Galilee
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The Galilee (Hebrew: הגליל ha-Galil, Arabic: الجليل al-Jaleel), meaning "circuit", is a large region overlapping with much of the North District of Israel. It is traditionally divided into three regions:
- Upper Galilee
- Lower Galilee
- Western Galilee
The Galilee includes more than one-third of present-day Israel, traditionally defined as extending from Biblical Dan on the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa on the south, and from the Jordan Valley on the east across the plains of the Jezreel Valley and Akko to the shores of the Mediterranean on the west.
The Western Galilee, also called the "Northern Coastal Plain", stretches from north of Haifa up to Rosh HaNikra on the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Lower Galilee reaches from Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa in the south to the Beit HaKerem Valley in the north. Its eastern border is the Jordan River.
The Upper Galilee extends from the Beit HaKerem Valley northwards into southern Lebanon. Its eastern border is the Sea of Galilee and the mountains of the Golan Heights. The "Finger of the Galilee" (Hebrew: אצבע הגליל, Etzba HaGalil) is a panhandle along the Hulah Valley; it contains the towns Metulla and Qiryat Shemona and the rivers of Dan and Banias.
Most of the Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of about 500-700 meters. There are several high mountains such as Mount Tabor and Mount Meron. The relatively low temperatures and the large amounts of rainfall every year made the Galilee a center of flora and wildlife, and many birds annually migrate from colder climes to Africa and back through the Hulah-Jordan corridor. The streams and waterfalls, the latter mainly in the Upper Galilee, along with vast fields of greenery and colorful wildflowers make it a popular tourist attraction in Israel.
[edit] History
According to Bible, Solomon rewarded Hiram for certain services rendered him by the gift of an upland plain among the mountains of Naphtali. Hiram was dissatisfied with the gift, and called it "the land of Cabul". Isaiah 8:23 refers to this region as גְּלִיל - הַגּוׁיִם G’lîl Haggôyim 'the District of the Nations' (and it is today still called גליל Galil or הגליל HaGalil). During the Hasmonaean period, with the revolution of the Maccabees and the decline of the Seleucid Empire, the region was conquered by the newly independent state of Judaea, and many in the region were converted to Judaism.
In Roman times, the region was divided into Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, which comprised the whole northern section of the country, and was the largest of the three. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, ruled Galilee as tetrarch.
Galilee was the home of Jesus during at least thirty years of his life. The first three Gospels of the New Testament are chiefly an account of Jesus' public ministry in this province, particularly in the villages of Nazareth and Capernaum. Galilee is cited as the place where Jesus cured a blind man.
After the Arab caliphate took control of the region in 638, it became part of the jund (military district) of Urdunn (Jordan). The Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 900s; a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in and to north of the Galilee.The Eastern Galilee, however, retained a Jewish majority for most of its history.
During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, one of the most important Crusader seigneuries.
The Jewish population increased significantly following their expulsion from Spain and welcome from the Ottoman Empire. The community for a time made Safed an an international centre of cloth weaving and manufacturing, as well as a key site for Jewish learning.[1]
A prominent 18th-century ruler of the Galilee,under nominal Ottoman authority, was Dhaher El-Omar.
In the early 20th century, the Galilee was inhabited by Arabs, Druzes and Jews, and the Ottomans also settled minorities from elsewhere in their empire such as Circassians and Bosniaks. The Jewish population was increased significantly by Zionist immigration.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war nearly the entire Galilee came under Israel's control. A large portion of the population fled, leaving entire villages empty; however, a large Israeli Arab remained based in places like Nazareth and Shefa-'Amr, due especially to a successful rapprochement with the Druze. The kibbutzim around the Sea of Galilee were sometimes shelled by the Syrian army's artillery. The shelling stopped after Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War.
During the 1970's and the early 1980's, the PLO sometimes launched attacks on towns of the Upper and Western Galilee from Lebanon. Israel initiated Operation Litani (1979) and Operation Peace For Galilee (1982) with the stated objectives of destroying the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon and protecting the citizens of the Galilee. Israel occupied much of Southern Lebanon until 1985 when it withdrew to a narrow security buffer zone.
Until the year 2000, Hezbollah, and earlier Amal, continued to fight the Israeli Defence Forces, sometimes shelling Upper Galilee communities with Katyusha rockets). In May 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak unilaterally withdrew IDF troops from southern Lebanon, maintaining a security force on the Israeli side of the international border recognized by the UN. However, clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continued along the border, and UN observers condemned both for their attacks.
The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was characterized by round-the-clock Katyusha rocket attacks (with a greatly extended range) by Hezbollah on the entire Galilee, with long-range ground-launched missiles purportedly supplied by Iran via Syria, hitting as far south as the Sharon plain, Jezreel Valley, and Jordan Valley below the Sea of Galilee.
[edit] Modern Galilee
Today the Galilee is home to a large Israeli Arab population, with a particularly large Druze population. The central portion of the Galilee also known as the "Heart of the Galilee" stretching from the border with Lebanon to the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley including cities such as Nazareth, Sakhnin, Shaghur, Tamra and Kafr Kanna has an Arab population of 78%[1] while the Jewish Agency efforts[citation needed] has attempted to increase the Jewish population. The population of the Galilee as a whole excluding the Haifa metropolitan area is 44.3% Jewish and 52.5% Arab, including Druze and Bedouins.
Its largest cities are Acre, Nahariya, Nazareth, Safed, Karmiel, Shaghur, Afula and Tiberias. The port city of Haifa serves as a commercial center for the whole region.
Because of its hilly terrain, most of the settlements in the Galilee are small villages connected by relatively few roads. The railroad runs south from Nahariya along the Mediterranean coast. The main livelihood throughout the area comes from agriculture and tourism. Industrial parks are being developed, bringing further employment opportunities to the local population that includes many recent immigrants. The Israeli government is contributing funding to the private initiative, The Galilee Finance Facility, organised by the Milken Institute and Koret Economic Development Fund.[2]
The Galilee is a popular destination for vacationing Israelis from other parts of the country who enjoy its scenery, recreational, and gastronomic offerings. Many kibbutzim and moshav families operate a Zimmer (German: "room", the local term for a B&B). Numerous festivals are held throughout the year, especially in the autumn and spring holiday seasons. These include the Acco Festival of Alternative Theater,[2] the olive harvest festival, and music festivals featuring Anglo-American folk, klezmer, Renaissance, and chamber music.
[edit] See also
- This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.ang:Galilēa
ar:الجليل (فلسطين) ca:Galilea cs:Galilea cy:Galilea da:Galilæa de:Galiläa et:Galilea el:Γαλιλαία es:Galilea eo:Galileo (regiono) eu:Galilea fr:Galilée (région) ko:갈릴리 hr:Galileja id:Galilea it:Galilea he:הגליל la:Galileia nl:Galilea ja:ガリラヤ pl:Galilea pt:Galiléia ru:Галилея sl:Galileja sr:Галилеја fi:Galilea sv:Galileen tr:Celile vi:Galilea uk:Галілея
