Gesher () is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in the Beit She'an Valley in northeastern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Founded in 1939 by Jewish refugees from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Valley of Springs Regional Council Emek HaMa'ayanot Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek HaMa'ayanot'', lit. ''Valley of the Springs Regional Council'') is a regional council (Israel), regional council in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel that encompas ...

. It is situated 10 km south of kibbutz Deganya Aleph and 15 km south of Tiberias. In it had a population of . It is named after the neighbouring Roman bridge over the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

("gesher" means bridge in Hebrew), known as Jisr Majami, 1 km to the east in what is now known as the

Naharayim Naharayim ( literally "Two rivers"), historically the Jisr Majami area ( literally "Meeting bridge" area), is the area where the Yarmouk River flows into the Jordan River. It was the site of the "First Jordan Hydro-Electric Power House", con ...

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.

History

Khan and Palestinian village

The original site of the kibbutz – 1 km east of its current location – was originally a ''khan'' or

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was an inn that provided lodging for travelers, merchants, and Caravan (travellers), caravans. They were present throughout much of the Islamic world. Depending on the region and period, they were called by a ...

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 Gilead or Gilad (, ; ''Gilʿāḏ'', , ''Jalʻād'') is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> The region is bounded in the west by the J ...

through the Sirin Plateau. There are three bridges at the site—a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

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 Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

–

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

highway. A small settlement in the caravanserai existed until the early 20th century, in the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jisr al Majami had a population of 121; 112 Muslims, 4 Jews and 5 Christians,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Baisan, p
31
/ref> where all the Christians were of the Orthodox faith.Barron, 1923, Table XV, p
48
/ref> 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.Mills, 1932, p
79
/ref> In 1939, Kibbutz Gesher was founded next to the ancient bridge (see below). In

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

, Jisr al Majami had 250 inhabitants; 230 Jews, 10 Muslims and 10 Christians, and the total land area was 458 dunams.Department of Statistics, 1945, p
6
/ref> A total of 15 dunums were used for

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s, 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.

1939 foundation and 1948 evacuation

The kibbutz was founded in 1939 on lands bought with the help of Edmond de Rothschild, by a group of Yishuv Jews, who were members of the youth movement HaNo'ar HaOved, and a group of young Jewish refugees from

. They were later joined by more Jewish immigrants from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, Germany,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and additional Palestinian Jews. The kibbutz grew up near the Naharayim bridge as a Tower and stockade settlement. PikiWiki Israel 29877 Geography of Israel

PikiWiki Israel 29877 Geography of Israel

On 27 April 1948, the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

took control of the Gesher police station, a Tegart fort that had been evacuated by the British. The

Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army, of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of the Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an independent state, with a final Ar ...

, still under British control at the time, ordered them to evacuate it. Haganah refused and both troops exchanged fire during 3 days until the Arab Legion was ordered by his HQ to return to their barracks. In April–May 1948, 50 children of the kibbutz were evacuated to a 19th-century French monastery on the grounds of Rambam hospital in the Bat Galim neighborhood of

, where they lived for 22 months. The building had been empty since 1933, when the Carmelite nuns had moved into their new monastery on the French Carmel. For seven days, beginning on May 15, 1948, the kibbutz and Tegart fort were attacked by Iraqi forces using armored cars and aerial bombing. The defenders repulsed the Iraqis, inflicting heavy losses, but the kibbutz was destroyed during combat.

Current location

PikiWiki_Israel_9840_Trees_in_Kibbutz_Gesher

After the war, the kibbutz was rebuilt about 1 km to the west. During the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...

between 1967 and 1970 the kibbutz was attacked with bombs, mines and gunfire by

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

Arab Palestinian fighters. In the 1990s it underwent privatization while preserving the collective model in the areas of education, health, culture and leisure. After the peace agreement between Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan, the kibbutz established a museum on the original site of the kibbutz that documents the history of Gesher and the Jewish-run power station of

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control German-Jewish culture in Israel Austrian-Jewish culture in Israel Polish-Jewish culture in Israel Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1939 Tegart forts 1939 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Northern District (Israel) Gilead