Moshe Novomeysky

British Mandatory authorities subsequently issued a tender for mining the Dead Sea area. Many groups applied; Novomeysky's consortium included a Scotsman named Thomas Gregorie Tulloch who had sought permission to mine there as early as the beginning of the British rule in 1918. After beating fierce competition from American firms for the right to mine around the Dead Sea, the application was officially accepted by High Commissioner Herbert Plumer in 1927. This triggered a debate in the British Parliament, revealing the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist feelings of some MPs. In this debate, the speaker of the House of Lords, Islington, described Zionism as an "unfortunate experiment".

Gathering support among well-known Londoners, Novomeysky was eventually granted a seventy-five year concession in August 1929 to his Palestine Potash Company, but only after providing documentation of his funding and accepting that the company be run by a Briton. The company's board of directors and marketing departments were located in London, their management and research laboratories in Jerusalem, the primary production facility on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, and experimental production at the Mount Sodom site. Most of the workers were employed at the northern shore campus and commuted from Jerusalem. British authorities would not allow the Jews to establish villages on nearby government land, but Novomeysky was ultimately granted permission to build a workers' neighbourhood on the basis of his concession. Marshland near the potash plant was drained, and a neighbourhood named Kalia was begun in 1934, which eventually built community institutions and was planned on the community settlement model.

Seeing potential for the Dead Sea as a vacation place, the British authorities had installed a golf course in Kalia named Sodom and Gomorrah.

Potash production was based on extremely large evaporation pans, while the northern shore plot was relatively small. Novomeysky felt the limitations in 1933 when he approached kibbutz Ramat Rachel about organising a labour group to expand operations at the expansive Mount Sodom site; while the northern shore had difficult conditions, the southern site was far harsher due to its isolation from civilisation in the heart of the Judean Desert combined with that region's arid climate. Ramat Rachel contacted the United Kibbutz Movement, which organised a group of 20 who in 1934 travelled to Mount Sodom along with Palestine Potash workers to establish a work camp. Materials arrived from Jerusalem, and water was purchased from King Abdullah.

The group found a good site for building residences in the nearby Zoar valley and was joined by a workers group from Ra'anana. However the area was now allotted to Abdullah's Emirate of Transjordan, and the group was evacuated following his protests. Despite this, on 8 October 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the group was able to set up a kibbutz near Kalia called Beit HaArava, which facilitated successful experiments in raising crops on hypersaline soil. Novomeysky received permission despite the British White Paper of 1939, which sought to restrict further Jewish immigration into Palestine and prevent new settlements from being built, because the kibbutz was a residence for his workers. By 1943, 100 Jewish families were living in Beit HaArava, which boasted fish ponds, eucalyptus, cypress, pines, and flowers.

By 1940 the Palestine Potash Company was responsible for half of the country's industrial export, and it supplied half of Britain's demand during World War II. In 1946 Novomeysky founded a fertiliser and chemicals company.

Building a good relationship with the local Arab population was important to Novomeysky. He mastered the Arabic language and was known to locals as "the doctor." Novomeysky had also maintained ties with King Abdullah I of Jordan, whose Emirate, now a country, lay just across the Jordan River from the northern shore concession.

Due to Novomeysky's reputation, the kibbutzim were spared from the anti-Jewish riots of 1936-39. Many of its Arab labourers hailed from nearby Jericho.

From 18 April 1948, the British ceased escorting convoys from Jerusalem to the northern shore facilities. As the prospect of war between the Arabs and the Zionists increased at the close of the British Mandate, Novomeysky tried to foster peace with Abdullah, attempting to strike a deal that would spare the potash works due to their value to both sides as well as the British. Having twice flown to Amman for negotiations, on 13 May 1948 an agreement was reached with the Transjordanian delegation whereby a neutral zone would be created to protect the facilities. He travelled to Tel Aviv on 14 May in order to share these results with David Ben-Gurion, the Zionist leader and soon Prime Minister of Israel.

Ben-Gurion couldn't immediately meet him due to preparations for Israel's Declaration of Independence, and when Moshe Novomeysky was injured in an automobile accident, he was unable to attend to finalising the understandings. On 17 May, representatives of the Palestine Potash Company and the Haganah signed an agreement putting both northern and southern facilities under Transjordanian custody, in contradiction to the previous agreements. The Haganah command rejected the new agreement as well, but due to his hospitalisation, Novomeysky was unable to use his Transjordanian contacts to remedy the situation.

As other Jewish settlements in Arab-controlled areas were subject to massacres, the residents of Kalia grew apprehensive. After the Naharayim power plant, which straddles the Jordan River, had its Jewish employees taken prisoner by the Jordanians, the mistrust grew. Ben-Gurion ultimately ordered Kalia and Beit HaAravah evacuated, and on May 19 and May 20, 1948, hundreds of workers, kibbutz members, and the Palmach security contingent fled on a "fleet" of 17 small boats to the Mount Sodom complex, having sabotaged the factory's equipment to prevent the now enemy from using them. Abdullah's Arab Legion entered the site, which had already been vandalised by locals, on May 22, and completely destroyed both the potash facilities and the kibbutzim.