page_title: Gesher, Israel
section_title: Khan and Palestinian village
hierarchical_section_title: Gesher, Israel / History / Khan and Palestinian village
caption_attribution_description: English: Survey of Palestine maps
context_page_description: Gesher is a kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley in northeastern Israel. Founded in 1939 by Jewish refugees from Germany, it falls under the jurisdiction of Valley of Springs Regional Council. It is situated 10 km south of kibbutz Deganya Aleph and 15 km south of Tiberias. The population is approximately 500 inhabitants.
  It is named after the neighbouring Roman bridge over the Jordan river, known as Jisr Majami, 1 km to the east in what is now known as the Naharayim area. The original site of the kibbutz, depopulated during the 1948 war, known as Old Gesher, was located immediately north of the old Roman bridge.
  In 2019 it had a population of 428.
context_section_description: The original site of the kibbutz – 1 km east of its current location – was originally a khan or caravanserai built around 1365, active from the Mamluk period to the early 19th century. Situated right next to the west end of Jisr Majami ("bridge of the meeting"), it was one of the earliest khans in the Galilee and was a major crossroads where the north–south Bet She’an–Damascus road intersected the east–west road which led from Gilead through the Sirin Plateau. There are three bridges at the site - a Byzantine stone bridge (the above-mentioned Jisr el-Majami), an Ottoman railroad bridge serving the Haifa-Dera'a segment of the Hejaz Railway, and a British Mandate road bridge serving the Haifa-Baghdad highway.
  A small settlement in the caravanserai existed until the early 20th century, in the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jisr al Majami had a population of 121; 112 Muslims, 4 Jews and 5 Christians, where all the Christians were of the Orthodox faith. Following the building of the Rutenberg hydroelectric power plant, the population had totally changed in the 1931 census  to a total of 320; 3 Muslim, 316 Jewish and 3 Christian, in a total of in 43 houses.
  In 1939, Kibbutz Gesher was founded next to the ancient bridge (see below).
  In 1945, Jisr al Majami had 250 inhabitants; 230 Jews, 10 Muslims and 10 Christians, and the total land area was 458 dunams.  A total of 15 dunums were used for citrus and bananas, 274 dunums were used for cereals, while 169 dunams were classified as uncultivable land. 
  Some of the original kibbutz buildings lay within the khan ruins.
caption: 1928 Survey of Palestine map of the Jisr el Majami "village boundary" area
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