|
|
Scouting was introduced for the first time in Palestine in 1919, with the setting up of scout companies in Tel Aviv and turning the Ramblers Association in Haifa into a scout company. The captains of those companies adopted the Baden-Powell method of scouting, and within a year, scout companies were also started in Jerusalem, the Sharon, the Coastal Plain and in Galilee. In the same year the parent organization was established - the Scout Organization - for those companies which had previously been functioning independently without connection with each other. The number of companies and "tribes" had increased considerably by 1930.
Later, in 1934, it was considered necessary to have the Scouts Organization function under the aegis of the education department of Knesset Israel (which then served as the elected parliamentary body for the Yishuv, the Jewish population of Palestine). In order to safeguard its independence of the political parties, a convention of the National Council was called in 1936, which ratified the new constitution drawn up by the leadership of the Scouts Organization together with the Education Department, and elected the institutions of the movement. Since that time, the Scouts Organization has always functioned under the aegis of the official educational bodies, first of Knesset Israel and later of the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel. Since that time also, the movement has grown from a membership of hundreds, to thousands and tens of thousands, and the organizational unit is now no longer the "company" but the "tribe."
In Ayanot in 1941, the Scouts Council decided that, since the first nucleus of a settlement group had been formed, the Scouts Organization should be changed into a pioneering youth movement, with special emphasis on pioneering in agricultural settlements. Inspired by the first group, additional groups were formed year after year. The aims of the Scout movement were defined as follows: "Education of the Jewish youth to the spiritual values of the Jewish people, to the principles of the State of Israel and national unity; training for Zionist pioneering realization, direction to a life of work and service of the nation, stressing pioneering in agricultural settlement, developing independence, the sense of justice, mutual aid, and respect and honesty in his relations with his fellow-men." After the establishment of the State, the Scouts Organization formed in 1951 the Israel Boy and Girl Scouts Federation together with the scouts of the minority groups and the Federation was accepted as a member movement of the World Organization of Scouts, also joining the World Organization of Girl Guides in 1956. The scouts of the minority groups in Israel are organized in the Catholic Scouts Organization, the Israel Arab Scouts Organization, the Druze Scouts Organization. Beginning in 1961, scout tribes were formed in state schools for the minorities, and their membership now runs into thousands.
The waves of immigration for which new suburbs were built in the towns and development areas throughout the country, led to the additional increase of the number of scout tribes of the Jewish Scout Movement.
The educational platform of the Scout Movement, which applies equally to the Jewish scouts and to the scouts of the minority groups, has been set out as follows:" ... to educate its members in the spirit of the Scout laws and promise; to develop a sense of comradeship and mould their individual characters, to teach them orderliness, punctuality, discipline and observation; to train them to be good workers and to love living in nature (camping, etc.); to strengthen their love for their country and their loyalty to the State."
