Jo'ara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jo'ara is a former military installation in the Menashe Heights. A small Palestinian Arab village existed on the hill until the 1930s. Between 1938 and 1948, it became the main military school for commanding officers of the Haganah and Palmach. After the establishment of Israel, the hill was used as a military base and officers school, and between 1970 and 2016 by the Youth Battalions' (Gad'na) pre-military programme. The base and its museum were closed down in 2016–2017.[1]
Byzantine period
A grave has been excavated here, yielding coins from Arcadius (395–408) and Theodosius II (408–450).[2]
Ottoman period
During the Ottoman era, a Muslim village called Jarah (lit. "hyena") existed in the area.[3] In 1596 the village appeared under the name of Ja'ara in tax registers, being part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Sahil Atlit in the Sanjak (district) of Lajjun. It had a population of 4 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; the taxes totalled 2,000 akçe.[4]
During the 19th and first half of the 20th century, Ja'ara was one of the settlements of the so-called "Fahmawi Commonwealth" established by Hebronite clans belonging to Umm al-Fahm. The Commonwealth consisted of a network of interspersed communities connected by ties of kinship, and socially, economically and politically affiliated with Umm al Fahm. The Commonwealth dominated vast sections of Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, Wadi 'Ara and Marj Ibn 'Amir/Jezreel Valley during that time.[5]
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Jarah as "a small village on the east side of the watershed, with four springs below it. There are rock-cut tombs, so that the place seems to be an ancient site."[6] They further noted that the tombs were blocked up.[7] A population list from about 1887 showed that J'arah had about 135 inhabitants, all Muslim.[8]
British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jaara had a population of 94, all Muslims,[9] decreasing in the 1931 census to 62, still all Muslims, in a total of 14 houses.[10]
In the 1930s, the Jewish National Fund bought the hill and the lands around it from the Salah family, who lived in Haifa and owned the agricultural village. In 1937 Jewish kibbutz members settled the hill, but left a year later, because the area wasn't big enough,[11] to a nearby area and established kibbutz Ein HaShofet.[12]
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