Betzet ( he, בֶּצֶת) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Western Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galile ...

in northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located near Shlomi and

Nahariya Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of . Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it. Hist ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Mateh Asher Regional Council The Mateh Asher Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית מטה אשר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Asher'') is a regional council in the western Galilee of northern Israel. It is named after the Tribe of Asher which had been allotted the region ...

. As of its population was .

History

Antiquity

Betzet is known in historical records as one of several places along the route to Tyre where produce transported from the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

was often sold in the local marketplaces, mentioned as such in the

Tosefta The Tosefta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תוספתא "supplement, addition") is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah. Overview In many ways, the Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah ( ...

(''Shevi'it'' 4:8-ff.) and in the 3rd century

Mosaic of Rehob The Mosaic of Reḥob, also known as the Tel Rehov inscription and Baraita of the Boundaries, is a late 3rd–6th century CE mosaic discovered in 1973, inlaid in the floor of the foyer or narthex of an ancient synagogue near Tel Rehov, south of ...

. Betzet is listed in the

and the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

as subject to the laws of

Shmita The sabbath year (shmita; he, שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the sabbatical year or ''shǝvi'it'' (, literally "seventh"), or "Sabbath of The Land", is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah ...

State of Israel

Moshav Betzet was founded in 1951 on land formerly belonging to the Palestinian village al-Bassa, which was depopulated during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

. The founders were immigrants to Israel from the

Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

states, especially

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The community retains the name of the ancient village of Betzet, which is estimated to have existed nearby. On 12 August 1968, two Syrian MiG-17F aircraft landed at Betzet by mistake. The aircraft would go on to serve in the US

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...

project HAVE DRILL.

2023 Israel–Hamas war

During the 2023 war between Hamas and Israel, northern Israeli border communities, including Betzet, faced targeted attacks by

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

and Palestinian factions based in Lebanon, and were evacuated.IDF to evacuate civilians from 28 communities along Lebanese border amid attacks
/ref>

Landmarks

Tel Betzet ('' Tel'' means "hill" or "archaeological site") is located south of the village. It has pottery vessels from the

Copper Age The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

and the middle Canaanite period. Likewise

wine-pressing Pressing may refer to: *Pressing (association football), a defensive tactic *Pressing (execution), a method of killing by crushing *Pressing (metalworking), also known as stamping, a manufacturing process *Pressing (wine), the extraction of juice ...

holes and graves from the Roman and Byzantine imperial eras are preserved. Betzet Aerodrome, a disused

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

British aerodrome, is located to the west of Betzet. A helipad has been built on the north-western part of the runway by the Israeli Air Force. There are numerous derelict structures from the British era on site; they include AA gun mounts, hardened aircraft shelters, and hangars. The aerodrome grounds are used today as agricultural land and contain banana, olive and pomegranate groves. The Israeli Air Force uses the helipad occasionally and the local radio control flying model club has its activity on the helipad on weekends.

Economy

The area is about 2,200

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s (approx. 1,743 acnuas). Most of the residents work in farming

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

es and

turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellat ...

References

External links

Betzet
Authority for Development of the Galilee {{Authority control Moshavim Populated places in Northern District (Israel) Yugoslav Jews 1951 establishments in Israel Populated places established in 1951 Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee Romanian-Jewish culture in Israel Yugoslav-Jewish culture in Israel