Esdraelon

 

(ĕs'drəē'lən) [Gr. for Jezreel], fertile plain, c.200 sq mi (520 sq km), extending southeast c.25 mi (40 km) between the coastal plain, near Mt. Carmel, and the Jordan River valley, N Israel; separates the hills of Galilee on the north from those of Samaria to the south. The plain is drained in the west by the Kishon River and in the east by the Harod. Once a swampy, malarial lowland, Esdraelon has been drained and turned into one of Israel's most fertile and densely populated regions. A great variety of crops are produced there in abundance. Since ancient times the plain has been a battleground, especially around Megiddo. Esdraelon is also called the plain of Jezreel or of Megiddo.

The Jezreel Valley ; Hebrew: עמק יזרעאל‎, Emek Yizrael, also known as the Plain of Esdraelon (Esdraelon is the Koine Greek rendering of Jezreel^[1]), and as the Zirin Valley (Arabic: سهل زرعين , Sahel Zir'in), and as the Meadow of Amr's son (مرج بن عامر, Marj Ibn Amer), is a large plain and inland valley in the south of the Lower Galilee of Israel, on the northern border of the West Bank, just north of the modern area of Jenin. The valley was once the channel by which the Dead Sea (to the southeast of the valley) connected to the Mediterranean Sea; around two million years ago, the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Great Rift Valley rose to such a degree that this connection was severed, and periodic floods from the Mediterranean Sea were interrupted, resulting in the Dead Sea no longer having an outlet, and becoming heavily saline.

It takes its ancient name from the city of Jezreel (known in Arabic as Zir'in; زرعين) located on a low hill on the southern edge and overlooking the valley, though some scholars think that the name of the city originated from the name of the clan that founded it, as in their view the Merneptah stele mentions the existence of this clan, not the similarly spelt Israel^[2]; Jezreel means God sows or El sows^[3]. The phrase "valley of Jezreel" was sometimes used to refer to the central part of the valley, around the city of Jezreel, while the southwestern portion was known as the valley of Megiddo, after the ancient city of Megiddo, which was located there.

In addition to Jezreel and Megiddo, the valley is the location of a number of other important settlements both ancient and modern. The largest modern settlement in the Jezreel Valley is the city of Afula (Hebrew: עפולה‎, Arabic: عفولة), also known as the "Capital of the Valley"; Afula may once have been the Biblical city of Ophrah^{[citation needed]}, which the Book of Judges identifies as the home of Gideon. The valley formed an easier route through the Levant than crossing the mountains on either side, and so saw a large amount of traffic, and was the site of many historic battles; the earliest battle for which there is known to be a surviving detailed account - the Battle of Megiddo - was fought in the valley. Due to the surrounding terrain, Egyptian chariots were only able to travel from Egypt as far as the Jezreel valley and the valley north of Lake Huleh.

According to the Bible, the valley was the scene of a victory by the Israelites, lead by Gideon, against the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east^[4], but was later the location at which the Israelites, lead by king Saul, were defeated by the Philistines^[5]; according to textual scholars, the account of a Philistine victory at Jezreel derives from the monarchial source, in contrast to the republican source, which places the Philistine victory against the Israelites at Gilboa^[6][7]. In Christian Eschatology, the part of the valley on which the Battle of Megiddo was fought is believed to be destined to be the site of a final battle, between good and evil, known as Armageddon (a word derived from Megiddo).

In 1852 the American writer Bayard Taylor travelled across the Jezreel Valley, which he described in his 1854 book The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain as: "one of the richest districts in the world. It is now a green sea, covered with fields of wheat and barley, or great grazing tracts, on which multitudes of sheep and goats are wandering."[1]

Zionist settlement

Between 1912 and 1925 the Lebanese Sursock family of Beirut (then under the French Mandate of Syria) sold their 80,000 acres (320 km²) of land in the Vale of Esdraelon to the American Zion Commonwealth; Sursock himself had purchased the land, in 1872, from the Ottoman government for about ₤20,000, but around the 1920s the American Zion Commonwealth paid nearly three quarters of a million pounds, more than 35 times what the Sursuks payed the Ottomans, and purchased the land for Jewish resettlement^{pg. 49}

However, 8,000 Palestinian fellahin (landless farmers) inhabitants in 22 Arab villages, suddenly lost the land they had worked on for the absentee landowners, and although the new owners of the land were compelled to pay compensation in addition to the purchase of the land itself, for the most part they considered themselves evicted following these sales. In some cases, the farmers refused to leave their land, as in Afula (El-Ful)^[2], but the new Zionist owners decided that it would be forbidden for fellahins to remain as tenants on land intended for Jewish labor, and they also followed the socialist ideology of the Yishuv, believing that it would be wrong for a (Jewish) landlord to exploit a landless (Arab) peasantry.

As eviction orders increased over the following years, British police had to be used to expel the villagers from their homes. The dispossessed fellahin had to make their way to the coast to search for new work; most ended up in shanty towns on the edges of Jaffa and Haifa^[8].

In the 1920s the American Zion Commonwealth founded the modern day city of Afula; The first moshav, Nahalal, was settled in this valley on September 11, 1921.

After the widespread Arab riots of 1929 in the then British Mandate of Palestine, the Hope Simpson Royal Commission was appointed to seek causes (and remedies) for the instability. One of the findings of the Hope Simpson Commission was that "The soreness felt owing to the sale of large areas by the absentee Sursock family [of land in the Jezreel Valley] to the Jews and the displacement of the Arab tenants is still acute. It was evident on every occasion of discussion with the Arabs, both effendi and fellahin." It further stated that it was "doubtful" whether, in the matter of the Sursock lands, that "the rights and position of the Arabs [were] not prejudiced by Jewish immigration", something the Mandate according to its laws was obliged to assure.^[9]

See also

• Jezreel Valley Regional Council
• Dead Sea
• Battle of Ain Jalut, major battle in 1260 between the Mongols and the Mamluks

References

1. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
2. ^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
3. ^ ibid
4. ^ Judges 6:3
5. ^ 1 Samuel 29:1-6
6. ^ 1 Samuel 28:4
7. ^ 1 Samuel 31:1-6
8. ^ *Nevill Barbour: Nisi Dominus: A Survey of the Palestine Controversy. George G. Harrap, London 1946, pp. 117-118
   • Polk, Stamler, Asfour: Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine. Beacon Press, Boston, 1957, pp. 237-238.
   • The above two books are quoted in David Gilmour: Dispossessed: the Ordeal of the Palestinians. Sphere Books, Great Britain, 1983, pp. 44-45.
9. ^ PALESTINE. Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development. By SIR JOHN HOPE SIMPSON, C.I.E.
   • • Chapter 1.3: Palestine: The Country and the Climate; 3)The vale of Esdraelon,
     • Chapter 5.3: Jewish Settlement on the Land; 3)The effect of Jewish settlement on the Arab

External links

• Jezreel Valley College
• Emek Medical Center
• Jezreel Valley Regional Council Official website (in Hebrew)

Geography of Israel

Historical  · Land of Israel  · Kingdom of Israel  · Kingdom of Judah  · Iudaea Province  · Israel Districts  · List of districts  · Jerusalem District  · North District  · Haifa District  · Center District  · Tel Aviv District  · South District  · Judea and Samaria Bodies of water  · Sea of Galilee  · Jordan River  · Mediterranean Sea  · Gulf of Eilat / Red Sea  · Dead Sea Disputed territories  · Judea and Samaria  · Gaza Strip  · Golan Heights Cities  · List of cities  · Jerusalem  · Tel Aviv-Yafo  · Haifa  · Beersheba Regions  · Arabah  · Bet Shean Valley  · Galilee  · Judea  · Judean Mountains  · Hulah Valley  · Jezreel Valley  · Jordan Valley  · Negev  · Samaria  · Shephelah  · Brook of Sorek Bordering nations  · Lebanon  · Syria  · Jordan  · Egypt Archaeology  · Archaeology of Israel

Coordinates: 32°35′47″N 35°14′31″E / 32.59639, 35.24194

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