Documentation of the Boathouse in De’gania Alef

The Boathouse was established in the late 1930s as a shelter for a British police boat. To enforce the Sykes-Picot agreements and maintain order across the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, the British deployed an armed naval police force. They constructed a small concrete structure with internal stairs descending to the waterline, allowing the boat to dock inside. The site was guarded by a local Arab man from the village of Samakh (Tzemach). According to the lore of Degania’s children, the guard had only one eye, which he blinked constantly, earning him the nickname “Abu-Masmas” (The Blinker). The name eventually stuck to the building itself, and to this day, the members of Degania still refer to it by that name.

In 1948, during the battles for the Jordan Valley, the area came under attack by the Syrian army. Tank shells fired toward Degania struck the boathouse, and the scars from those impacts remain visible on the concrete walls today. Following the war, the “Abu-Masmas” house became a local recreation spot; a famous “test of courage” for Degania’s youth involved jumping from the roof of the structure into the waters of the Jordan.

Over the years, as the water level of the lake receded, the boathouse was left stranded on dry land—a silent monument to a bygone era of border patrols and childhood adventures.