MEVASERET ZION

Maoz Zion, oldest neighborhood of Mevaseret Zion,
view from Castel National Park, courtesy, Wikipedia

Mevaseret Zion is a town consisting of 15 neighborhoods with a population of over 24,000. It is located on the northwestern outskirts of Jerusalem on a mountain ridge over 2400 feet above sea level and straddles both sides of the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway. It is adjacent to the town of Motza (some information of which can be found within this blog’s posting of “JerusalemCorridor”). The older neighborhoods/townships of Maoz Zion and Mevaseret Yerushalayim are under the jurisdiction of one local council. The newer neighborhoods were not part of either township. Today, Mevaseret Zion is the wealthiest municipality per capita in the Jerusalem District.

During the time of Joshua, the site of Mevaseret Zion and the surrounding area was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin. The Romans built a fortress there, known simply as Castellum to ensure their control of the road to Jerusalem. Centuries after the fall of Crusader rule in the 13^th century, an Arab settlement was built there and the settlers decided to revive the old Roman name and called it “al Qastal”.

During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, al Qastal, which overlooked the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway, was the center of fierce fighting, namely that of Operation Nachshon. At that time, the Arabs had besieged Jerusalem hoping to starve that city’s Jews to death. The capture of Qastal was one of the keys to breaking the siege and the settlement changed hands several times in the course of the fighting. The tides turned when the revered Arab commander, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, was killed. Many of the Arabs left their positions to attend al-Husayni's funeral at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, April 9. That same day, Qastal fell to Israeli forces virtually unopposed.

After the war, in 1951, the Jewish village of Maoz Zion ("Stronghold of Zion") was established at the foot of Castel Hill to house Jewish refugees from Iraq, Kurdistan, North Africa and Iran who had been living in a ma'abara, or transit camp, in the area. Many were employed at the nearby Solel Boneh stone quarry.

Mevasseret Yerushalayim was established east of Ma'oz Zion in 1956 by Jewish refugees from North Africa. It was located on a ridge near the armistice line, north of Motza. The residents worked in the fruit orchards in the Arazim Valley.

In 1963, Maoz Zion and Mevasseret Yerushalayim formed a joint local council, which was called Mevasseret Zion. The source of the name came from the Book of Isaiah: "Ascend a lofty mountain, O herald of joy to Zion" (Isaiah 40:9). It encompassed al Qastal and the surrounding area.

Today, the site of Al Qastal is now Castel National Park, consisting of a fortified summit in the Judean Mountains, a memorial for the Israeli soldiers who died there, including a monument designed in 1980 by Yitzhak Yamin, and a memorial to the convoys that tried to break through the blockade of Jerusalem.

Other sites in Mevaseret Zion include: Har'el shopping mall located near the Har'el interchange and houses such internationally known businesses as Magnolia Jewelers; the world's first kosher McDonald's, opened in 1995; Tichon Har’el High School; Yeshivat Sha'arei Mevasseret Zion; Nahal Sorek Street where, in 2003, an archaeological dig unearthed an ancient burial cave dating from the mid-Second Temple period; and the ruins of a medieval structure, Khirbet Beit Mizza, believed by some scholars to be the site of the biblical town of Motzah mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 18:26) until recent excavations made clear that Motzah of the Hebrew Bible is to be identified with nearby Khirbet Mizzah, today, Tel Motza.