“Tower and Stockade” (in Hebrew Homa U’Migdal) is the name of an operation that came as a response of the Yishuv to the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt and the restrictions the Mandatory authorities placed, both on the building of new Jewish settlements and on the amount of Jewish immigrants allowed into Palestine. According to an old Ottoman law that was still valid during the Mandate period, the destroying of a building was not allowed after the roof had been erected. For this reason the Yishuv started building settlements at night, beginning with a guard tower and a defense stockade– that is why the operation was named “Tower and Stockade”.
One of the big operations of “Tower and Stockade” was the settling of Hanita. On the morning of March 21st, 400 people approached the area of Hanita with equipment and supplies. They continued to the camp, and began the construction. At nightfall, 100 settlers remained in the camp and prepared themselves for the possibility of being attacked by the Arabs. The land of Hanita was located in the heart of an Arab region, and much risk was involved in establishing it. Indeed, that night the Arabs attacked the settlers and continued to do so in the following days. On April 8th, the settlers established what was to become the final position of Kibbutz Hanita.
The day of Hanita's founding was widely covered by the newspapers of that period. With time, it came to symbolize the “Tower and Stockade” operation, even though it was not the first, nor the last settlement to be founded as part of this operation.