Wadi Abu Shusha, after the Palestinian Arab village that used to exist near the kibbutz. It begins south of the kibbutz, between the hills of the Menashe Heights. Some of the waters also come from the Spring of Shulamit, also known in Arabic as Ayn As-Shaghara Al-Fauqa, meaning "Spring of the High Tree." The stream flows through the kibbutz into the Kishon River in the middle of the Jezreel Valley approximately 4 kilometers north of the kibbutz. History Establishment During the Fourth Aliyah (1924–1928), a time of Jewish migration to the British-controlled Mandatory Palestine, the Jezreel Valley was the top priority of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The fund wanted to settle the arable valley in order to establish a significant Jewish agricultural community and to create a contiguous bloc of Jewish settlements connecting Haifa with the existing bloc of Jewish settlements between Afula and Beit She'an. In 1924 the JNF purchased lands owned by the Christian Lebanese Sursock family near Nahalal. Afterwards it decided to expand south and in 1926 purchased most of the land of Abu Shusha, where Bedouins and Turkmens lived. The pioneers of Mishmar HaEmek came to Mandatory Palestine during the Third Aliyah. They were Polish Jews from Galicia and were members of three groups who graduated from HaShomer HaTzair movement, one from the town of Afula and two from the Jerusalem area. On 21 January 1922, they, along with some unaffiliated people, joined together in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood of Haifa to form the gar'in (, . "Seed/Grain") of a future settlement. It was initially named "Kibbutz Bet" (Bet is the second letter in Hebrew. "Kibbutz Aleph" of the movement later became the kibbutz of Beit Alfa). At its formation the gar'in had 80 members, but a year later, the number had been reduced to 65. In the summer of 1922 they moved to Nahalal in the Jezreel Valley where they participated in swamp drying and road paving. At Nahalal some members suffered from diseases and the lack of a stable livelihood. By early 1924, the member count was at 60 as old members left and new members joined. The main reason for leaving was the difficulty of trying to adjust to the kibbutz lifestyle. Some left because they wished to continue their academic career, others because of family issues and some because of ideological opposition. In 1925 the kibbutz, which then consisted of 60