In 1926, four British chemical companies merged to create Imperial Chemical Industries, which became one of Britain’s mightiest industrial companies. It was the brainchild of Alfred Mond who became the new company’s managing director and chairman. Mond was an industrialist, financier and proud Zionist, who was president of the British Zionist Federation, founder of the town of Tel Mond, east of Netanya, and a strong proponent for the introduction of electricity into Palestine.
In 1928, Imperial Chemical Industries established ICI Levant as a subsidiary that operated in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus. Yechiel (Chilik) Weizmann, a chemist and the younger brother of Chaim who headed the World Zionist Organization, became the first manager.
ICI Levant imported pesticides, fertilizers, weapons and explosives, assisted local farmers in pest control and worked to educate farmers on the use of its products. Arabs in Palestine complained that ICI Levant was providing explosives and weapons to the Jews in Palestine, and was favouring Jewish labour for opportunities within the company. The company insisted it was neutral.
This is an advertisement for ICI Levant chemicals for use in fumigation. Prior to the Second World War, oranges were Palestine’s most lucrative industry growing from 831,000 boxes exported in 1920-21 to 13 million boxes in 1938-39. Yechiel Weizmann articulated the importance of ICI Levant’s pesticides for Palestine’s economy and agriculture when he said:
“The future of ICI is the future of Palestine, and what is the future of Palestine if not the future of orange trees; the future of orange trees is the extermination of the harming diseases.”
ICI Levant played another important role in the future of Palestine. In November 1945, an unknown man arrived at the company’s warehouse claiming to be a representative of the Hebron municipality and left with five tons of sodium nitrate. Two months later, eight armed men and women broke into the company’s offices in Tel Aviv and took ten tons of sodium nitrate.
Sodium nitrate is used in fertilizer… and explosives.
