A memoir of courage and love: British-Israeli pioneer living on the Gaza border - review

Kibbutz Zikim has been in the news since October 7, 2023. South of Ashkelon, it was in the path of the Hamas atrocities of that day.

He and his partner, Diane, were at Zikim that weekend. Like the other locations invaded by Hamas, it was the kibbutz’s own security team that defended Zikim. Billis’s account of the disaster is one of the saddest chapters in the book.

However, his memoir is much more uplifting and takes us much farther back in the influences and history of this remarkable pioneer.

Most British Jews voted Labour after the war, but Billis joined Hashomer Hatzair, a youth movement much influenced by Communism, believing in total equality and the importance of community. At that time, they were unaware of the reality, the brutality and atrocities of Russian Communism and what transpired to be a travesty of equality.

The value of these youth movements was that they provided healthy activity and moral values. Hiking, camping, group projects gave the members a sense of belonging and inclusiveness.

Billis was studying for an engineering production degree and working but was devoted to Hashomer Hatzair, which promoted aliyah to left-wing kibbutzim. He eventually did service at the movement’s center, followed by working at one of the training farms run like a kibbutz in preparation for aliyah.

In 1955, the movement sent him to Dublin, Ireland, where the other residents of his lodgings were from Habonim. In spite of a different ideology, they all coexisted. Especially an attractive young woman named Miriam. The two went cycling together and found that they had a lot in common. Both movements tried to separate them, but their relationship strengthened, and Miriam moved over to Hashomer.

Miriam’s childhood story is sad. Compared to Billis’s positive childhood experiences in a large extended family, Miriam was orphaned at age four and a half and taken to the Norwood Orphanage in North London. With her brother by her side, she was not alarmed when during the intensive bombing of London, they were sent out of the city to a safer place.

Due to the insensitivity of her carers, she was sent to a foster home separately from her brother, who was billeted elsewhere.

She wrote: “Sammy was the only person in the world that meant anything to me at that time. He was my ‘life belt,’ and I’m left to flounder.” She grieved so much; and as each host family gave up on her, she was moved from billet to billet, but not with her brother. Eventually, the only thing that calmed her was being allowed to sit next to him in his classroom, even though he was three grades ahead of her. This caused a life-long trauma of separation anxiety. She never spoke of it to her own children or explained to them why she was such an overprotective mother.

Miriam and Billis started preparing for their wedding, to be followed by joining a kibbutz of the Kibbutz Artzi Hashomer Hatzair Movement in Israel, prominent in the political party of Mapam.

A man of many talents, Billis organized the entertainment for the international meeting of European and North African Hashomer members held in Manchester. Their group was expected to perform for the thousands of guests.

Miriam’s two brothers did not expect her to bring home a non-religious Hashomernik, but they accepted Billis into their home. The couple agreed to have a religious wedding to please them, and also for Billis’s parents, who were traditional Jews.

And so to Kibbutz Zikim. Many immigrants dream of kibbutz life, a utopia of equality together with financial security. But many leave after a period of time because the price is high: hard unfamiliar work and having to always conform to the decisions of the community. Hashomer Hatzair was the strictest of them all. If one arrived with some household luxury or extra clothing, it was put into the communal pool.

For some parents, separation from their children for sleeping and most of their activities except for the few afternoon hours between homework and bedtime was a source of conflict.

So for Billis and Miriam, coming from comfortable British homes, the contrast was a true culture shock. However, they had both been prepared since their teens through the youth movement and training programs.

Traveling from Haifa port to Zikim was a day’s journey, but Billis writes that until today, he feels as emotional when he sees the lights of Zikim as he did that first night of his arrival.

Although the kibbutz was very sparse, Billis was delighted by the nature around and every species of bird flying overhead.

In spite of the hardships, the couple integrated, never forgetting the aims of these kibbutzim: defending the borders, working the land, and providing a just and egalitarian society. Utopia it is not. Like in all societies, there are jealousies and rivalries and not always pure equality.

Billis writes of the rise of Hamas, saying that there were times when the Arabs of Gaza were on friendly terms with these border villages, but the kibbutz members were always on the alert for cross-border attacks.

Among the English garin were several members of Billis’s extended family, but gradually they left for a different life in Israel. In 1959, there was a manpower crisis; but true to the movement’s philosophy, an older established kibbutz sent help, and volunteers from the overseas movement were allocated to Zikim.

Billis writes that at the beginning, he was given the dirtiest jobs. But as all you readers who volunteered on kibbutzim in your gap year know, it was then the volunteers who got the messiest jobs, scrubbing the big pots in the kitchen, clearing up the manure in the cowsheds.

Eventually, Billis held office in all the main branch committees, as well as being in charge of a main farm branch and important positions in the kibbutz industries.

The couple’s first child, Gadi, was born in 1958. Miriam was shocked when on returning to the kibbutz from the hospital, the caregiver of the babies’ house took the infant from her, with instructions about visiting and feeding hours. In 1964, when their third child was born, regulations had relaxed somewhat, and newborns lived with their parents for the first weeks.

As time went on, the kibbutz prospered more. Billis developed his acting and dancing skills and organized the kibbutz celebrations, as well as managing the kibbutz industry. Miriam was able to use her artistic talents, and they built a studio onto their house.

Change often comes at a price, Billis writes.

“In 1957 when we came, while the kibbutz was very spartan and raw, the surrounding area was beautiful with grapevines and orchards and wild-life, but now a lot of that natural beauty has been spoilt by industry and the ugly belching tower of the power station farther up the coast. The beach has been taken over by the municipality and is packed with cars and visitors. However, the kibbutz is a beautiful place, a stable community where we work together and respect each other.” It is also green and fertile. Billis took up gardening as a serious hobby, and the old wooden huts gave way to attractive homes.

Another change was in privatizing some of the departments; firstly, the food in the dining hall and of altering the structure of collective budgets to focus more on a salary system and rules of inheritance. Billis was against this, although he recognized that change was needed in order to sustain the kibbutz.

Billis writes lovingly of his family, now four generations: three children, nine grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren, all living in Israel.

In 2021, his beloved wife passed away after a long illness, not long after he lost his eldest son, Gadi. Billis was totally bereft but very much supported by his family.

A new life has opened up for him with his new partner, Diane. With his amazing energy for a man of 90, he is ever optimistic and positive in his thinking.

A beautiful book, well written, a memoir of the times and experiences familiar to many readers.