Bethlehem. of Galilee Israel
Channel: Igor Mironenko
Date: 2020-01-09

Bethlehem. of Galilee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bethlehem of Galilee (Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם הַגְּלִילִית, Beit Lehem HaGlilit; lit. "the Galilean Bethlehem") is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near Kiryat Tivon, around 10 kilometres north-west of Nazareth and 30 kilometres east of Haifa, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 2018 it had a population of 825.[1]

The modern moshav is located at the site of the ancient Israelite settlement known as Bethlehem of Zebulun or Berlehem Zoria. The town existed as Christian settlement in the classic era and was populated during the Middle Ages. It was reestablished as a Templer Bet Lam colony in the 19th century and turned into Jewish moshav in 1948.

History
To distinguish the city from the city of Bethlehem near Jerusalem, it was originally known as Bethlehem of Zebulun, whilst the town near Jerusalem was called "Bethlehem of Judea".[citation needed] In the Jerusalem Talmud it is referred to as Beth Lehem Zoria, as it was part of the kingdom of Tyre at the time. According to the Book of Judges, one of the so-called "Minor Judges" of early settlement Israel, Ibzan, came from Bethlehem and was buried there.[2] The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests that the Bethlehem referred to in this passage is Bethlehem of Galilee "rather than the more famous Bethlehem in the Tribe of Judah".[3]

Until the late 19th century, ruins of a church and a synagogue could be seen there, and archaeological findings "from the early Roman Period"[4] show, it was a prosperous city. So the biblical Bethlehem of Zebulon is "identified"[4] by archaeologists with today's Bethlehem of Galilee.

Due to its proximity to Nazareth, some historians believe that it is the Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Aviram Oshri, a senior archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, supports this claim,[5][6] although others at this institution reject it.[7]

Major building remains and pottery from the fourth–fifth century Byzantine era have been found here,[8] together with major remains from Umayyad, Abbasid (eighth century CE) and Mamluk eras (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries CE).[9]

Ottoman era
In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Bayt Lahm, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad. The population was 27 households and two bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, cotton, vegetable and fruit gardens, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 1200 Akçe.[10][11]

In 1859, the British consul Rogers stated that the population was 110, and the tillage at sixteen feddans.[12]

In 1875 Victor Guérin visited and noted that Bethlehem was a small village, which had succeeded a town of the same name.[13] He further noted the ruins of two buildings; one, completely destroyed, had been constructed of good cut stones; the entrance was at the south façade. He thought, from its orientation north and south, that it was a synagogue. The other building, which lay east and west, may have been a Christian church. On its site were seen a few shafts, four of which were still in situ and half covered up.[14]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "The ancient Bethlehem of Zebulon. A village principally built of adobe on high ground in the border of the wooded country. The nearest water is in Wady el Melek, on the north (Ras el 'Ain), and at the springs near Muwarah on the south."[12]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kh. Beit Lahm had about 55 inhabitants; all Muslims.[15]

In 1906 Templers from the German Colony in Haifa established a colony in Galilee,[16] naming it for the ancient city.

British mandate era

British mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British authorities.

Israel
On 17 April 1948 the Haganah captured the village and it was resettled by Jewish farmers, becoming a moshav. Much of the original Templer architecture survives, and is similar in style to the homes built by the Templers in other parts of the country, such as Sarona in Tel Aviv, Wilhelma (today Bnei Atarot) and the German colonies of Haifa and Jerusalem.

In recent years, tourism has replaced agriculture as the main economic branch. A dairy, an herb farm, restaurants and country-style accommodation are among the tourist-oriented businesses in the village today.