VALLEY OF JEZREEL

Valley of Jezreel, Israel, courtesy, Wikipedia

The Jezreel Valley, also known as the Valley of Megiddo or the Plain of Esdraelon, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in northern Israel formed by the Kishon River. It takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the southern edge of the valley. The name “Jezreel” is of Hebrew origin and means "God sows", aptly named since the valley has become known as the breadbasket of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands of the Lower Galilee region, to the south by the Samarian highlands, to the west and northwest by the Mount Carmel range, and to the east by the Jordan Valley, with Mount Gilboa marking its southern extent. Today the largest city in the valley is the Arab Muslim/Christian city of Nazareth which lies near its center. In Christian eschatology, the Final Battle between the forces of Gog and Magog, good and evil, will be fought at the site of Har Megiddo – Mount Megiddo, near the village of the same name. Centuries later, the name of this site became Latinized to “Armageddon”.

In the Biblical period, the Jezreel Valley partly covered the Israelite territories of Asher, Menasheh, Zvulun, and Yissasschar. During the rule of the Prophetess Deborah, a major battle occurred at Mount Tabor, in the eastern part of the valley, between the Israelites under Barak and the Canaanites under Sisera. The valley was also the scene of a victory by the Israelites under Gideon, against the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the Children of the East (Judges 6:3), but was later the location at which the Israelites, led by King Saul, were defeated by the Philistines at Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:4, 29:1–29:6, 31:1-31.6). During the period of the Divided Kingdom, Jehu, an army captain of the northern Kingdom of Israel, killed King Jehoram in the valley, and had Jezebel killed in Jezreel town (2 Kings 9:1-9:10).

After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and due to subsequent invasions and counter-invasions in the following centuries, the area gradually lost its population and by the 13^th century, after the Crusader period, it was largely deserted, became a swampland, and abandoned to nomads. However, the edges of the valley, namely villages like Bet Shean were still populated, mainly by Muslim Arab settlers but also by some Jews who remained. The 14th century topographer Ishtori Haparchi settled there and completed his work Kaftor Vaferach in 1322, the first Hebrew book on the geography of Palestine. But in the main, the valley remained swampland which bred malaria making settlement impossible. In the 1870s, the Sursock family, a Greek family in Beirut purchased 80,000 acres of valley land from the Ottoman government for approximately £20,000. In 1910, Yehoshua Hankin completed his first major Jewish purchase in the Jezreel Valley. He bought some 10,000 dunams of land in the area of Al-Fuleh (now Afula), which became the home of two moshav settlements, Merhavia in 1911 and Tel Adashim in 1913. Afula itself, was then an Arab hamlet that was also home to a small Jewish community. By 1924, this community had grown sufficiently and was able to establish the Emek Medical Center which served the entire region. By the 1920s, Nazareth also had a Jewish population (see article on Nazareth). Between 1912 and 1925 the Sursocks sold part of their landholdings to the Jewish National Fund which established Nahalal, the 1^st large moshav, in 1921, and part to the American Zion Commonwealth which purchased Afula in 1925. The Jewish farmers who settled on the land, set about the task of draining the swamps to enable further land development.

In the late 1920s, a synagogue mosaic was uncovered by archaeologists at Bet Alfa. (see Bet Alfa and Synagogue). Valley sites established during the British Mandate period included: Ginnegar, Balfouria (1922), Mizra, Kfar Gidon (1923), Gevat, Ramat David, Bet Shearim, Bet Zaid, Kfar Baruch (1926), Kfar Yehoshua, Sde Yaacov (1927), Kfar Hahoresh (1933), Alonim (1938), Dovrat (1946), and Gazit (1947).

During the Arab riots in the 1930s, Bet Shean served as a base for Arab attacks against Jews whether they were immigrants or not. Throughout the centuries, Jews have live in Bet Shean, on and off, but during the riots, the Arabs finally expelled them. During this time, the settlement of Tel Amal was established as a Tower and Stockade settlement for the purpose of defense against Arab attacks. Today, it is part of Gan Hashlosha National Park, one of the most popular recreation areas in Israel. After Israeli independence, development of the valley increased in pace. In 1954, Kibbutz Yifat was established. It houses the Museum of the Beginning of Settlement and contains exhibiting items and photos of the pioneer settlement in Israel. Max Stern Yizreel Valley College, located between Afula and Nazareth, was founded in 1965 and offers BA degrees and holds courses in such fields as Economics, Behavioral Sciences, Social Sciences, Communication Studies, Human Services, Health Administration, Nursing Studies and General Studies. In 1980, the Jezreel Valley gained regional status and the Jezreel Valley Regional Council was established in Nahalal. In 2006, the Israeli Transportation Ministry and the Regional Council announced plans to build an international airport near Megiddo but the project was shelved due to environmental objections.