adults and six children, moved to Afula, where they did road paving and worked in construction. Unification with Kibbutz Dalet In Afula, the kibbutz united with another HaShomer HaTzair gari'n called "Kibbutz Dalet" (the fourth letter in Hebrew), which was formed in the town of Hadera in 1924. The unification ceremony was performed like a Jewish wedding, in which the "groom" (Kibbutz Bet) and the "bride" (Kibbutz Dalet), were betrothed and a Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) was read in front of the crowd. On 3 November 1926, the members (numbering 90 after the unification) were given the land next to the Abu Shusha. Initially, only 15 men and women left Afula to Abu Shusha and settled in a nearby khan, from where they began preparing for agricultural work. In the next year, two mules were bought and 120 dunams of fields of wheat and barley were sowed. That time the members left the khan and began building the new settlement in its modern location, making history as a single Jewish settlement in this part of the valley. In November 1928 the kibbutz was renamed "Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek" as proposed by Menachem Ussishkin, after its members could not agree on a name. In the meantime, the members who remained in Afula continued their work there paving roads and constructing the Great Synagogue of Afula. The construction of a synagogue raised some ideological issues for some of the members who were mostly secular socialists. On 26 August 1929, during the 1929 Palestine riots, the kibbutz was attacked by Arab rioters equipped with firearms. The members, with the aid of Arab policemen, managed to fend off the rioters. British policemen ordered the kibbutz to evacuate and promised to take care for their property, and so the members left the following day. On 28 August, Arab rioters burned the kibbutz's barn, uprooted trees, stole corn from the fields and vandalized two gravestones in the kibbutz's cemetery. It was the only time in its history where it was abandoned, and it joined 16 other Jewish communities that were also abandoned during the riots. Unlike others, Mishmar HaEmek was resettled six days later. The evacuation was intended to protect human lives, but many saw it as abandonment. In early 1930 the rest of the members left Afula and joined the members in Mishmar HaEmek, which brought the population of the kibbutz to 101, with 85 adults