1.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Palestine grid
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The Palestine grid was the geographic coordinate system used in Mandatory Palestine. The system was chosen by the Survey Department of the Government of Palestine in 1922, the projection used was the Cassini-Soldner projection. The central meridian was chosen as that passing through a marker on the hill of Mar Elias Monastery south of Jerusalem, the false origin of the grid was placed 100 km to the south and west of the Ali el-Muntar hill that overlooks Gaza city. The unit length for the grid was the kilometre, the British units were not even considered, at the time the grid was established, there was no intention of mapping the lower reaches of the Negev Desert, but this did not remain true. The fact that those regions would have negative north-south coordinate then became a source of confusion. For some military purposes,1000 was added to the coordinates of all locations. During World War II, a Military Palestine Grid was used that was similar to the Palestine Grid, the difference between the two projections was only a few meters. It was replaced by the Israeli Transverse Mercator grid in 1994, the Palestine grid is still commonly used to specify locations in the historical and archaeological literature. The basic way of specifying a location on the Palestine grid is to write the east-west coordinate followed by the north-south coordinate using 3 digits each, for example, the Dome of the Rock is at 172132. This specifies the location within one kilometer, if more precision is required, extra digits can be added to each coordinate, for example,17241317 gives the Dome of the Rock to within 100 meters. Many authors separate the two coordinates with punctuation for readability purposes, for example 172-132 or 172/132
4.
Districts of Israel
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There are six main administrative districts of Israel, known in Hebrew as mehozot and Arabic as mintaqah and fifteen sub-districts known as nafot. Each sub-district is further divided into Cities, municipalities, and Regional councils it contains, the Judea and Samaria Area, however, is not included in the number of districts and sub-districts as Israel has not applied its civilian jurisdiction in that part of the West Bank. Population,1,358,600 District capital, Nazareth Safed – population,113,700 Kinneret – population,110,500 Yizreel – population,482,300 Akko – population,605,700 Golan – population,46,400. Population,966,700 District capital, Haifa Haifa – population,560,600 Hadera – population,406,000 Central District. Population,2,024,500 District capital, Ramla Sharon – population,446,500 Petah Tikva – population,685,000 Ramla – population,326,400 Rehovot – population,566,600 Tel Aviv District. Population,1,350,000 District capital, Tel Aviv Southern District, currently only the Coordination and Liaison Administration operates there. Jewish Population,407,118, Palestinian population, roughly 1.8 million, largest city, Modiin Illit The name Judea and Samaria for this geographical area is based on terminology from the Hebrew and other sources relating to ancient Israel and Judah/Judea. The territory has been under Israeli control since the 1967 Six-Day War but not annexed by Israel, in Jewish religious terms, it is part of the Land of Israel, which leads to politically contentious issues. However, it is not considered part of the State of Israel by the UN, urban Israel, Details and pictures about many cities in Israel
5.
Regional council (Israel)
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As of 2003, there were 53 regional councils, usually responsible for governing a number of settlements spread across rural areas. Regional councils include representation of anywhere between 3 and 54 communities, usually spread over a large area within geographical vicinity of each other. Each community within a regional council usually does not exceed 2000 in population and is managed by a local committee and this committee sends representatives to the administering regional council proportionate to their size of membership and according to an index which is fixed before each election. Those settlements without an administrative council do not send any representatives to the regional council, representatives from those settlements which are represented directly are either chosen directly or through an election. The predominant form of communities represented on regional councils are kibbutzim and moshavim, the following sortable table lists all 53 regional councils by name, and the district or area according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. The list includes the regional councils in the Golan Heights and the West Bank, areas considered occupied territories under international law, city council Local council List of Israeli cities Local Government in Israel
6.
Atlit Yam
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Atlit Yam is an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel. Atlit-Yam provides the earliest known evidence for a subsistence system on the Levantine coast. The site of Atlit Yam has been carbon-dated to be between 8900 and 8300 years old and belongs to the final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. Today, it lies between 8-12m beneath sea level in the Bay of Atlit, at the mouth of the Oren river on the Carmel coast and it covers an area of ca.40,000 square meters. Underwater excavations have uncovered rectangular houses and a well, the site was covered by the eustatic rise of sea-levels after the end of the Ice age. It is assumed that the contemporary coast-line was about 1 km west of the present coast, piles of fish ready for trade or storage have led scientists to conclude that the village was abandoned suddenly. Some scientists point to the apparent abandonment of Atlit Yam around the time as further evidence that such a tsunami did indeed occur. Submerged settlements and shipwrecks have been found on the Carmel coast since 1960, in 1984, marine archaeologist Ehud Galili spotted ancient remains whilst surveying the area for shipwrecks. The fill contained flints, artifacts of stone and bone. The upper layer contained partly articulated animal bones, which were thrown in after the well went out of use. Other round structures at the site may also be wells, Galili believes that the water in the wells gradually became contaminated with seawater, forcing the inhabitants to abandon their homes. A stone semicircle, containing seven 600 kg megaliths, has been found, the stones have cup marks carved into them and are arranged around a freshwater spring, which suggests that they may have been used for a water ritual. Ten flexed burials have been discovered, both inside the houses and in their vicinity, the skeletons of a woman and child, found in 2008, have revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis. Bone fish-hooks and piles of fish ready for trade or storage point to the importance of marine resources. The men are thought to have dived for seafood as four skeletons have been found with ear damage. Anthropomorphic stone stelae have been found, the lithics include arrowheads, sickle-blades and axes. An excavation was mounted by the University of Haifa on Oct 1,1987, a complete human burial was discovered under 10m of water on Oct. 4th with the skeleton oriented in a fetal position on the right side in an excellent state of preservation. Subsequent carbon dating of plant material recovered from the burial placed the age of the site at 8000 +-200 years, animal bones and plant remains have also been preserved
7.
Tatar
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The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century CE. The name Tatar first appears in form on the Kul Tigin monument as
8.
Haifa
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Haifa, is the third-largest city in the State of Israel, with a population of 278,903 in 2015. The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area and it is also home to the Baháí World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a destination for Bahai pilgrims. Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, the settlement has a history spanning more than 3,000 years, the earliest known settlement in the vicinity was Tell Abu Hawam, a small port city established in the Late Bronze Age. In the 3rd century CE, Haifa was known as a dye-making center, over the centuries, the city has changed hands, being conquered and ruled by the Phoenicians, Persians, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, British, and the Israelis. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Haifa Municipality has governed the city, as of 2016, the city is a major seaport located on Israels Mediterranean coastline in the Bay of Haifa covering 63.7 square kilometres. It lies about 90 kilometres north of Tel Aviv and is the regional center of northern Israel. According to researcher J. Kis-Lev Haifa is considered a haven for coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Two respected academic institutions, the University of Haifa and the Technion, are located in Haifa, in addition to the largest k-12 school in Israel, the city plays an important role in Israels economy. It is home to Matam, one of the oldest and largest high-tech parks in the country, Haifa also owns the underground rapid transit system located in Israel. Haifa Bay is a center of industry, petroleum refining. Haifa formerly functioned as the terminus of an oil pipeline from Iraq via Jordan. With locals using it to refer to a tell at the foot of the Carmel Mountains that contains its remains. The name Efa first appears during Roman rule, some time after the end of the 1st century, Haifa is also mentioned more than 100 times in the Talmud, a work central to Judaism. Hefa or Hepha in Eusebius of Caesareas 4th-century work, Onomasticon, is said to be another name for Sycaminus, references to this city end with the Byzantine period. Following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, Haifa was used to refer to a site established on Tel Shikmona upon what were already the ruins of Sycaminon. Haifa is mentioned by the mid-11th-century Persian chronicler Nasir Khusraw, the Crusaders, who captured Haifa briefly in the 12th century, call it Caiphas, and believe its name related to Cephas, the Aramaic name of Simon Peter. Other spellings in English have included Caipha, Kaipha, Caiffa, Kaiffa and Khaifa.5 miles to the east. The new village, the nucleus of modern Haifa, was first called al-imara al-jadida by some, but others residing there called it Haifa al-Jadida at first, the ultimate origin of the name Haifa remains unclear
9.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
10.
Edmond James de Rothschild
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Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Zionism, his large donations lent significant support to the movement during its early years and he grew up in the world of the Second Republic and the Second Empire and was a soldier Garde Mobile in the first Franco-Prussian War. Edmond de Rothschild inherited Château Rothschild, Boulogne-Billancourt and owned the Château Rothschild dArmainvilliers in Gretz-Armainvilliers in the Seine-et-Marne département, included in this gift were more than one hundred engravings and drawings by Rembrandt. A portion of his art collection was bequeathed to his son James A. de Rothschild and is now part of the National Trust collection at Waddesdon Manor, however, in 1882 Edmond cut back on his purchases of art and began to buy land in Southern Syria. He became a proponent of the Zionist movement, financing the first site at Rishon LeZion. In his goal for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, he promoted industrialization, in 1924, he established the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association, which acquired more than 125,000 acres of land and set up business ventures. Edmond de Rothschild also played a role in Israels wine industry. Under the supervision of his administrators in Ottoman Palestine, farm colonies and vineyards were established and it is estimated that Rothschild spent over $50 million in supporting the settlements and backed research in electricity by engineers and financed development of an electric generating station. Jews and Arabs lived amicably on Rothschilds land, with no Arab grievances, according to historian Albert M. Hyamson, Rothschild recognised that the overriding interest of the Jews of Palestine was the confidence and the friendship of their Arab neighbours. The interests of the Arab cultivators of the land he bought were never overlooked and he suggested in 1931 to Judah Magnes that We must hold them down with a strong hand. In a 1934 letter to the League of Nations, Edmond de Rothschild stated that the struggle to put an end to the Wandering Jew, could not have as its result, in 1934, Baron de Rothschild died at Château Rothschild, Boulogne-Billancourt. His wife died a year later on 29 December 1935 and they were interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris until April 1954 when their remains were transported to Israel aboard a naval frigate. At the port of Haifa, the ship was met with sirens, for his Jewish philanthropy Baron Edmond became known as HaNadiv HaYadua, and in his memory his son bequeathed the funds to construct the building for the Knesset. Israels 1982/5742 Independence Day coin is dedicated to the memory of Edmond de Rothschild, from 1982 until 1986, the Bank of Israel used his portrait on the 500 Israeli sheqel note. Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv is named after him, as well as various localities throughout Israel which he assisted in founding, Rishon LeZion, the city which he helped to found named one of the central streets Rothschild Street, and in 1996 Rothschild Mall was built. Also named after him is the Parc Edmond de Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt, Edmond de Rothschild, lhomme qui racheta la terre sainte. Aharonson, Ran. Rothschild and Early Jewish Colonization in Palestine, two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel
11.
Atlit detainee camp
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The Atlit detainee camp was a detention camp established by the authorities of the British Mandate for Palestine at the end of the 1930s on the Israeli coastal plain,20 kilometers south of Haifa. The camp was established to prevent Jewish refugees from entering Mandatory Palestine, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were interned at the camp, which was surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers. The Atlit camp is now a museum of the history of Haapala, Atlit was declared a National Heritage Site in 1987. The Atlit camp, established by the British Mandatory government in the 1930s, was surrounded by barbed wire, many of the detainees during the 1930s and 1940s were Jewish refugees from Nazi-controlled Europe. In the late 1940s, most were Holocaust survivors, the British authorities, acceding to Arab demands to limit Jewish immigration, refused to allow them to enter the country. At Atlit camp, the men were sent to one side and they were sprayed with DDT, then told to undress and enter the showers. In 1939–1948, tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants were interned here, some internees stayed as long as 23 months. The Darien II arrived with 800 refugees in March 1941 and they were detained at the Atlit camp until September 1942, when the camp was shut down. The Atlit camp was reopened in 1945 following World War II, most of them were Holocaust survivors from DP camps in Europe who made the journey through the Berihah and Haapala clandestine immigration network. In November 1940, the British authorities decided to send 5000 illegals to detention camps on Mauritius, one of these deporting ships was the Patria. To stop the deportation, the Haganah, the Jewish underground militia in Palestine, the size of the explosive charge had been seriously miscalculated, and the ship sank quickly. On board were 1800 refugees,216 drowned in the disaster, the survivors from the Patria were detained in Atlit and not deported to Mauritius. They were released after a few months, on October 10,1945, the Palmach broke into the camp and released 200 detainees, who escaped. Yitzhak Rabin, then an officer, planned the raid. Following this event, the British deported illegals to Cyprus internment camps and these camps operated from 1946 through the establishment of the State of Israel. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Atlit detainee camp served as a prisoner of war camp, egyptian POWs from the 1967 war and Lebanese citizens were also held there
12.
British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
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The Mandate of Palestine was superseded with UN Charter, Chapter XII, Article 80 UN Trusteeship Agreement, UNGA181 of November 29,1947. The Palestine Mandate was administrated by the United Kingdom from September 29,1922 to November 29,1947, Government of the State of Israel was proclaimed over parts of this territory on 14 May,1948. The approximate northern border with the French Mandate was agreed upon in the Paulet–Newcombe Agreement of 23 December 1920, Transjordan had been a no mans land following the July 1920 Battle of Maysalun. The Trans-Jordan Memorandum provided the detail to support Article 25 of the Mandate and it also established a separate Administration of Trans-Jordan for the application of the Mandate, under the general supervision of Great Britain. Transjordan became largely autonomous under British tutelage according to an agreement of February 20,1928, the League of Nations welcomed the end of the mandate in Transjordan on 18 April 1946. The conquest of Palestine became part of British strategies aimed at establishing a bridge between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. This would enable rapid deployment of troops to the Gulf, then the line of defence for British interests in India. A land bridge was also an alternative to the Suez Canal, the committee considered various scenarios and provided guidelines for negotiations with France, Italy, and Russia regarding the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The Committee recommended in favour of the creation of a decentralised, at the same time, the British and French also opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli and Mesopotamian campaigns. In Gallipoli, the Turks successfully repelled the British, French and Australian, from 1915, Zionist leader and anglophile Zeev Jabotinsky was pressing the British to agree to the formation of a Zionist volunteer corps that would serve under the aegis of the British army. The British eventually agreed to set up the Zion Mule Corps, after Lloyd George was made prime minister during the war, the British waged the Sinai and Palestine Campaign under General Allenby. This time the British agreed to a Jewish Legion, which participated in the invasion, russian Jews regarded the German army as a liberator and the creation of the Legion was designed to encourage them to participate in the war on Britains side. At the same time, British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence was encouraging an Arab Revolt led by the Sharif of Mecca. The British defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Ottoman Syria, the land remained under British military administration for the remainder of the war, and beyond. The Ottoman Empire capitulated on 30 October 1918, and on 23 November 1918, the Middle East was divided into three OETAs. Occupied Enemy Territory Administration South extended from the Egyptian border of Sinai into Palestine and Lebanon as far north as Acre and Nablus, a temporary British military governor Major General Sir Arthur Wigram Money would administer this sector. In October 1919, British forces in Syria and the last British soldiers stationed east of the Jordan were withdrawn and the region came under exclusive control of Faisal bin Hussein from Damascus. In 1916, Britain and France concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with Palestine as an international enclave, the British made two potentially conflicting promises regarding the territory it was expecting to acquire
13.
Aliyah Bet
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Aliyah Bet was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British White Paper of 1939 restrictions, in the years 1934 to 1948. In modern-day Israel it has also called by the Hebrew term Haapala. The Aliyah Bet is distinguished from the Aliyah Aleph, the limited Jewish immigration permitted by British authorities in the same period, during Haapala, several Jewish organizations worked together to facilitate immigration beyond the established quotas. As persecution of Jews intensified in Europe during the Nazi era and those who participated in the immigration efforts consistently refused to term it illegal, instead calling it clandestine. First, from 1934 to 1942, it was an effort to enable European Jews to escape Nazi persecution, during the first phase, several organizations led the effort, after World War II, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet, an arm of the Haganah, took charge. Post-World War II, Haapala journeys typically started in the DP camps, from there, the refugees travelled in disguised trucks, on foot, or by train to ports on the Mediterranean Sea, where ships brought them to Palestine. Most of the ships had names such as Lo Tafchidunu and La-Nitzahon designed to inspire, some were named after prominent figures in the Zionist movement, and people who had been killed while supporting Aliyah Bet. More than 70,000 Jews arrived in Palestine on more than 100 ships, American sector camps imposed no restrictions on the movements out of the camps, and American, French, and Italian officials often turned a blind eye to the movements. Several UNRRA officials acted as facilitators of the emigration, the British government vehemently opposed the movement, and restricted movement in and out of their camps. Britain also set up armed naval patrols to prevent immigrants from landing in Palestine, over 100,000 people attempted to illegally enter Palestine. There were 142 voyages by 120 ships, over half were stopped by the British patrols. The Royal Navy had eight ships on station in Palestine, most of the intercepted immigrants were sent to internment camps in Cyprus. Some were sent to the Atlit detention camp in Palestine, the British held as many as 50,000 people in these camps. Only a few thousand actually entered Palestine, the pivotal event in the Haapala program was the incident of the SS Exodus in 1947. The Exodus was intercepted and boarded by a British patrol, despite significant resistance from its passengers, Exodus was forcibly returned to Europe. Its passengers were sent back to Germany. This was publicized, to the embarrassment of the British government. She arrived off the coast of Palestine on August 25, and the passengers disembarked with the help of the Haganah, which received special permission to assist them
14.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
15.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
16.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
17.
Baibars
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Baibars or Baybars, of Turkic Kipchak origin — nicknamed Abu al-Futuh and Abu l-Futuhat — was the fourth Sultan of Egypt in the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. He was one of the commanders of the Egyptian forces that inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the reign of Baibars marked the start of an age of Mamluk dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and solidified the durability of their military system. As Sultan, Baibars also engaged in a combination of diplomacy and military action and his name was derived from Kipchak Turkic bay + bars. Baibars was born in the Dasht-i Kipchak/Cumania, between the Edil and Yaiyk rivers, to the Cumans-Kipchaks and it was said that he was captured by the Bulgars in the Kipchak steppe/Cumania and sold as a slave, ending up in Syria. Baibars was quickly sold to a Mamluk officer called Aydekin al bondouqdar and sent to Egypt, Baibars was a commander of the Mamluks under the Ayyubids. In around 1250 he defeated the Seventh Crusade of Louis IX of France and they were besieged from all directions by the Egyptian forces and the town population, and suffered heavy losses. Robert of Artois, who took refuge in a house, only five Templar Knights escaped alive. Baibars was still a commander under Sultan Qutuz at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, after the battle, Sultan Qutuz was assassinated while on a hunting expedition. Baibars succeeded Qutuz as Sultan of Egypt, also, the threat from the Mongols was still serious enough to be considered as a threat to Baibars authority. However, Baibars first chose to deal with Sinjar, and marched on Damascus, at the same time the princes of Hama and Homs proved able to defeat the Mongols in the First Battle of Homs, which lifted the Mongol threat for a while. After suppressing the revolt of Sinjar, Baibars then managed to deal with the Ayyubids, unfortunately, al-Mustansir II was killed by the Mongols during an ill-advised expedition to recapture Baghdad from the Mongols later in the same year. Like his unfortunate predecessor, al-Hakim I also received the oath of alliegance of Baibars. As sultan, Baibars engaged in a struggle against the Crusader kingdoms in Syria. He started with the Principality of Antioch, which had become a state of the Mongols and had participated in attacks against Islamic targets in Damascus. In 1263, Baibars laid siege to Acre, the capital of the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and he used siege engines to defeat the Crusaders in battles such as the Fall of Arsuf from March 21 to April 30. After breaking into the town he offered free passage to the defending Knights Hospitallers if they surrendered their formidable citadel, the Knights accepted Baibars offer but were enslaved anyway. Baibars razed the castle to the ground and he next attacked Athlith and Haifa, where he captured both towns after destroying the crusaders resistance, and razed the citadels
18.
Fall of Ruad
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The Fall of Ruad in 1302–3 was one of the culminating events of the Crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean. When the garrison on the tiny Isle of Ruad fell, it marked the loss of the last Crusader outpost on the coast of the Levant. In 1299–1300, the Cypriots sought to retake the Syrian port city of Tortosa, by setting up an area on Ruad. The plans were to coordinate an offensive between the forces of the Crusaders, and those of the Ilkhanate. However, though the Crusaders successfully established a bridgehead on the island, the Mongols did not arrive, the Knights Templar set up a permanent garrison on the island in 1300, but the Mamluks besieged and captured Ruad in 1302 or 1303. With the loss of the island, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in the Holy Land. Attempts at other Crusades continued for centuries, but the Europeans were never able to occupy any territory in the Holy Land until the 20th century. When Jerusalem was lost in 1187, the Crusaders moved their headquarters to the city of Acre. They then moved their headquarters north to Tortosa on the coast of Syria, the remaining elements of the dwindling Kingdom of Jerusalem relocated their headquarters offshore to the island of Cyprus. In 1298–99 the Mamluks attacked Syria, capturing Servantikar and Roche-Guillaume and this marked the capture of the last Templar stronghold in the Levant. Henry made some attempts to combine with the Mongols, and in the autumn of 1299 sent a fleet of two galleys, led by Guy of Ibelin and John of Giblet, to join Ghazan. The fleet successfully reoccupied Botrun on the mainland, and for a few months, until February 1300, Ghazan inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mamluks on 22 December 1299 at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar near Homs in Syria. He was assisted by his vassal Hethum II, whose forces included a contingent of Templars and Hospitallers from Little Armenia, before leaving, Ghazan announced that he would return by November 1300, and sent letters and ambassadors to the West so that they could prepare themselves. The Mongols success in Syria inspired enthusiastic rumours in the West, that the Holy Land had been conquered, in May however, when the Egyptians again advanced from Cairo, the remaining Mongols retreated with little resistance. In July 1300, King Henry II of Jerusalem and the other Cypriots set up a naval raiding operation, the citadel of Atlit having been dismantled by the Mamluks in 1291, Tortosa remained the most likely stronghold on the mainland which had the potential to be recaptured. From Cyprus, King Henry and members of the three orders, attempted to retake Tortosa in 1300. The plan was to establish a bridghead on the tiny island of Ruad. Pope Boniface VIII had since ordered Jacques de Molay to resolve the disputes with Henry II, in November 1300, Jacques de Molay and the kings brother, Amaury of Lusignan, launched an expedition to reoccupy Tortosa
19.
Districts of Mandatory Palestine
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The districts of Mandatory Palestine formed the first level of administrative division and existed through the whole era of Mandatory Palestine, namely from 1920 to 1948. The number and territorial extent of them varied over time, as did their subdivision into sub-districts, in Arabic, a district was known as a minṭaqah, while in Hebrew it was known as a mahoz. Each district had an administration headed by a District Governor, a role renamed as District Commissioner in 1925, until June 1920, Palestine was under a formal military regime called O. E. T. A. Initially the country was divided into 13 administrative districts, reduced to 10 in 1919, the division was revised after the adoption of a civilian administration in the middle of 1920. In September 1920, the districts were Jerusalem, Galilee, Phoenicia, Samaria, Jaffa, Gaza, in July 1922, administrations of the districts of Phoenicia and Galilee were combined, as were the districts of Jerusalem and Jaffa, and the districts of Gaza and Beersheba. Some reassignment of sub-districts also occurred, at the time of the October,1922, census of Palestine, there were four districts divided into 18 sub-districts. In 1938, the Beersheba and Gaza sub-districts were separated from the Southern District, then in 1939, the Administrative Division Proclamation reshaped the country into six districts. The name of the Galilee and Acre District was changed to Galilee District in December, although not published until June, it stated that the change shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st January,1945
20.
Haifa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine
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The Haifa Subdistrict was one of the subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine. It covered the northern Mediterranean coast of regional Palestine, southwestern Galilee, and it was disintegrated after the British withdrawal from the area. Prior to and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War around half of the Arab localities were depopulated or destroyed, the entire district was captured by Israel and most of its Arab defenders were composed of the Arab Liberation Army and local militias. Its predecessor was Haifa Subdistrict, Ottoman Empire, Haifa District For Jewish localities established before 1947
21.
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
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The Mamluk Sultanate was a medieval realm spanning Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamlūk rule into two periods—one covering 1250–1382, the other, 1382–1517. Western historians call the former the Baḥrī period and the latter the Burjī due to the dominance of the regimes known by these names during the respective eras. Contemporary Muslim historians refer to the divisions as the Turkish. The Mamlūk state reached its height under Turkic rule with Arabic culture, the sultanates ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, soldiers of predominantly Cuman-Kipchaks, Circassian, Abkhazian, Oghuz Turks and Georgian slave origin. While Mamluks were purchased, their status was above ordinary slaves, Mamluks were considered to be true lords, with social status above citizens of Egypt. Though it declined towards the end of its existence, at its height the sultanate represented the zenith of medieval Egyptian and Levantine political, economic, the term Mamluk Sultanate is a modern historiographical term. The Arabic sources for the period of the Bahri Mamluks refer to the dynasty as the State/Realm of the Turks, other official names used were State of the Circassians. A variant thereof emphasized the fact that the Circassians were Turkish-speaking, the term Mongol State was used during Sultan al-Adil Kitbughas rule, who was of Mongol extraction. Dawlatāl Qalāwūn or Dawlat Banī Qalāwūn which means Qalāwūnī State/Dynasty which have ruled for hundred years between 1279 and 1382, al-dawla al-Ẓāhiriyya which meant Ẓāhirī state/dynasty which is the dynasty of Baibars and his two sons al-Said Barakah and Solamish. This dynasty have ruled consecutively for 19 years, Mamluk was a term defined as owned slave, distinguishing the mamluk from the garya and ghulam, which referred to household slaves. After thorough training in fields such as martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences. However, they were expected to remain loyal to their master. Mamluks had formed a part of the state or military apparatus in Syria and Egypt since at least the 9th century, each Ayyubid sultan and high-ranking emir had a private mamluk corps. Most of the mamluks in the Ayyubids service were ethnic Kipchak Turks from Central Asia and they were highly committed to their masters, who they often referred to as father, and were in turn treated more as kinsmen than as slaves by their masters. These mamluks became known as the Salihiyyah, to provision his mamluks, as-Salih forcibly seized the iqtaʿat of his predecessors emirs. Despite his close relationship with his mamluks, tensions existed between as-Salih and the Salihiyyah, and a number of Salihi mamluks were imprisoned or exiled throughout as-Salihs reign. Tensions between as-Salih and his mamluks came to a later in 1249 when Louis IX of Frances forces captured Damietta in their bid to conquer Egypt during the Seventh Crusade
