In the early 1870s, the Spanish Consul in Jerusalem bought over 5,000 dunams (1,200 acres) of land from the villagers of Artuf, which he sold to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. After the pogroms against the Jews in Eastern Europe in 1882, the society used some of the money raised to help Jewish refugees purchase land in Artuf. Towards the end of 1883, 24 Jewish families were settled there, each receiving 150 dunams (37 acres) of farmland, farm animals and tools. Due to economic difficulties and lack of water, some of the land was leased to Arabs. After living for some time in tents, a wooden hut was built where all the families lived together. They were obliged to attend Sunday meetings and send their children to the missionary school, but most of the colonists remained practicing Jews. In 1895, the Bulgarian Hibbat Zion movement bought the 5,000-dunam farm from the London Society and renamed it Hartuv. Twelve Jewish families settled there and tried to earn a living from agriculture. Due to the poor quality of the soil, and lack of water, seeds and work implements, life in Hartuv was a struggle. In 1900, one of the settlers inaugurated a carriage service to Jerusalem. In 1917, Artuf was the base camp for the 10th Light Horse Regiment that fought in the battle for Jerusalem. The Jewish colony Hartuv was set on fire during the 1929 riots and destroyed by the Arabs. The Jews fled to Jaffa by train, watching their homes go up in flames through the carriage windows. Invoking the Collective Punishment Ordinance, the British Mandatory authorities heavily fined the Arab villages whose residents had attacked the Jews of Hartuv. In 1930 Hartuv was rebuilt and some of the families returned.