page_title: Jerusalem corridor
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Jerusalem corridor / History
caption_attribution_description: עברית: כרם באזור פרוזדור ירושלים
context_page_description: The Jerusalem corridor is a geographical district of hundreds of thousands of dunams between Jerusalem and the Shephelah in Israel. Its northern border is the old road to Jerusalem; its southern border, the Elah Valley; and its western border, Sha'ar HaGai/Bab el-Wad and the road to Beit Shemesh. The largest towns in the Jerusalem corridor are Beit Shemesh, Mevasseret Zion, Abu Ghosh, Tzur Hadassah and Kiryat Ye'arim.
context_section_description: Historically, Arab villagers practised terrace farming in the narrow valleys and wadis of the area.
  During the 1947-48 war, the Jerusalem corridor was the only route for bringing supplies to besieged Jerusalem. In the Battle of Latrun, Jewish forces attempted to capture the former British police fort at Latrun, where Jordanian forces were stationed. The so-called Burma Road was built as an alternative. In October 1948, Israeli troops brought the area under their control during Operation Ha-Har. The Arab inhabitants fled their villages during the war. 
  As of 1949, the mountainous, rocky region of the corridor was bare of trees. In the first decade of the State of Israel, a total of 35 agricultural settlements were established in the Jerusalem corridor by new immigrants from Yemen, Kurdistan, North Africa, Romania and Hungary. The JNF employed many of the newcomers in afforestation and land reclamation. Since then it has become one of the largest afforested regions in the country.
caption: Vineyard in the Jerusalem corridor
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