1.
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
2.
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
3.
Nazareth
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Nazareth is the capital and the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as the Arab capital of Israel, in 2015 its population was 75,726. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30. 9% Christian, Nazareth Illit is built alongside old Nazareth, and had a Jewish population of 40,312 in 2014. The Jewish sector was declared a city in June 1974. In the New Testament, the town is described as the home of Jesus. One view suggests this toponym might be an example of a name used by resettling groups on their return from exile. The negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the name to prophecy. Another theory holds that the Greek form Nazara, used in Matthew and Luke, may derive from an earlier Aramaic form of the name, or from another Semitic language form. If there were a tsade in the original Semitic form, as in the later Hebrew forms and this has led some scholars to question whether Nazareth and its cognates in the New Testament actually refer to the settlement known traditionally as Nazareth in Lower Galilee. In the Quran, Christians are referred to as naṣārā, meaning followers of an-Nāṣirī, in Lukes Gospel, Nazareth is first described as a town of Galilee and home of Mary. Following the birth and early epiphanial events of chapter 2 of Lukes Gospel, Mary, Joseph and Jesus returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. In English translations of the New Testament, the phrase Jesus of Nazareth appears seventeen times whereas the Greek has the form Jesus the Nazarēnos or Jesus the Nazōraios. One plausible view is that Nazōraean is a normal Greek adaptation of a reconstructed, Nazaréth is named twelve times in surviving Greek manuscript versions of the New Testament,10 times as Nazaréth or Nazarét, and twice as Nazará. The former two may retain the feminine endings common in Galilean toponyms, the minor variants, Nazarat and Nazarath are also attested. Nazara might be the earliest form of the name in Greek and it is found in Matthew 4,13 and Luke 4,16. However, the Textus Receptus clearly translates all passages as Nazara leaving little room for debate there, the form Nazara is also found in the earliest non-scriptural reference to the town, a citation by Sextus Julius Africanus dated about 221 CE. The Church Father Origen knows the forms Nazará and Nazarét, later, Eusebius in his Onomasticon also refers to the settlement as Nazara. The nașirutha of the scriptures of the Mandeans refers to craft, not to Nazareth
4.
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
5.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
6.
Golan Heights
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The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan or the Syrian Golan, is a region in the Levant. As a geopolitical region, the Golan Heights is the area captured from Syria and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War and this region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights, as well as the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon. The earliest evidence of habitation dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. According to the Bible, an Amorite Kingdom in Bashan was conquered by Israelites during the reign of King Og, throughout the Old Testament period, the Golan was the focus of a power struggle between the Kings of Israel and the Aramaeans who were based near modern-day Damascus. The Itureans, an Arab or Aramaic people, settled there in the 2nd century BCE, organized Jewish settlement in the region came to an end in 636 CE when it was conquered by Arabs under Umar ibn al-Khattāb. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and was part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it was transferred to French control in 1918, when the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic. Internationally recognized as Syrian territory, the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel since 1967 and it was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War, establishing the Purple Line. On 19 June 1967, the Israeli cabinet voted to return the Golan to Syria in exchange for a peace agreement, although this was rejected after the Khartoum Resolution of 1 September 1967. In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Syria tried but failed to recapture the Golan and this part was incorporated into a demilitarised zone that runs along the ceasefire line and extends eastward. This strip is under the control of UNDOF. Israel states it has a right to retain the Golan, citing the text of UN Resolution 242, however, the international community reject Israeli claims to title to the territory and regards it as sovereign Syrian territory. Historically, Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, later, in 2010, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Syria to abandon its dreams of recovering the Golan Heights. Approximately 10% of Syrian Golan Druze have accepted Israeli citizenship, according to the CIA World Factbook, as of 2010, there are 41 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Arabic names are Jawlān and Djolan, in the Bible, Golan is mentioned as a city of refuge located in Bashan, Deuteronomy 4,43, Joshua 20,8,1 Chronicles 6,71. Nineteenth-century authors interpreted the word Golan as meaning something surrounded, hence a district, the Greek name for the region is Gaulanitis. In the Mishna the name is Gablān similar to Aramaic language names for the region, Gawlāna, Guwlana, Arab cartographers of the Byzantine period referred to the area as jabal, though the region is a plateau. The Muslims took over in 7th century CE, the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia refers to the region as Gaulonitis. The name Golan Heights was not used before the 19th century, the Golan Heights borders Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan
7.
Arab citizens of Israel
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Arab citizens of Israel or Arab population of Israel are Israeli citizens, whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab. The majority of the Arabs in Israel are Muslim but some are Christian or Druze, many identify as Palestinian and commonly self-designate themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel. The traditional vernacular of most Arab citizens, irrespective of religion, is the Palestinian dialect of Arabic, Most Arab citizens of Israel are functionally bilingual, their second language being Modern Hebrew. By religious affiliation, most are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam, There is a significant Arab Christian minority from various denominations as well as the Druze, among other religious communities. According to Israels Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population in 2013 was estimated at 1,658,000, the majority of these identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship. Many have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Negev Bedouins and the Druze tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel. They have the right to apply for citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, how to refer to the Arab citizenry of Israel is a highly politicized issue and there are a number of self-identification labels used by members of this community. According to The New York Times, most prefer now to identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than as Israeli Arabs, the New York Times uses both Palestinian Israelis and Israeli Arabs to refer to the same population. Common practice in academic literature is to identify this community as Palestinian as it is how the majority self-identify. There are, however, individuals from among the Arab citizenry who reject the term Palestinian altogether, a minority of Israels Arab citizens include Israeli in some way in their self-identifying label, the majority identify as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship. The Israeli establishment prefers Israeli Arabs or Arabs in Israel, and also uses the terms the minorities and these labels have been criticized for denying this population a political or national identification, obscuring their Palestinian identity and connection to Palestine. The term Israeli Arabs in particular is viewed as a construct of the Israeli authorities and it is nonetheless used by a significant minority of the Arab population, reflecting its dominance in Israeli social discourse. Other terms used to refer to this population include Palestinian Arabs in Israel, Israeli Palestinian Arabs, and the Arabs inside the Green Line. The latter appellation, among others listed above, are not applied to the East Jerusalem Arab population or the Druze in the Golan Heights, as these territories were occupied by Israel in 1967. In the aftermath of the 1948 war, British Mandate of Palestine was de facto divided into three parts, the State of Israel, the Jordanian-held West Bank, and the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip. Of the estimated 950,000 Arabs that lived in the territory that became Israel before the war, Benny Morris says, Most of Palestines 700,000 refugees fled their homes because of the flail of war. But it is true that there were several dozen sites, including Lydda and Ramla. The other 20%, some 156,000, remained, Arab citizens of Israel today are largely composed of the people who remained and their descendants
8.
Israeli Jews
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Israeli Jews, also known as Jewish Israelis, refers to Israeli citizens or residents who are Jews, and also the descendants of Israeli-Jewish emigrants outside of Israel. Israeli Jews are found mostly in Israel and the Western world, as well as other countries worldwide, Israeli Jews mostly speak Hebrew and most follow at least some religious Jewish practices. Israel, the Jewish state, currently has almost half the worlds Jews, the Jewish population in Israel is composed from all Jewish diaspora communities, including Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Beta Israel, Bene Israel, Karaite Jews, and many other groups. Among the Jewish population, over 25% of the schoolchildren and over 35% of all newborns are of mixed ancestry of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi/Mizrahi descent and increases by 0. 5% each year, over 50% of the Jewish population is of at least a partial Sephardi/Mizrahi descent. Israels Central Bureau of Statistics estimated the Israeli Jewish population was 6,335,000 as of December 2015. An IDI Guttman Study of 2008 shows that a plurality of Israeli Jews identify themselves first as Jews and Israeli second, and that only 39% consider themselves first and foremost Israeli. Jews living in the prior to the establishment of the State of Israel were commonly referred to in English as Palestinian Jews. Jews have long considered The Land of Israel to be their homeland, according to the Hebrew Bible the connection to the Land of Israel began in the covenant of the pieces when the region, which it called the land of Canaan, was promised to Abraham by God. Abraham settled in the region, where his son Isaac and grandson Jacob grew up with, later on, Jacob and his sons went to Egypt. Decades later their descendants were led out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron, given the Tablets of Stone, returned to the land of Canaan and conquered it under the leadership of Joshua. After the period of the judges, in which the Israelites did not have a leadership, the Kingdom of Israel was established. This kingdom was split into two—the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. After the destruction of these kingdoms and the destruction of the first Temple, after about 70 years parts of the Israelites were permitted to return to the region and soon thereafter they built the Second Temple. Later on they established the Hasmonean Kingdom, the region was conquered by the Roman Empire in 63 BC. During the 2nd century CE a series of rebellions against the Roman Empire ended up with the destruction of the second temple, the area was later conquered from the Eastern Roman Empire by the Muslim Caliphate in the 7th century. Throughout the centuries the size of Jewish population in the land fluctuated, before the birth of modern Zionism, by the early 19th century, more than 10,000 Jews were still living in the area that is today modern Israel. Following centuries of Diaspora, the 19th century saw the rise of Zionism, the Jewish Nationalist Movement, a desire to see the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine, and significant immigration. Zionism remained a minority movement until the rise of Nazism in 1933, in the late 19th century large numbers of Jews began moving to the Turkish and later British-controlled region
9.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
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Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
11.
Druze
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The Druze are an esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia who self-identify as unitarians. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of all Mandaeans and Mahra from Druze Mountain, the Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn-Ali, al-Hakim, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Akhenaten. The Epistles of Wisdom is the text of the Druze faith. The Druze follow theophany, and believe in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul, at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind. Although dwarfed by other, larger communities, the Druze community played an important role in shaping the history of the Levant, even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, Druze are not considered Muslims. Fatimid Caliph Ali az-Zahir, whose father al-Hakim is a key figure in the Druze faith, was harsh, causing the death of many Druze in Antioch, Aleppo. Persecution flared up during the rule of the Mamluks and Ottomans, most recently, Druze were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaeda in order to cleanse Syria and neighboring countries of non-Islamic influence. The Druze faith is one of the religious groups in the Levant. They are found primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, with communities in Jordan. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon, the Druze people reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that forty to fifty percent of Druze live in Syria, thirty to forty percent in Lebanon, six to seven percent in Israel, about two percent of the Druze population are also scattered within other countries in the Middle East. Large communities of Druze also live outside the Middle East, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the United States and they use the Arabic language and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the Levant. The number of Druze people worldwide is between 800,000 and one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant, the name Druze is derived from the name of Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazī who was an early preacher. Although the Druze consider ad-Darazī a heretic, the name has been used to identify them, before becoming public, the movement was secretive and held closed meetings in what was known as Sessions of Wisdom. In 1016 ad-Darazi and his followers openly proclaimed their beliefs and called people to them, causing riots in Cairo against the Unitarian movement including Hamza bin Ali. This led to the suspension of the movement for one year, although the Druze religious books describe ad-Darazi as the insolent one and as the calf who is narrow-minded and hasty, the name Druze is still used for identification and for historical reasons. In 1018 ad-Darazi was assassinated for his teachings, some claim that he was executed by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Some authorities see in the name Druze a descriptive epithet, derived from Arabic dāresah, others have speculated that the word comes from the Persian word Darazo or from Shaykh Hussayn ad-Darazī, who was one of the early converts to the faith
12.
Arab Christians
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Arab Christians are Arabs of the Christian faith. Arab Christians, forming Greek Orthodox and Latin Christian communities, are estimated to be 520, 000–703,000 in Syria,221,000 in Jordan,127,000 in Israel and around 50,000 in Palestine. There is also a sizable Arab Christian Orthodox community in Lebanon and marginal communities in Iraq, Turkey, the first Arab tribes to adopt Christianity were likely Nabataeans and Ghassanids. The last king of the Lakhmids, al-Numan III ibn al-Mundhir, today Arab Christians still play important roles in the Arab world, and Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate. Arab Christians are not the only Christian group in the Middle East, with significant non-Arab indigenous Christian communities of Chaldeans, Arameans, Armenians, Arab Christians are Indigenous peoples of Western Asia, with a presence there predating the seventh-century Early Muslim conquests in the Fertile Crescent. There were many Arab tribes which adhered to Christianity beginning with the 1st century, including the Nabateans, Nabateans were possibly among the first Arab tribes to arrive to the Southern Levant in the very late first millennium BC. The Nabataeans initially adopted pagan beliefs, but they became Christians by the time of the Byzantine period around the 4th century, the new Arab invaders, who soon pressed forward into their seats found the remnants of the Nabataeans transformed into peasants. Their lands were divided between the new Qahtanite Arab tribal kingdoms of the Byzantine vassals, the Ghassanids and the Himyarite Kingdom, the tribes of Tayy, Banu Abdul Qays, and Taghlib are also known to have included many Christians in the pre-Islamic period. The southern Arabian city of Najran was a center of Arabian Christianity, made famous by the persecution by one of the kings of Yemen, Dhu Nawas, who was himself an enthusiastic convert to Judaism. The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period of persecution, some modern scholars suggest that Philip the Arab was the first Christian emperor of Rome. By the fourth century, a significant number of Christians occupied the Sinai Peninsula, Mesopotamia, the New Testament has a biblical account of Arab conversion to Christianity recorded in the book of Acts. When Saint Peter preaches to the people of Jerusalem, they ask, And how is it that we hear, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Arab Christians are thus one of the oldest Christian communities, the first mention of Christianity in Arabia occurs in the New Testament as the Apostle Paul refers to his journey in Arabia following his conversion. Later, Eusebius discusses a bishop named Beryllus in the see of Bostra, Christians existed in Arab lands from at least the 3rd century onward. Following the fall of large portions of former Byzantine and Sasanian provinces to the Arab armies, historically, a number of minority Christian sects were persecuted as heretic under Byzantine rule. Those who refused war and refused to convert were deemed to have agreed to pay jizya and it is a common agreement that after the rapid expansion of Islam from the 7th century onward, many Christians chose not to convert to Islam. Many scholars and intellectuals like Edward Said believed Christians in the Arab world have made significant contributions to the Arab civilization since the 7th century AD and still do. Some of the top poets at times were Arab Christians, and many Arab Christians were physicians, writers, government officials
13.
Christianity in Israel
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Christianity is one of the recognized religions in Israel and is practised, as of December 2013, by more than 161,000 Israeli citizens. They include 127,000 Arab Christians, about 25,000 Orthodox Christians from the former Soviet Union, a certain number of Israelis also practice Messianic Judaism—usually considered a syncretist form of Christianity, with estimates of several thousands, but exact numbers of such are not available. About 80% of Christian residents of Israel are Arab Christians, who are bound with neighbouring Lebanese, Syrian. A community of 1,000 Coptic Christians also exists in Israel, being registered as Arab Christians, Christian Arabs are one of the most educated groups in Israel. There are approximately 300 Christians who have converted from Islam according to one 2014 estimate, however, the practice of religion is free, with no restrictions on the practice of other denominations. However, few Christians now live in the region, compared to Muslims, recently a further increase in Christianity came with arrival of many foreign workers and asylum seekers, some of Christian background. As a result, numerous churches have opened in Tel Aviv, as of December 2013, about 161,000 Israeli citizens practiced Christianity, together comprising about 2% of the total population. 60% of Christians in Israel are Melkites, most notably this is the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and to a lesser degree the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East is a province of the Anglican Communion, the seat of the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem is St. Georges Cathedral, Jerusalem. Jewish Christians are not considered bona-fide Jews under Israels Law of Return, the Hebrew Christian movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries consisted of Jews who converted to Christianity as a result of Protestant missionary activity. It was incorporated into the later parallel Messianic Jewish movement in the late 1960s, there are an estimated 10,000 adherents in the State of Israel, both Jews and other non-Arab Israelis, many of whom are expatriates or immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In Jerusalem, there are twelve Messianic congregations, on 23 February 2007, Israel Channel 2 News released a news documentary about the growing number of Messianic Jews in Israel. Hebrew-speakers call Christians as Notzri, which means Nazarene, the word is cognate to the Arabic Nasrani. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the fate of the Christian Palestinians was similar to that of the Muslims, in term of military administration, however, Christian churches generally avoided destruction or defilement during the 1948/1949 Arab-Israeli War. Aware of the attention to the conflict, David Ben-Gurion is said to have expressly forbidden to loot or defile Holy Places. For the same reason, Israeli authorities have a more lenient attitude to the right of return of the Christian refugees. In June 2015, the Church of the Multiplication was significantly damaged by an attack and defaced by Hebrew graffiti. This attack was labelled as terrorism by Israeli officials, Gabriel Naddaf argues that Israel is the only country in which Christian communities have been able to thrive in the Middle East
14.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
15.
Safed
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Safed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of 900 metres, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee, due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters. Due to its climate and scenic views, Safed is a popular holiday resort frequented by Israelis. In 2015 it had a population of 33,358, legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood. According to the Book of Judges, the area where Safed is located was assigned to the Tribe of Naphtali and it has been suggested that Jesus assertion that a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden may have referred to Safed. Safed has been identified with Sepph, a town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus. It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon, there is scarce information about the town of Safed prior to the Crusader conquest in 1099. The city appears in Jewish sources in the late Middle Ages, in the 12th century, Safed was a fortified city in the Crusaders Kingdom of Jerusalem, known by the Crusaders as Saphet. King Fulk built a castle there, which was kept by the Knights Templar from 1168. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the town in 1170, does not mention any Jews as living there, Safed was captured by the Ayyubids led by Saladin in 1188 after one years siege, following the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to Tyre, samuel ben Samson, who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there. In 1227, the Ayyubid emir of Damascus, al-Muazzam Isa, had the fortress of Safed demolished to prevent its potential capture, the Templars thereafter rebuilt the towns fortress. In 1266, during a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in Palestine, Baybars captured Safed in July, unlike the coastal Crusader fortresses, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared Safed from destruction. Instead, he appointed a governor to be in charge of the fortress, Baybars likely preserved Safed because he viewed its fortress to be of high strategic value due to its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses. Moreover, Baybars determined that in the event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, in 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened. Furthermore, he commissioned numerous building works in the town of Safed, including caravanserai, markets, baths, by the end of Baybars reign, Safed had become the site of a prospering town, in addition to its fortress. The city also became the center of Mamlakat Safad, a province in Mamluk Syria whose jurisdiction included the Galilee. According to al-Dimashqi, who died in Safed in 1327, writing around 1300, Baybarsbuilt a round tower, the tower is built in three stories
16.
Acre, Israel
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Acre is a city in the northern coastal plain region of the Northern District, Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. The city occupies an important location, as it sits on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, traditionally linking the waterways and this location helped it become one of the oldest cities in the world, continuously inhabited since the Middle Bronze Age some 4000 years ago. Acre is the holiest city of the Baháí Faith, and as such receives many Bahai pilgrims, in 2015 the population was 47,675. Acre is a city, that includes Jews, Muslims, Christians. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was reelected in 2011, Acres etymology is a matter of controversy, though most likely deriving from the early Canaanite language. According to Biblical tradition, the name is derived from Canaanite Adco, meaning a border, the city was known as Ptolemais during the Hellenistic and Roman-Byzantine periods. During the Crusades it was known as St. John dAcre after the Knights Hospitaller, Acre is therefore counted among the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the region. Egyptian sources seem to be mentioning Acre, starting possibly with execration texts from ca.1800 BCE, the name Aak, which appears on the tribute lists of Thutmose III, may be a reference to Acre. The Amarna letters also mention a place named Akka, as well as the Execration texts, First settlement at the site of Ancient Acre appears to have been in the Early Bronze Age, or about 3000 BC. In the Hebrew Bible, Akko is one of the places from which the Israelites did not drive out the Canaanites and it is later described in the territory of the tribe of Asher and according to Josephus, was ruled by one of Solomons provincial governors. Throughout Israelite rule, it was politically and culturally affiliated with Phoenicia, around 725 BC, Akko joined Sidon and Tyre in a revolt against Shalmaneser V. Greek historians refer to the city as Ake, meaning cure, according to the Greek myth, Heracles found curative herbs here to heal his wounds. Strabo refers to the city as once a rendezvous for the Persians in their expeditions against Egypt, about 165 BC Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucids in several battles in Galilee, and drove them into Ptolemais. About 153 BC Alexander Balas, son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, contesting the Seleucid crown with Demetrius, seized the city, which opened its gates to him. Demetrius offered many bribes to the Maccabees to obtain Jewish support against his rival, including the revenues of Ptolemais for the benefit of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jonathan Apphus threw in his lot with Alexander and in 150 BC he was received by him with great honour in Ptolemais. Some years later, however, Tryphon, an officer of the Seleucid Empire, the city was captured by Alexander Jannaeus, Cleopatra and Tigranes the Great. Here Herod the Great built a gymnasium, the Christian Acts of the Apostles reports that Luke the Evangelist, Paul the Apostle and their companions spent a day in Ptolemais with the Christian brethren there. A Roman colonia was established at the city, Colonia Claudii Cæsaris, the Romans enlarged the port and the city, that flourished for six centuries even as a Christian center
17.
Afula
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Afula is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the Capital of the Valley due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. In 2015 the city had a population of 44,930, Afula is mentioned first around 19th century BC as Ofel in the Execration texts. During the Ottoman era, in the 18th century, there was a small Arab village el-Afuleh or Affule, the modern name may be derived from the name of this village, possibly originating in the Canaanite-Hebrew root ofel, or the Arab word for ruptured. Afula is possibly the place Ophlah, mentioned in the lists of Thothmes III, conder suggested that Afula was identical with Kirjath Ophlathah, a place inhabited by Samaritans in the 7th century. Within the town of Afula, on the ancient mound or tell known as Tel Afula, remains of a fortress from the Crusader, a fortified Crusader tower,19 meters square, stands in the centre of Afulah. The lower four courses are made of boulders, while the top remaining layer is made of reused Roman sarcophagi. The wall is a total of 5,5 meters tall, pottery remains indicate that it was occupied in the twelfth and thirteenth century. For older finds from Tel Afula see the Archaeology paragraph, in 1321, Afula was mentioned under the name of Afel by Marino Sanuto. A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleons invasion of 1799 showed this place, in 1816, James Silk Buckingham passed by and described Affouli as being built on rising ground, and containing only a few dwellings. He noted several other settlements in sight, all populated by Muslims. In 1838, Edward Robinson described both Afuleh and the adjacent El Fuleh as deserted, thomson blamed their desertion on the bedouin. In 1875 Victor Guérin described Afula as a village on a hill overlooking a little plain. The houses were built of adobe and various other materials, around the well, which Guérin thought was probably ancient, he noticed several tubs of broken sarcophagi serving as troughs. In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described El Afuleh as a adobe village in the plain. Gottlieb Schumacher, as part of surveying for the construction of the Jezreel Valley railway, north of the village was a grain stop, belonging to the Sursocks. In 1909 or 1910, Yehoshua Hankin completed his first major purchase in the Jezreel Valley and he bought some 10,000 dunams of land in Al-Fuleh, which became the home of two moshav settlements, Merhavia and Tel Adashim. According to the British Mandates 1922 census of Palestine, Affuleh had 563 inhabitants,471 Muslims,62 Christians,28 Jews and 2 Bahai,61 of the Christians were Orthodox, while one was Melkite. In 1925 the American Zionist Commonwealth completed a purchase of the Afula valley from the Sursuk family of Beirut, a quarter of the one hundred Arab families who had lived in the area accepted compensation for their land and left voluntarily, the remainder were evicted
18.
Beit She'an
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It has also played an important role in modern times, acting as the regional center of the villages in the Beit Shean Valley. The ancient city ruins are now protected within a national park, a large cemetery on the northern Mound was in use from the Bronze Age to Byzantine times. Canaanite graves dating from 2000 to 1600 BCE were discovered there in 1926, after the Egyptian conquest of Beit Shean by pharaoh Thutmose III in the 15th century BCE, the small town on the summit of the Mound became the center of the Egyptian administration of the region. The Egyptian newcomers changed the organization of the town and left a great deal of material culture behind, artifacts of potential cultic significance were found around the temple. Based on a found in the temple, inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs. University Museums most important finds near the temple is the Lion and Dog stela, the Hebrew University excavations determined that this temple was built on the site of an earlier one. During the three hundred years of Egyptian rule, the population of Beit She’an appears to have been primarily Egyptian administrative officials, the town was completely rebuilt, following a new layout, during the 19th dynasty. The University Museum excavations uncovered two important stelae from the period of Seti I and a monument of Rameses II, Pottery was produced locally, but some was made to mimic Egyptian forms. Other Canaanite goods existed alongside Egyptian imports, or locally made Egyptian-style objects, the 20th dynasty saw the construction of large administrative buildings in Beit Shean, including Building 1500, a small palace for the Egyptian governor. During the 20th dynasty, invasions of the Sea Peoples upset Egypts control over the Eastern Mediterranean, though the exact circumstances are unclear, the entire site of Beit Shean was destroyed by fire around 1150 BCE. The Egyptians did not attempt to rebuild their administrative center and finally lost control of the region, an Iron Age I Canaanite city was constructed on the site of the Egyptian center shortly after its destruction. Around 1100 BC, Canaanite Beit Shean was conquered by the Philistines, during a subsequent battle against the Jewish King Saul at nearby Mount Gilboa in 1004 BC, the Philistines prevailed. 1 Samuel 31,10 states that the victorious Philistines hung the body of King Saul on the walls of Beit Shean, portions of these walls were excavated on the Mound recently. The Assyrian conquest of northern Israel under Tiglath-Pileser III brought about the destruction of Beit Shean by fire, minimal reoccupation occurred until the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic period saw the reoccupation of the site of Beit Shean under the new name Scythopolis, little is known about the Hellenistic city, but during the 3rd century BCE a large temple was constructed on the Tell. It is unknown which deity was worshipped there, but the continued to be used during Roman times. Graves dating from the Hellenistic period are simple, singular rock-cut tombs, in 198 BCE the Seleucids finally conquered the region. The town played a role after the Hasmonean-Maccabeean Revolt, Josephus records that the Jewish High Priest Jonathan was killed there by Demetrius II Nicator, the city was destroyed by fire at the end of the 2nd century BCE
19.
Karmiel
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Karmiel is a city in northern Israel. Established in 1964 as a development town, Karmiel is located in the Beit HaKerem Valley which divides upper and lower Galilee, the city is located south of the Acre-Safed road,32 kilometres from Safed and 20 km from Maalot-Tarshiha and 20 km from Acre. In 2015 Karmiel had a population of 44,858, in 1956, about 1,275 acres of land in the Israeli Arab villages of Deir al-Asad, Biina and Nahf were declared closed areas by Israeli authorities. This area, near the road between Acre and Safed, had been an important marble quarrying site. In 1961, the Israeli authorities expropriated the land to build Karmiel, according to the Haredi newspaper Shearim, about 10 square kilometres were confiscated by a court order on 4 March 1963, at the request of the Israel Development Authority. However, the land was rocky, uninhabited and unfit for agriculture, in February 1965,400 protesters marched from Tel Aviv to protest against discrimination of a group of our citizens. Representatives went to a police station, informing the police that they were staying in the area without permission. Eventually the perceived leaders were arrested and tried before a military tribunal, Karmiel was one of the first cities in Israel to be established according to an urban master plan. It was built as part of the Central Galilee Development Project, work began in 1963, and the official inauguration ceremony took place in October 1964. The first 16 families moved in at that time, a tender for the construction of Karmiels main roads was issued in 1963, and Mekorot built a water pipe network connecting Karmiel, Rameh, Shaab and other nearby villages. In 1981, Karmiel was awarded the Beautiful Israel prize and the Kaplan Prize for Management, Karmiel achieved city status on November 20,1986. The first mayor was Baruch Venger, followed by Adi Eldar, some 18,000 new immigrants settled in Karmiel between 1990 and 2002. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah fired 180 Katyusha rockets into Karmiel and the villages, leading to casualties and damage to buildings, roads. Karmiel is located on the Acre–Safed road, on the edge of the Lower Galilee. It lies in Emek Beit HaKerem and its elevation is 330 m, the Hilazon Stream passes slightly to the south of Karmiel. Its tributaries, the Shezor and Shagor Streams pass through Karmiel on the east and north, Karmiel sits on the Shagor mountain range, which stretches from Mount Hazon in the east to Mount Gilon in the west. Western Karmiel was built on the Karmi and Makosh mountains, work on a new railway line linking Haifa and Karmiel began in 2011. As of 2007, the city encompasses an area of about 24,000 dunams with a population of about 50,000 residents approximately 40% of whom are immigrants from 75 countries, the city also receives significant internal migration of Haredi families
20.
Kiryat Shmona
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Kiryat Shmona is a city located in the Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border. The city was named after the eight people, including Joseph Trumpeldor, in 2015 it had a population of 23,076, the majority of whom are Jews, particularly of Moroccan extraction. Located near the Israel-Lebanon border, Kiryat Shmona is Israels northernmost city, initially the empty houses of Khalisa were used as a transit camp for Jewish immigrants and refugees who worked mainly in farming. It was called Kiryat Yosef after Yosef Trumpeldor, the first residents were fourteen Yemenites who arrived on July 18,1949 and were followed by more Yemenites a month later. The name was changed to Kiryat Shmona in June 1950, recalling eight members of nearby Tel Hai who were killed in 1920 during the Arab revolt against the French, by July 1951, the population had grown to nearly 4,000. Relationships with nearby kibbutzim were often strained, in 1953, Kiryat Shmona become a development town. Kiryat Shmonas location close to the Lebanon makes it a target for rocket fire cross-border attacks. On April 11,1974, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command and they killed eighteen residents of an apartment building, including many children, before being killed in an exchange of fire at the complex, which became known as the Kiryat Shmona massacre. The citizens of the town had suffered almost daily attack from the mid-1970s until 2000, during the 2006 Lebanon War, the city was again the target of Hezbollah Katyusha rocket attacks. Most of the residents left the area during the war. During the war, a total of 1,012 Katyusha rockets hit Kiryat Shmona, Kiryat Shmona is located in the Finger of the Galilee next to the Hula Valley, about 5 kilometres south and 2 km east of the Israel–Lebanon border. Its elevation is about 150 metres above sea level, the city is located above the Dead Sea Transform fault, and as a result, is one of the cities in Israel most at risk to earthquakes. According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was 97. 9% Jewish and other non-Arabs, in 2001 there were 121 immigrant settlers. The Jewish population of the town is largely of Sephardi and Mizrahi heritage, according to CBS, in 2001 there were 10,800 males and 10,700 females. The population growth rate in 2001 was 1. 8%, according to CBS, as of 2000, in the city there were 8,303 salaried workers and 467 are self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a worker in the city is 4,306 shekels. Salaried males have a monthly wage of 5,443 shekels versus 3,065 shekels for females. The mean income for the self-employed is 6,769, there are 564 people who receive unemployment benefits and 1,655 people who receive an income guarantee
21.
Ma'alot-Tarshiha
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Maalot-Tarshiha is a mixed city in the North District in Israel, some 20 kilometres east of Nahariya, about 600 metres above sea level. The city was established in 1963 through a merger of the Arab town of Tarshiha. In 2015 the city has a population of 21,227, excavations of a 4th-century burial cave in the village unearthed a cross and a piece of glass engraved with a menorah. Crusader sources from the 12th and 13th century refer to Tarshiha as Terschia, Torsia, the King had initiated the settlement of Crusader people in nearby Miilya, and from there settlement spread out to Tarshiha. In 1160, Torsia and several surrounding villages were transferred to a Crusader named Iohanni de Caypha, by 1217, the village was probably inhabited by Crusader people. In 1220 Joscelin III´s daughter Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband Otto von Botenlauben, Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including Tersyha, in 1266, Tarshiha was raided by Crusader troops. e. Shiha Jamaluddin rushed to the battlefield to fight the Crusaders, incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with the rest of Palestine, the village of Tarshiha was raided by the Lebanese feudal chief, Mansur ibn Furaykh in 1573. The daftar of 1596 show the village to be under the administration of the nahiya of Akka, with a population of 107 households and 3 bachelors, the inhabitants paid taxes on occasional revenues, bees and goats. The village was taxed for a press, used either of olives or for grapes. Mariti visited the village in 1761, and wrote that it abounds with water, which adds greatly to the fertility of its plants, its fruit-trees. Victor Guérin, who visited in 1875, found that Tarshiha consists of four quarters, there are 2,000 Moslems, who have their mosques. The Christians occupy their own quarters, with the exception of a few families they are all United Greeks, in 1945 the population of Tarshiha was 3,840,3140 Muslims and 690 Christians. The total population of Tarshiha combined with Al-Kabri was 5,360 Arabs, with 47,428 dunams of land. Of this, a total of 743 dunums of land in the two places was used for citrus and bananas,5,301 were plantation and irrigable land,14,123 for cereals, while 252 dunams were built-up land. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Tarshiha served as the headquarters of Fawzi al-Qawuqji, Tarshiha was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the village was captured by the Israel Defense Forces in Operation Hiram, the village was bombed by three Israeli planes on the evening of 28 October. This was followed by an artillery barrage and a further air raid in the morning with the village defenders. The village was captured by the Israel Defense Forces on October 29, a UN observer reported that on 1 November 1948 the Palestinian villages around Tarshiha were deserted and extensively looted by Israeli forces
22.
Migdal HaEmek
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Migdal HaEmek is a city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 24,959, there is a tower to the north-east, above the town. Prior to 1953, the area nearest to where Migdal HaEmek was founded was an Arab village named al-Mujaydil and it had existed there since as early as 1596 during the Ottoman era. Migdal HaEmek was started in 1953 as a maabara for Jews from Arab countries, the original site of the maabara was west of the current site, at Shimron hill. The chief rabbi of the city is Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, every year volunteers from Habonim Dror come to Migdal HaEmek to volunteer in the community. Typically these roles include members of Kvutsat Yovel, and involve teaching in primary and secondary schools, according to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was all Jewish and other non-Arabs. There were 11,900 males and 12,200 females, more recently the Jewish Agency estimated Migdal HaEmeks population at 28,000, almost half foreign-born, from Russia, the Caucasus, Ethiopia, Morocco, Iraq and South America. According to CBS, there were 22 schools and 5,777 students in the city in 2001,13 elementary schools,47. 8% of 12th grade students qualified for a matriculation certificate in 2001. Many Israeli and global high tech companies are located in three industrial parks, among the companies, Tower Semiconductor, RSL Electronics, KLA-Tencor, CI Systems, Nilit, Vishay Intertechnology and Enzymotec
23.
Nahariya
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Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 54,305, Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Gaaton, which bisects it. The ruins of a 3, 400-year-old Bronze Age citadel were found in the city of Nahariya near the beach on Balfour Street. The citadel was a center serving the mariners who sailed along the Mediterranean coast. There are evidence of commercial and cultural relations with Cyprus and the rest of the Mediterranean region, the fortress was destroyed four times by conflagration and rebuilt each time. A church from the Byzantine period, dedicated to St. Lazarus, was excavated in the 1970s and it was destroyed by fire, probably at the time of the Persian invasion in 614. The company acquired an area of land by purchase from the Arab landowner family Toueini, after ameliorisation and parcelling the plots have been offered to new German Jewish immigrants who had escaped from Nazi persecution. The first two families settled in Nahariya on February 10,1935, which is now considered the official founding date of Nahariya. During the British Mandate of Palestine, many British officers coming from Khartoum stopped in Nahariya, Nahariya became a development town in the 1950s after the nearby maabara was integrated. The town hence become a home to many Jewish refugees from North Africa, during the 1990s, the city absorbed a significant number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Nahariya experienced a construction boom, due to its geographic location,9. The most notable of those were the 1974 attack and the 1979 Nahariya attack, during the 2006 Lebanon War in July–August 2006, Nahariya sustained a barrage of several hundreds of Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. As a result, the city suffered multiple civilian casualties and 5 fatalities, significant damage was also inflicted on property and physical infrastructure. Nahariyas economy suffered a blow, as two-thirds of the citys population had to evacuate. Nahariya is home to some of Israels leading entrepreneurs, the Strauss, Soglowek, according to the CBS, as of 2000 there were 17,916 salaried workers in the city and 1,283 were self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a worker in the city was ILS5,736. Salaried men have a monthly wage of ILS7,353 versus ILS3,950 for women. The mean income for the self-employed was 9,078, Highway 4, the coastal highway, is the main north–south road in the city
24.
Nazareth Illit
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Nazareth Illit is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Founded in 1957, it was planned as a Jewish town overlooking the Arab city of Nazareth, in 2015 it had a population of 40,198. The establishment of Nazareth Illit was conceived in the early 1950s when development towns such as Karmiel and Beit Shean were founded. A parcel of 1,200 dunams of land, about half within the boundaries of Nazareth, was expropriated in 1954. Protests at this action reached the Supreme Court of Israel, which in 1955 accepted the word that the sole purpose of the land was to erect government facilities. However, it had already decided that only 109 dunams would be used for that purpose. The first dwellings were completed in September 1956 and the first residents moved in later that year. According to historian Geremy Forman, the director of the IDF Planning Department, Yuval Neeman, stated that the town would safeguard the Jewish character of the Galilee as a whole, demonstrate state sovereignty to the Arab population more than any other settlement operation. Forman wrote that Upper Nazareth was meant to overpower Nazareth numerically, economically, initially the settlement was referred to as the Jewish neighborhood of Nazareth, then as Kiryat Natzeret. The name Nazareth Illit was adopted in 1958, in 1961, Nazareth Illit was recognized as a municipal local council. According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic and religious makeup of the city was 91. 0% Jewish, in the 1990s, Upper Nazareth was the fastest developing city in the country with a growth rate of nearly 70 percent. Newcomers included new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and South America, in 2012, Arabs accounted for 17 percent of the citys 40,000 residents. The Strauss-Elite chocolate factory in the industrial zone employs over 600 workers. In 2010, the city had 12 elementary schools and two high schools, a new high school for religious boys opened that year and the Yeshivat Hesder of Maalot, which combines army service with Torah study, planned to open a branch there. Nazareth Illit also has an engineering college. Nazareth Illits municipality cares for maintaining the citys green grounds and for the forestry of the city, located by the city, is the Churchill Forest. The forest, which lies on the downslope between Nazareth and Jezreel Valley, provides observation spots on the valley view, Hapoel Nazareth Illit is the citys major football club. Having been promoted to the top division for the first time in 2003, the club was relegated in 2006 to Liga Leumit, the second tier
25.
Sakhnin
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Sakhnin is an Arab city in Israels Northern District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about 23 kilometres east of Acre, Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. In 2015 its population was 29,316, mostly Muslim with a sizable Christian minority, Sakhnin is home to the largest population of Sufi Muslims within Israel, with approximately 80 members. Sakhnin is built over three hills and is located in a surrounded by mountains, the highest one being 602 meters high. Its rural landscape is almost entirely covered by olive and fig groves as well as oregano, settlement at Sakhnin dates back 3,500 years to its first mention in 1479 BCE by Thutmose II, whose ancient Egyptian records mention it as a centre for production of indigo dye. Sargon II also makes mention of it as Suginin, Sakhnin is situated on an ancient site, where remains from columns and cisterns have been found. It was mentioned as Sogane, a town fortified in 66, a cistern, excavated near the mosque in the old city centre, revealed pottery fragments dating from the 1st to the 5th century CE. In the Crusader era, it was known as Zecanin, in 1174 it was one of the casales given to Phillipe le Rous. In 1236 descendants of Phillipe le Rous confirmed the sale of the fief of Saknin, in 1596, Sakhnin appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Akka of the Liwa of Safad. It had a population of 66 households and 8 bachelors, all Muslim and it paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, cotton, and a water mill. In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described Sakhnin as follows, A large village of stone and mud, amid fine olive-groves, the water supply is from a large pool about half a mile to the south-east. The inhabitants are Moslems and Christians, in a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Kabul had a population of 1,575,1,367 Muslims and 208 Christians,87 Orthodox and 121 Greek Catholic. The population increased in the 1931 census to a total of 1,891,1688 Muslims,202 Christians, by 1945, Sakhnin had 2,600 inhabitants,2310 Muslims and 290 Christians. The total jurisdiction of the village was 70,192 dunams of land,3,622 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land,29,366 dunams for cereals, while 169 dunams were built-up land. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Sakhnin surrendered to Israeli forces on July 18,1948, during Operation Dekel and it finally fell without battle during Operation Hiram, 29–31 October 1948. Many of the inhabitants fled north but some stayed and were not expelled by the Israeli soldiers, the town remained under Martial Law until 1966. And in 1976 three more civilians were killed during clashes with the police, and in Jerusalem and the Aqsa Intifada in 2000 two men were killed. In 2003, the football club, Bnei Sakhnin, became one of the first Arab teams to play in the Israeli Premier League
26.
Shefa-'Amr
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Shefa-Amr, also Shfaram is an Arab city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 40,017, with a Sunni Muslim majority alongside large Christian, palmer writes that the name meant, The margin or edge of Amr. Locally and erroneously supposed to mean the healing of Amer, walls, installations and pottery sherds from the Early Bronze Age IB and the Middle Bronze Age IIB Iron, Hellenistic and Roman periods have been excavated at Shefa-Amr. Settlement has existed there without interruption since the Roman period, when it was one of the mentioned in the Talmud as containing the seat of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Decorated burial caves were documented by the Survey of Western Palestine in the nineteenth century. They found the caves to be Christian tombs from the Byzantine era, archeological excavations of a cave and quarries revealed that they were used in the Roman and Byzantine eras. Shefa-Amr contains Byzantine remains, including of a church and tombs, a salvage dig was conducted in the southern quarter of the old city exposing remains from five phases in the Late Byzantine and early Umayyad periods. Also discovered were glass and pottery vessels, under the Crusaders the place was known as Safran, Sapharanum, Castrum Zafetanum, Saphar castrum or Cafram. The Crusader built a fortress, used by the Knights Templar, at the foot of the castle was a fortified settlement with a church, inhabited either by local Christians or Crusaders. The village, then called Shafar Am, was used by Saladin between 1190–91 and 1193-94 as a base for attacks on Acre. By 1229, the place was back in Crusader hands, and it was confirmed as such by Sultan Baybars in the treaty of 1271. Italian monk Riccoldo da Monte di Croce visited the village in 1287-88 and it apparently was under Mamluk control by 1291, as it was mentioned in that year when sultan al-Ashraf Khalil allocated the towns income to a charitable organization in Cairo. In the early decades of that there had been a very small number of Jews mentioned. A firman dated to 1573 mentioned that Shefa-Amr was among a group of villages in the nahiya of Akka which had rebelled against the Ottoman administration, by 1577, the village had accumulated an arsenal of 200 muskets. In the 1596 daftar, Shefa-Amr was part of the nahiya of Akka with a population of 83 households, the taxable produce comprised occasional revenues and goats and beehives. Its inhabitants also paid for the use or ownership of an oil press. It was not until the 18th century that the rose to prominence. At the beginning of the century the village was under control of Shaykh Ali Zaydani and it is also known that there was a castle in the village at least as early as 1740
27.
Tiberias
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Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Established around 20 CE, it was named in honour of the 2nd Emperor of the Roman Empire Tiberius, in 2015 it had a population of 42,610. In the 2nd–10th centuries, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee and the political and religious hub of the Jews of Israel. Its immediate neighbour to the south, Hammat Tiberias, which is now part of modern Tiberias, has known for its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments. Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in the Galilee, the city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs, Hammat Tiberias. Tiberias was at first a pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual. The Jewish oral tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village of Rakkath or Rakkat, in Talmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name. Conversely, in The Antiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, todays Hammat Tiberias and this name also appears in The Wars of the Jews. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis. The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias, however, the Jewish population continued to call it Yam Ha-Kineret, its traditional name. The city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of 10 until 44 CE when a Roman procurator was set over the city after the death of Herod Agrippa I. Tiberias is mentioned in John 6,23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking Jesus after the feeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back to Capernaum on the north-western part of the sea. Under the Roman Empire, the city was known by its Greek name Τιβεριάς, in 61 CE Herod Agrippa II annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was Caesarea Philippi. It became a city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, with Judea subdued. It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in the early Byzantine period, when Johanan bar Nappaha settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land. The Jerusalem Talmud would follow being compiled by Rabbi Jochanan between 230–270 CE, Tiberias 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population. In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning, in 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in the battle of Nineveh
28.
Yokneam Illit
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Yokneam Illit, also Yoqneam Illit and Jokneam Illit, is a city in northern Israel. It is located in a region of the lower Galilee at the base of the Carmel Mountains. Yokneam is known as Israels Startup Village because its high-tech hub is surrounded by forest, Yokneam Illit was founded in 1950 and became a local authority in 1967, and a city in 2007. The city is located alongside the major highways – Highway 70. In 2015 it had a population of 21,383 and it now has over 100 high-tech companies and exports of approximately 5 billion US dollars annually. The policy of the municipality is to build low-density, spacious homes to preserve the landscape, although real estate prices are low relative to the Tel-Aviv area, its high rate of growth in recent years has pushed prices up faster than in similar sized cities. Yokneam appears in the list of 119 conquered cities by Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III after the victory in the battle of Megiddo, Yokneam or Jokneam is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a city of Levites within the territory of the Israelite tribe of Zebulun. The Crusaders called Yokneam Cain Mons, or Mountain of Cain in keeping with the tradition that Cain, Yokneam was populated throughout the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman/Byzantine, Arab, Crusaders, Mameluk, and Ottoman periods. Yokneam was the site of a Palestinian Arab village named Qira, the Yokneam Moshava was established in 1935. In July 1950, a tent camp was set up to absorb 250 new immigrant families, by the start of 1952, another 400 families were housed in the tent camp. Toward the end of 1951, the first 285 families moved from the tent camp to permanent housing on the hill above the Yokneam Moshava. In 1952, Yokneam was considered unusual in that it had a school for all regardless of whether they were religious or secular. In 1964, Yokneam of 4,300 residents, with 160 of the living in the moshava. In 1967, Yokneam was split into two local councils, in the 1980s there were two factories in Yokneam, employing 90% of its residents. One collapsed and unemployment soared creating a situation for residents. In the 1990s, Yokneam absorbed a large wave of immigrants from Ethiopia, during that time, Yokneams industrial parks became a magnet for high-tech firms. Yokneam Illit was formally declared a city in 2006, in 2009, Yokneam was linked to Highway 6 and also received recognition as Israels first Green City in the Cleantech competition. These two events significantly boosted Yokneams attraction as a center for companies involved in medical, cleantech, in 2011, some 16,000 workers entered the industrial parks every day
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Abu Snan
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Abu Snan is an Arab local council in the Galilee region of northern Israel, with an area of 4,750 dunams. It achieved recognition as an independent local council in 1964 and it is a religiously mixed town, with a Muslim majority and sizable Druze and Christian minorities. Abu Snan is an ancient village site, where old dressed stones have been reused in modern houses, graves, oil or vine -presses, and cisterns have been found cut in rock. In about 1250 Abu Snan is noted as a casale of the Teutonic Knights, no Crusader remains have yet been identified in the village. It had a population of 102 households and 3 bachelors, all Muslims, a map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleons invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as Abou Senan. When French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in 1875, he estimated the population of Abu Snan to be 400, of whom 260 were Druzes and 140 Greek Orthodox Christians. Guérin also wrote that Abu Senan has succeeded an ancient town, as is proved by cisterns cut in rock, fragments from an older building is used in a chapel for St. George. The population consisted of 150 Christians and 100 Muslims, in the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Abu Snan had a total population of 518. Of these,43 were Muslim,228 Druzes and 247 Christians, of Abu Snans 247 Christians,196 were Orthodox,44 Roman Catholics,4 Melkites and 3 Maronites. In the 1931 census it had increased to a population of 605, of these,20 were Muslim,274 Christians, and 311 Druzes. In 1945 the population of Abu Snan was 820,30 Muslims,380 Christians and 410 other Arabs,2,172 dunams were plantations and irrigable land,7,933 used for cereals, while 69 dunams were built-up land. Abu Snan had a population of 13,000,7,000 of whom are Muslim,4,000 Druze, according to Israels Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a low ranking on the countrys socioeconomic index. Only 63. 6% of students are entitled to a certificate after Grade 12. The average salary that year was NIS3,629 per month, Arab localities in Israel Druze in Israel Welcome To Abu Sinan Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3, IAA, Wikimedia commons
30.
Arraba, Israel
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Arraba, also known as Arrabat al-Battuf, is the fourth largest local council and largest Arab local council in Israel. It is located in the Lower Galilee in the Northern District, within the Beit Netofa Valley to the north of Nazareth and adjacent to Sakhnin, Arraba attained local council status in 1965. In 2015 its population was 24,072, the symbol of the local council is an onion, a watermelon and a cantaloupe which symbolize the crops for which Arraba is famous. Throughout history Arraba was mostly an agricultural village depending mainly on the al-Batuf Plain to grow crops, however, currently the dependence on agriculture is declining rapidly due to the rise in population, urbanization and a subsequently more modern lifestyle. Arraba is associated with the Jewish village called Arab, known in Greek as Garaba, mentioned in the Mishnah, in the works of Josephus, it is often mentioned by its Greek corruption, Gabara. The famous Jewish Rabbi and scholar, Yohanan ben Zakkai, is said to have lived there eighteen years, during the Jewish war with Rome, Vespasian sacked the city, killing those of its Jewish citizens who had not already fled. In the 5th or 6th century CE there were Christians living here, as witnessed by a church whose mosaic floor, in the Crusader era, it was known as Arabiam. In 1174 it was one of the given to Phillipe le Rous. In 1236 descendants of Phillipe le Rous confirmed the sale of the fief of Arraba, in 1250 it was one of the casales belonging to the Teutonic knights, a Crusader order. In the 13th century Arrabah is mentioned by Syria geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his famous work Mujam al-Buldān, as a place in the province of Acca. The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine and it had a population of 125 Muslim households and 2 Muslim bachelors, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops or fruit trees, cotton, and goats or beehives. At some point in the century the Zayadina, an Arab Muslim tribe. Its sheikh later acquired control of the town and its district after wresting control of the area from the Druze sheikh of Sallama, Arraba became home to Zahir al-Umar, a later sheikh of the Zayadina tribe. According to local legend, he sought refuge there after killing a Turkish soldier. He won the support of the sheikh, Muhammad Nasser, by helping him settle a score with a neighboring village. A building said to be the home of Zahir is still standing, french explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in the 1870s, and found it to have 900 Muslim inhabitants and 100 Greek-Orthodox Christians. Water is obtained from a large birkeh and cisterns and this was the place where Dhaher el Amr´s family was founded, and was long occupied by them. At the time of the 1931 census, Arraba had 253 occupied houses, in 1945 the population was 1,800,1,740 Muslims and 60 Christians, with 30,852 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey
31.
Basmat Tab'un
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Basmat Tabun is a Bedouin town in the Northern District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 7,507, Basmat Tabun was declared a local council in 1965. In May 2011, the Israeli government approved a plan with a budget of NIS350 million for developing Bedouin communities in the North. The Ein Bustan Waldorf school in Hilf, Basmat Tabun, is noteworthy for its multi-lingual, multi-cultural, the Arab students are from the surrounding villages and the Jewish students are from nearby Kiryat Tivon. Ruan Zubidate is Israels top female Arab tennis player and she represents Israel at tennis matches around the world. Arab localities in Israel Bedouin In Israel Welcome To Tabun Survey of Western Palestine Map 5, IAA, Wikimedia commons
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Beit Jann
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Beit Jann is a Druze village on Mount Meron in northern Israel. At 940 meters above sea level, Beit Jann is one of the highest inhabited locations in the country, in 2015 it had a population of 11,426. Beit Jann is an ancient village site at the top of a hill, old stones have been reused in village homes, and cisterns and tombs carved into rock have also been found. In the Crusader era it was known as Beitegen, in 1249, John Aleman transferred land, including the Casales of Beit Jann, Sajur, Majd al-Krum and Nahf to the Teutonic Knights. According to local legend, Druze families in the area lived in scattered colonies in the hills near sources of water until the 13th or 14th century, two hunters looking for hyraxes stumbled upon a cave where they found an ancient cistern filled with water. Concluding that this was a place for permanent settlement, several families settled on the site of what would become Beit Jann. In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine and it had a population of 102 households and 5 bachelors, all Muslims. They paid taxes on silk spinning, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives, in August 1754, the missionary Stephan Schulz visited the village. He noted that the inhabitants produced water-skins, and described the grapes of the region as particularly large, the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson described Beit Jann as a large well-built village in 1852, with houses made of limestone. There were 260 males, all Druze, in the village, in 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, which he called Beit Djenn. He estimated it had two hundred people, all Druze and he further noted that A few years ago it was much larger, as is indicated by the abandoned houses which are beginning to fall into ruins. I am told that their occupants have fled to the Hauran to escape conscription, the flanks of the hill on which the village stands are covered with vines which creep along the ground, their grapes of a prodigious size. In 1881 the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Jenn as a village built of stone, with 300 Muslims and 100 Druze, with extensive gardens. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Jan had a population of 902,6 Muslims,1 Christian and 895 Druze, the only Christian was an Anglican. At the time of the 1931 census, Beit Jann had 229 occupied houses and a population of 1100 Druze and 1 Muslim. In 1945 the population of Beit Jann together with Ein al-Asad was 1,640, all classified as others,2,530 dunams were plantations and irrigable land,7,406 used for cereals, while 67 dunams were built-up land. In July 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Beit Jann was hit by Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah, illegal logging in the vicinity Beit Jann has led to conflicts with park officials and rangers. Beit Jann has a climate, even in summer, and offers panoramic views that stretch as far as the Sea of Galilee
33.
Bu'eine Nujeidat
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Bueine Nujeidat is an Arab local council in the Northern District of Israel. Made up of two villages, Bueine and Nujeidat, they merged in 1987 and were recognized as one local council in 1996, in 2015 its population was 9,114, the majority of which is Muslim. Bueine is a located on an ancient site. A small jug from the Iron Age, and potsherds from the Roman, a possible Roman or Byzantine grave is also located here. Potsherds from the early Islamic and Mamluk period have also been found, in 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as al-Buayna, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad. The population was 38 households and 6 bachelors, all Muslim and they paid a fixed tax- rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, fruit trees and cotton, in addition to occasional revenues, and goats and beehives, a total of 2420 Akçe. A map from Napoleons invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed Bueine, in 1875, when Victor Guérin visited, the village had at most 150 inhabitants. Guérin further noted that below the village, on the north-east side, within it is covered with a thick cement, and vaulted over with cut stones. The water formerly flowed into it through a conduit now choked, the mosque of the village is an ancient church, a new door having been made in the north side. The slopes of the hill were covered with houses, built in terraces. Rude characters were found traced on the rocks about 600 paces to the east of the village, in 1881 the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described El Baineh as, a village built on the hillside, containing 200 Moslem inhabitants. It possesses a spring, and there are olive-groves in the plain to the north, in 1945 the population of Bueina was 540, all Arabs, while the total land area was 9,214 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,782 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land,13,223 for cereals, Bueine was captured by the Israeli army during the second part of Operation Dekel, 15–18 July 1948. It remained under Martial Law until 1966, Arab localities in Israel Welcome To Bueina Welcome To Nujeidat Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6, IAA, Wikimedia commons
34.
Buq'ata
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Buqata is a Druze town in the northern section of the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. Buqata covers an area of 7,000 dunams between two mountains in the Golan Heights, Mount Hermonit and Mount Varda, located 1,070 metres above sea level, it had a population of 6,329 in 2015. Since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law, Buqata is under Israeli civil law, for more about the status and position of the Golan Heights Druze community see here. Buqata is one of the four remaining Syrian-Druze communities on the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, the others being Majdal Shams, Ein Qiniyye and Masade. Buqata and Masade are on the Golan side of the boundary, characterised by volcanic rock, while Majdal Shams and Ein Qiniyye are on the Hermon side. Buqata was founded in the 1880s by families from the town of Majdal Shams. It was destroyed in 1888 during a series of feuds between rival villages in the area, and again in 1925, during the Great Syrian Revolt against the French mandatory rule and it became part of independent Syria in 1946. In the course of the Six-Day War in 1967, the town was captured by Israel, Buqata achieved Israeli local council status in 1982. According to data compiled by Israels Central Bureau of Statistics in 2001, in 2000,72. 5% of Grade 12 students graduated with a Bagrut matriculation certificate. The inhabitants of Buqata have permanent residency in Israel and receive welfare benefits from Israel. The local economy is agricultural, with apples and grapes being the main crops. In 2013, Buqata harvested 55,000 tons of apples and this arrangement still worked in 2013, but is under threat due to the civil war in Syria
35.
Daburiyya
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Daburiyya, also Deburieh or Dabburieh, is an Arab village ca.8 km. east of Nazareth in Israels Northern District. Daburriya gained local council status in 1961 and its jurisdiction extends over 7,200 dunams. In 2015 it had a population of 9,889, Daburiyya is located off of Highway 65 at the foot of Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee, near the area where the prophetess Deborah judged. Daburiyya is identified with the city of Daberath, which in Joshua 21,28 and in the Book of Chronicles was allotted to the tribe of Issachar. Its Greek name was Dabráth or Dabiroth and its Latin name was Dabareth, Daburiyya has been identified with the locality of Helenopolis of the Roman-Byzantine period, but Helenopolis is more commonly identified with Kafr Kama or other town or region. Remains of a Crusader church can still be seen in Daburiyya and it paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, fruit trees, cotton, as well as on goats and/or beehives. A map from Napoleons invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Dabouri. Victor Guérin visited in the 1875, and noted Among the houses may be remarked the remains of an ancient edifice, measuring twenty-two paces in length by ten in breadth and it was once constructed of cut stones and a certain number of courses are still standing. The interior is now occupied by a house and a stable. In all probability this was a Christian Church and it is situated on the slope of the hill. Water is obtained from cisterns in the village, in 1945 the population was 1,290,1,260 Muslims and 30 Christians, with 13,373 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,723 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land,12,581 for cereals, in 2008 and 2009 Daburiyya High School received the National Education Award, achieving second and third place. It was the first time that a school in Israel has won the award twice in a row, the principal, Abed Elsalam Masalcha, attributed the positive developments in the school to the introduction of a Transcendental Meditation program which solved student discipline problems. In 2009 the Israeli Education Ministry said it would shut down the high school of sciences. The school, located in a building intended for a project, specialized in biology, physics, chemistry. It was a branch of the Ibillin-based Mar Elias School, according to the local parents association, the school was opened because the local high school had become chaotic and the police needed to frequently intervene between students
36.
Deir al-Asad
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Deir al-Asad is an Arab town in the Galilee region of Israel, near Karmiel. In 2003, the municipality of Deir al-Asad merged with Majd al-Krum, however, it was reinstated in 2008 after Shaghur was dissolved. In 2015 it had a population of 11,716, Deir al-Asad means the lions monastery in Arabic. The village was named after a leader In the Crusader era, upon arrival of the Ottoman Turks, the Christians were expelled by Sultan Suleiman I and their descendants later founded the nearby settlement of Biina. The lands of the original Christian settlement and the monastery were given by the Sultan to the sheikh Al-Asad A-Zaffah from Safed and the latter founded the current village. In the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine in 1881, Deir al-Asad was described as a village of 600 Muslims and it was surrounded by olive-trees and arable land, with a spring nearby. By 1945, Deir el Asad had 1,100 inhabitants and they owned a total of 8,366 dunams of land, while 7 dunams were public. 1,322 dunams were plantations and irrigable land,1,340 used for cereals, the town is mostly populated by the Asadi, Dabbah and Musa families. Before 1962 the village of Deir al-Asad was self-sufficient in food and it produced enough meat, fruit, wheat and vegetables for itself and sold the surplus in Acre or Nazareth. In 1962 its land in the Majd al-Kurum valley was confiscated for the Karmiel town project, only the hill land to the north, consisting mainly of olive groves, remained. This confiscation of land ruined the economy of Deir al-Asad, today only 10% of the labour force can work on the land, over 80% have to commute daily to the factories of Haifa or work as labourers on Jewish farms. The large remains of a Crusader times church and abbey was noted by Guérin. Guérin noted after his 1875 visit that, Constructed of small stones very regularly cut and its windows were narrow, and fashioned like actual loopholes, and several details of its architecture show a knowledge of art. Unfortunately the Druses have half demolished it, and what they have spared has been converted into a stable, denys Pringle named it The abbey Church of St. George, and dated it do the 12th century. The mosque and tomb of al-Assad al-Safadi is a structure, situated about 50 meters south of the Crusader abbey. The smaller chamber, to the north, holds the tomb of al-Assad al-Safadi, while the southern, to the east there is a courtyard. Ahmed Dabbah Welcome To Dayr al-Asad Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3, IAA, Wikimedia commons
37.
Deir Hanna
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Deir Hanna is a local council in the Northern District of Israel, located on the hills of the Lower Galilee,23 kilometres southeast of Acre. In 2015 it had a population of 9,831, approximately 80% of Deir Hannas inhabitants are Muslims and the remaining 20% are Christians. In 1174 it was one of the given to Phillipe le Rous. In 1236 descendants of Phillipe le Rous confirmed the sale of the fief of Deir Henna, according to architectural researcher Andrew Petersen, no traces of Crusader occupation were found in the village. Deir Hanna became a base for the Zaydānī family in the 18th century, in the early to mid-18th century, Zahir gave his elder brother, Sad el-Omar, control of the village and nearby Arraba. The two villages served as the stronghold of the Zaydani family, and before taking the port town of Acre, Zahir resided in Deir Hanna. Sad commissioned the construction of most of Deir Hannas fortifications and in 1732-33, when Sad died in 1767, Zahirs son Ali requested control over the village, but Zahir refused, earning him Alis resentment. Following Zahirs defeat and death at the hands of the Ottoman military in 1775, the Ottoman governor Jezzar Pasha launched a military campaign against Zahirs sons and besieged Deir Hanna. The strength of the village fortress allowed Ali to withstand the siege for months until Jezzar received reinforcements from the Kapudan Hasan Pasha in July 1776. With the siege intensifying, Ali managed to escape the village and seek safety in Mount Lebanon, on 22 July, heavy damage to the fort by Ottoman cannon fire forced the remaining defenders to surrender. The surviving defenders of Deir Hanna were expelled from the village with their families by Jezzar, Sad el-Omar is credited with the construction of the village forts high inner walls, which at the time had 12 towers. Zahir is credited with the construction of the walls, while Ali al-Zahir had two towers built off of the eastern and western sides of the fort. Both of the towers were separated from the fortress and were meant to serve as additional protection in the event of a siege. The Zaydani mosque of Deir Hanna, before its destruction in 1776, had been the most famous of all the Zaydanis buildings in the Galilee, according to historian Moshe Sharon. Local peasants re-inhabited Deir Hanna sometime after Jezzars assault, but the village did not recover its prominence, in 1875 Victor Guérin found 40 Muslim and four Greek Orthodox Christian families living in Deir Hanna. It is situated on the top of a ridge. It is surrounded by olive-groves and arable land, water is obtained from cisterns and an old paved birkeh to the north of the village. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Dair Hanna had a population of 429,320 Muslims and 109 Christians, by the 1931 census the population had increased to 563,427 Muslims and 136 Christians, in a total of 117 houses
38.
Eilabun
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Eilabun is an Israeli Arab local council in northern Israel. Located in the Beit Netofa Valley around 15 kilometres south-west of Safed, it had a population of 5,558 in 2015, in 1973, Eilabun achieved local council status by the Israeli government. According to the Survey of Western Palestine, the name Eilabun comes from Arabic, meaning hard, an Israeli theory is that the place was built on the ancient site of Ailabu, a possible variation of the name Ein Levon. Pottery remains from the Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age II, Persian, early Roman, rock-cut sarcophagi have been found to the west of the village. Remains from the Mamluk era have also been excavated, in 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin found that the village had a population of about 100 Greek Christians, with a humble chapel. He noted an excellent water source, and remains of old buildings, in 1881, the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described it as a stone village, well built, containing about 100 Christian Arab. It is situated on a ridge, surrounded by brushwood, with land in the valley. A good spring exists to the west of the village, in 1945, the population comprised 530 Christians and 20 Muslims, who owned a total of 11,190 dunams of land, while 3,522 dunams of land was public. Of this,1,209 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land,2,187 for cereals, israels Golani Brigades 12th Battalion captured Eilabun on October 30, 1948—during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, from the Arab Liberation Army. Most of the residents were marched out to the Lebanese border. As part of an agreement between Archbishop Hakim and the leader of the Arab Section in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Eliabun exiles in Lebanon were allowed to return in summer of 1949, the village remained under Martial Law until 1966. On 25 April 2008, six people were injured, two of them sustaining serious wounds, in a brawl broke out between Druze and Christians near Eilabun. The sectarian conflict was a part of the long running feud between the communities, which began in 2004 in the city of Shefa-Amr. The April 2008 clash began for a reason as members of the Druze community marched towards the grave site of Jethro, Moses father-in-law. The marchers fought with the residents using guns and stones. The Druze community elders who were present at the scene managed to restore calm, the conflict ended following an official reconciliation between the Druze and Christians in 2009. Hana Sweid Arab localities in Israel Christianity in Israel Eilaboun official Website Welcome To Eilabun Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6, IAA, Wikimedia commons
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Ein Qiniyye
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Ein Qiniyye or Ayn Qunya is a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied southern foothills of Mount Hermon,750 meters above sea level. It was granted local council status in 1982 and its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens with permanent residency status in Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 1,945 and it is one of the four remaining Druze-Syrian communities on the Israeli-occupied side of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, together with Majdal Shams, Masade and Buqata. Geographically a distinction is made between the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon, the boundary being marked by the Saar Stream, however, administratively usually they are being lumped together. Ein Qiniyye and Majdal Shams are on the Hermon side of the boundary, thus sitting on limestone, while Buqata and Masade are on the Golan side, characterised by black volcanic rock. Since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law, Ein Qiniyye is under Israeli civil law, some of the young people of the village used to study at Syrian universities, but at the end of 2012 a Druze cleric advised them against applying until the war was over. For more about the status and position of the Golan Heights Druze community see here, media related to Ein Qiniyye at Wikimedia Commons
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Ein Mahil
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Ein Mahil is an Arab local council in the Northern District of Israel, located about five kilometers north-east of Nazareth. It was declared a council in 1964. In 2015 it had a population of 12,484, the majority of which are Muslims, in 1596, Ein Mahil appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad. It had a population of 28 Muslim households, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, a map by Pierre Jacotin, from 1799 showed the place named Ain el Mahel. The French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in the 1875, in 1881 the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described it as a Stone village, situated on very high ground, surrounded by figs and olives and arable land. It contains about 200 Moslems, and has near it a group of springs. In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Ain Mahel had a population of 516, the population increased in the 1931 census of Palestine to 628, of whom 1 was Christian and the rest Muslims, in a total of 109 occupied houses. In 1945 the population was 1,040, all Arabs, with 13,390 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,1,486 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land,6,748 for cereals, Arab localities in Israel Welcome To Ayn Mahil Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6, IAA, Wikimedia commons
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Fassuta
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Fassuta is an Arab town on the northwestern slopes of Mount Meron in the Northern District of Israel, south of the Lebanese border. In 2015 it had a population of 3,026, in the Crusader era Fassuta was known as Fassove, and in 1183 it was noted that Godfrey de Tor sold the land of the village to Joscelin III. In 1220 Jocelyn III´s daughter Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband Otto von Botenlauben, Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including Fassove, to the Teutonic Knights. Fassuta was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and by 1596 it was part of the Nahiya of Akka of the Liwa of Safad and it had a population of 12 Muslim households and 3 Muslim bachelors. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, there are two cisterns in the village, and a good spring near. By 1945 Fassuta had 1,050 Christians, the combined population of Fassuta, Al-Mansura and Dayr al-Qasi was 2,300, and their total land area was 34,011 dunums. 1,607 dunams were plantations and irrigable land,6,475 used for cereals, at the end of October 1948 the village was captured by the Israeli army during Operation Hiram. Most of the Muslim population fled or were expelled but many of the Christians remained, in December 1949 the IDF put forward a plan to expel the remaining population of Fassuta and five other villages in order to create a 5–10 km Arab-free zone along the Lebanon border. This plan was blocked by the Foreign Ministry which feared international reaction, the Arab population remained under Martial Law until 1966. Between 1922 and 1947, the population of Fassuta increased by 120%, in 2005, the population of Fassuta was 2,900 residents, with an annual population growth rate of 0. 9%. All of the inhabitants are Christian Arabs, in 2000,60. 5% of Fassuta high school students passed the Bagrut matriculation exam. In 2000, the income was NIS3,748. In 2007, the Mar Elias Church in Fassuta celebrated its 100th anniversary, the church is named after Elias, the villages patron saint. A large statue of Mar Elias stands in the central square, in 1875, Guerin found traces of ancient ruins, Numerous cisterns, a great reservoir, vestiges of many ruined houses, fine cut stones marking out floors, and a dozen of presses nearly perfect. In the humble church of the modern hamlet I remarked a chapter imitating Corinthian, on two of its faces a cross with equal branches has been sculptured. Above the door of the church has been placed for a lintel a fragment of frieze decorated with flowers. Sabri Jiryis Anton Shammas Arab localities in Israel Christianity in Israel Welcome To Fassuta Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4, IAA, Wikimedia commons
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Ghajar
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Ghajar is an Alawite-Arab village on the Hasbani River on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, internationally considered to be de jure part of Syria. In 2015 it had a population of 2,484, control over Ghajar has changed hands many times. Three hundred years ago, the village was known as Taranjeh and it was renamed Ghajar under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, when the land was allegedly seized from the villagers by Kurds and forcibly sold. According to local legend, the Kurdish governor of Ghajar tried to ride his horse onto the tomb of a holy man. The horse refused and the day a fire broke out, destroying the governors shield. The Kurds fled and quickly sold it back, in 1932, the residents of Ghajar, predominantly Alawites, were given the option of choosing their nationality and overwhelmingly chose to be a part of Syria, which has a sizable Alawite minority. Prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Ghajar was considered part of Syria, when Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, Ghajar remained a no-mans land for two and a half months. Israel agreed to include Ghajar in its territory of the Syrian Golan Heights. After Operation Litani in 1978, Israel turned over its positions inside Lebanon to the South Lebanon Army, Ghajar expanded northward into Lebanese territory, subsuming the Wazzani settlement north of the border. In 2000, following the campaign promise and election of Ehud Barak as Prime Minister, in an attempt to demarcate permanent borders between Israel and Lebanon, the United Nations drew up what became known as the Blue Line. This arrangement created much resentment among the residents, who see themselves as Syrian, despite the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, tension mounted as Hezbollah made attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers in the Ghajar area. In 2005, Hezbollah launched a missile on Ghajar and infiltrated it, following another attack in July 2006, Israel invaded southern Lebanon and re-occupied the northern half of Ghajar during the 2006 Lebanon War. Following a month of fighting, UNSC Resolution 1701 was unanimously approved to resolve the conflict. In April 2009, the Lebanese paper Daily Star reported the IDF had agreed to withdraw from northern Ghajar at a meeting at Ras al-Naqoura, on May 13, the government of Israel suspended talks to await the outcome of the Lebanese Parliamentary elections, fearing a Hezbollah victory. In the wake of reports in December 2009 of a withdrawal of Israeli troops,2,200 Ghajar residents took to the streets in protest. On the 17th of November 2010, Security Cabinet of Israel voted in favor of withdrawal from northern half of Ghajar, residents on both sides of the village have Israeli citizenship, those in the northern half often hold passports from both Lebanon and Israel. They work and travel freely within Israel, but those living on the Lebanese side have difficulties receiving services from Israel. There is an Israel Defense Forces checkpoint at the entrance to the village, and a fence surrounding the entire village, a perimeter fence has been built along the northern edge of the village in Lebanese territory up to 800 meters north of the Blue Line
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Hatzor HaGlilit
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Hatzor HaGlilit is a town in northern Israel near Rosh Pinna and Safed. It is named for the biblical site of Tel Hazor. In 2015 it had a population of 8,834, Hatzor HaGlilit was founded in 1952–1953 as a transition camp. The new founded camp was located on the land of the depopulated Arab village of Mughr al-Khayt,1 km southeast of the village site. The two adjacent transition camps were initially named Hatzor A and Hatzor B, named for the biblical site of Tel Hatzor. In 1956, Hatzor HaGlilit was given the status of local council, by 1958, Hatzor HaGlilit had a population of 4,000 and received development town status. Over time, the city preserved its Jewish religious-traditional demographic status and later a Jewish ultra-orthodox neighbourhood was also established, in December 2011, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the town was populated by 8,705 residents, with 0. 0% population growth. One of the towns most well-known landmarks is the tomb of Honi the Circle-Maker, according to Jewish legend, Honi HaMagel had the power to bring rain through his prayers. The presence of this attracted a large Gerrer hassid population to the town. Lexicon of the Land of Israel, miskal - Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. Khalidi, Walid, All That Remains, The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5 Vilnai, Zeev
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Hurfeish
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Hurfeish is a Druze town in the Northern District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 6,077, the town is situated on an ancient site, where mosaics and Greek inscriptions have been excavated. In the Crusader era, Hurfeish was known as Horfeis, Hourfex, Orpheis, in 1183 it was part of an estate sold from Geoffrey le Tor to Count Jocelyn III. In 1220 Jocelyn III´s daughter Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband Otto von Botenlauben, Count of Henneberg and it was listed as still belonging to the Teutonic Knights in 1226. In 1596 the village appeared under the name of Hurfays in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya of Jira in the Sanjak of Safad and it had an all Muslim population, consisting of 41 households and 10 bachelors. They paid taxes on goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues, but the largest amount was a tax of 6,000 akçe. All of the went to a Waqf. In 1875 Victor Guérin noted an ancient church, used by the 50 Greek Christians in the village, in addition, Hurfeish had 300 Druze inhabitants. There are few wells in the village, and four springs on the south side. In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the population increased in the 1931 census to 527,18 Muslims,35 Christians and 474 Druze, living in a total of 110 houses. In 1945, it had a population of 830, all classified as Arabs, of this,1,039 was plantations and irrigable land,2,199 was allocated to cereals, while 91 dunams were classified as built-up land. Hurfeish surrendered to the advancing Israeli army during Operation Hiram, October 1948, an IDF plan, December 1949, to expel the population was blocked by the Foreign Ministry. Hurfeish was declared a council in 1967. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics it had a population of 5,200 in 2006. The majority of residents are Druze, with a number of Christians. A large percentage of the population are police and army officers, serving with the Israel Police and it is located in Hurfeish, on the top of Mount Zvul. Druze in Israel From Brazil to Hurfeish, Meet the First Ever Druze Lone Soldier Welcome To Hurfeich Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4, IAA, Wikimedia commons
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