Nahal () (acronym of Noar Halutzi Lohem, lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepreneurship in urban development areas. Prior to the 1990s it was a paramilitary Israel Defense Forces program that combined military service and the establishment of agricultural settlements, often in peripheral areas.
The Nahal groups of soldiers formed the core of the Nahal Infantry Brigade.
History
In 1948, a gar'in (core group) of Jewish pioneers wrote to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion requesting that members be allowed to do their military service as a group rather than being split up into different units at random. In response to this letter, Ben-Gurion created the Nahal program, which combined military service and farming.
Some 108 kibbutzim and agricultural settlements were established by the Nahal, many of them on Israel's borders. Nahal settlements in the Jordan Valley and the Arabah played an important role in Jordan's decision not to join the other Arab countries in attacking Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
Members of Nahal units, known as garinei Nahal (Nahal seeds) have served together in various army units, most famously in the Nahal Mutznakh (Airborne Nahal) battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, the reserve battalion of which was instrumental in the Israeli victory in the Battle of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. Many settlements founded by Nahal units in Galilee, the Negev, and the West Bank are still thriving today, including settlements formerly located in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. Today, a gar'in is usually a group formed by a youth movement, such as the Israeli Scouts, for the purpose of volunteer work.
Nahal and Youth Command
Today, there are two distinct units carrying on the historical tradition and name of the Nahal. The first is a large, non-combat command belonging to the IDF Education Corps, whose primary responsibility is to organize and coordinate the volunteer-type programs and activities that made the original Nahal unit famous in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. This command has a full staff of educational officers and soldiers, and also sponsors other endeavours such as Gadna, a week-long 'introduction' to the military for high-schoolers in which they become acquainted with the history, traditions, and routines of the military that they are about to join.
Nahal group
The Nahal group (Hebrew: גרעין נחל) is a form of community service developed in Israel, which combines social volunteerism, agriculture and military service. The service is divided into several parts: The military period (פרק צבאי) The national mission period (פרק משימה) Routine security measures (only for the male members) (בט"ש) Unpaid military service period (Military service with no payment) (של"ת)
The order of the periods is permanent, but there are changes in the length of the periods, in accordance with the recruitment cycles. Also, it is possible to have the unpaid military service period either at the beginning or at the end of each course.
The military period
During the first military period, the members of the Nahal group serve in the Nahal infantry brigade together. The male members have a combat service as part of the 50th battalion or Caracal Battalion, and the female members serve in the Caracal Battalion or in different positions in the Education and Youth Corps and the Nahal headquarters. As part of their service, the members of the same group are entitled to serve in the same military unit (the 50th battalion, in the Caracal Battalion and in basic training of the female soldiers and the non-combat soldiers), and to hold a group meeting once in a while. At the end of their military service, after the release of the female Nahal soldiers, the remaining Nahal members return for half a year of routine security measures activities.