MOUNT GILBOA

Mount Gilboa, courtesy, Wikipedia

Mount Gilboa was the ancient name given to the bow-shaped mountain chain situated north of the Samarian Mountains, and separating the plain of Jezreel from the valley of the Jordan. It also slopes off abruptly toward the vicinity of Ein Harod in the northwest.

Mt. Gilboa was the scene in which Saul and his sons were killed in battle with the Philistines (i Sam. 31:1–6). David cursed the mountain in his lament over Saul and his sons (ii Sam. 1:21): "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, neither fields of choice fruits."

In September 1921, kibbutz Ein Harod was established at the foot of the mountain, next to the Ein-Harod spring. It was later transferred to the northern side of the Harod Valley. In the time of the British Mandate, especially between 1936 and 1939, Gilboa served as a base for Arab raids on the Jewish settlements in the Harod and Beth-Shean Valleys. Similarly, the Arab Legion and irregulars fortified positions on Mt. Gilboa during the War of Independence in the spring of 1948, with the aim of cutting off the Harod and Beth-Shean Valley settlements from the west. This danger was overcome with the occupation of the villages of Zarʿīn and Mazār by a Palmaḥ detachment. The 1949 armistice border, following the military front, gave Israel a foothold on the eastern rim of the mountain as well as the northern (where the moshav Gid’onah, originally named “Gilboa” was established) and left to Jordan most of its inhabited parts in the west and south.

Apart from the other new villages that were subsequently founded in the 1950s and 1960s at the foot of Mt. Gilboa in the west, north, and east, five settlements came into being on the mountain proper most notably – Nurit, established in 1950 as a moshav and later transformed into a Gadna training camp and nature study center, and Ma'aleh Gilboa, founded in 1962 as a Naḥal outpost, which became a civilian kibbutz affiliated with the Ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati movement in 1967. With the liberation of the rest of the Gilboa mountain chain in the course of the Six Day War in 1967, these communities entered into a period of prosperity. In 1982, Kibbutz Meirav, also affiliated with Ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati, was founded, as was Gan Ner in 1985.

Malkishua is a drug rehabilitation village founded in 1990 on the site of Kibbutz Meirav which had moved to its present location about one mile to the north on Mount Avinadav, part of the Gilboa chain, in 1987. The center was established by the National Authority for the War on Drugs and the regional council and was named after Malkishua, the son of King Saul, who fell on this spot while battling the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:2). In 1995 a youth treatment facility was added, and in 2002, Kedem, a center for religious youth, was founded. The center is today run by "Amutat Neve Malkishua" under the authority of the Ministry of Welfare & Social Services.

In addition, the Jewish National Fund had planted a forest on Mt. Gilboa with over 3,000,000 trees – one of the country's largest – and built many access roads and paths opening the mountain for tourism. A large area has been declared a nature reserve where plant species exclusive to Mt. Gilboa are afforded protection.