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The Salt of the Earth Atlit salt plant was founded by Israel Kassel and Mordechai Surdin, a salt plant manager who immigrated to Israel. Permission, in principle, "to produce table salt from seawater in Atlit" was given by the British as early as October, 1921. In a letter sent from Downing Street, Mr. Shuckburgh, Winston Churchill's assistant, wrote: "From London's point of view, the matter is confirmed, and now permission is subject to the British High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel."

A report prepared for the inaugural shareholders' meeting stated that the Palestine Salt Company had been officially registered on the 13^th of August, 1922 with assets of 40,000 Egyptian pounds (the local currency at the time).

To support worker welfare during these early years, the company and the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA) signed an employee benefit agreement in which the provided for all the needs of the plant's workers, including dining facilities, medical care, education, and other benefits.

After five months of work, a pool of eighty-five hectares was ready for use. Seawater was pumped

into the area to "kick off" the evaporation process. The first salt harvest was conducted in the summer of 1924, yielding 2,117 tons of salt. During the company's first twenty years, production at the plant was based primarily on manual labor, with only minimal mechanization.

Over time, the number of workers increased dramatically, from two-hundred during the 1920's, to about five-hundred, by the late 1940's. By 1948, when the Stae of Israel was founded, salt production had reached about six-thousand tons. At this time, electric machinery was installed, reducing manual worker effort.

In 1957, the plant was acquired by the Dankner and Gineau families, who converted the plant into a modern one. Access roads were laid between the pools. New pools, covering about one-hundred hectares, were dug. Mechanical salt-harvesting equipment reduced the harvest period to less than two weeks.

See Historical Review of the Salt Plant (Courtesy of Yad Ben Zvi Project – Israel Album)