Mond Bloc.
Zvi Bernzon of the Histadrut’s Municipal Department, who was responsible for the matter, handled the proposal. As a legal basis, he used the constitution drafted for the "Beit Vagan" Local Council, published in the Official Gazette on December 24, 1936, which had already been adapted (with a few modifications approved by the authorities) for the establishment of the Emek Hefer Local Council.
Bernzon recognized that the issue of representation for the Land of Israel Plantation Company - both as a large landowner and as a representative of absentee parcel holders could not be resolved within the framework of the proposed constitution. He therefore proposed that this be settled through a separate agreement between the Histadrut and the company, outside the constitution, to guarantee the company fair representation for two council terms (4.5 years).
The taxation method proposed in the constitution was developed based on discussions between company representatives and the Bloc Committee. According to this method, the council would be allowed to levy direct taxes up to 50% of the rural property tax paid to the government (no more than 250 Palestine mils per year per dunam of planted orchard). The education tax would apply only to buildings, not to land, thereby exempting absentee landowners who did not live in the area.
The proposed regional council would be responsible for establishing and managing institutions for education, culture, health, and social welfare; fighting malaria and preventing diseases and epidemics; constructing and maintaining buildings; organizing and supervising the harvest; regulating water supply and grazing; ensuring security in the settlements; and protecting the fields. The council would be authorized to levy taxes and fees on property, both buildings and land, within its jurisdiction, as well as for education, water, lighting, road construction, or any other fee it decided upon and received district governor approval for.
Because the establishment of the council was repeatedly postponed due to opposition, the Municipal Affairs Department regretfully acknowledged that it had failed in its efforts. A small consolation for the region’s residents came in March 1940, when the Tel Mond Bloc Settlements Committee received official recognition.
Even after ten years of negotiations between the Bloc Committee and the authorities (first the British Mandate, and later the State of Israel), no official approval had been granted for the establishment of the Tel Mond Regional Council. Among the justifications presented by the Bloc Committee for including the Land of Israel Plantation Company’s lands within the council’s jurisdiction was the argument that in other countries, particularly Britain, the entire territory is divided among various municipal authorities, with no piece of land exempt from local governance. The division among these authorities is not based on individual preferences, but on public interest standards, prioritizing the collective good over individual interest.
(Source: Tel Mond Documentation Museum Archive, Rina Iden, 1999, “Jewish Settlement in the Central Sharon, 1929–1939,” Ph.D. dissertation, The Hebrew University).