Harish (, cha-reesh, lit. "ploughed furrow") is a city in the north of

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 ...

. Its jurisdiction is an area of 9,739

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s. It is currently being expanded into a city projected eventually to have a population of 100,000. In it had a population of .

History

Harish was founded as a

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

settlement in 1982 and converted into 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 1985. The kibbutz disbanded in 1993. Following a government decision, a new neighborhood of 300 housing units was built on the site and marketed to career army officers, although few moved there. Harish merged with the neighboring town of Katzir, forming Katzir-Harish. They separated again in 2012, with Harish remaining a town, and Katzir reverting to the jurisdiction of

Menashe Regional Council The Menashe Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Menasheh'') is a Regional council (Israel), regional council near the city of Hadera, on Israel's north-central Israeli Coastal Plain, coastal plain in the southern Haifa District. It is named after ...

. In the 1990s, the low cost of housing attracted young couples, mostly secular, but in 2003, a group of Garin Torani families moved to the town. In addition, an Arab

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

clan from

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

moved there in order to end a bloody feud with another clan. In 2007, Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Atias came up with a plan to develop Harish into a city with a population of 100,000. Fearing it would become a

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

stronghold, the secular residents led by Hemi Bar-Or petitioned the

Israeli Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

. Housing tenders were opened to the general public, attracting Israelis looking for affordable housing and bicycle enthusiasts who eyed the nearby forests as a weekend cycling destination. A bid was placed by a group of secular buyers in 2012. A master plan for Harish designed by Mansfeld-Kehat Architects calls for the expansion of Harish to Highway 65 in the north, and Baqa al-Gharbiyye in the south. Construction of new neighborhoods began in 2013. By August 2015, construction was well underway, with many buildings nearing completion. In January 2016, the Israeli cabinet approved a 1 billion NIS plan to turn Harish into a city of 50,000 in three years, with the eventual goal of 100,000. Harish will be expanded to the northeast, with residential areas, a business zone, a hotel, 600 dunams of public parks and gardens, and a special site consolidating all emergency services. Harish is being built as a

smart city A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

, with full WiFi coverage and its own fiber optic cables,

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

streetlights with sensors, camera-equipped lampposts, and smart trash cans that will signal trucks through the Internet when they need to be emptied. A 60 meter wide main boulevard will be built with an island in the middle lined with bicycle paths, benches, and small cafes. It has also been suggested that a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

line may be built in the future. On 24 May 2022, Harish formally gained the status of a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Exceptionally large Chalcolithic & Early Bronze Age settlements

Early Bronze Age

Archaeologists discovered the ruins of a 5,000 year-old city, the largest Early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlement with an area of 160 acres in Ein Esur archaeological site in 2019. According to the archaeologist Dr. Yitzhak Paz from the Israel Antiquities Authority, "this site is more than two or three times larger than the others n this areaduring this period." Millions of pottery shards and basalt stone vessels, several figurines of people and animals, tools imported from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, flint tools were also found from the site. "This is a huge city – a megalopolis in relation to the Early Bronze Age, where thousands of inhabitants, who made their living from agriculture, lived and traded with different regions and even with different cultures and kingdoms in the area. This is the Early Bronze Age New York of our region; a cosmopolitan and planned city," said excavation directors.

Chalcolithic

Additionally, the remains of a large, 7,000-year-old Early

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

village already showing signs of incipient

urbanisation Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also ...

and with an open space used for cultic activities was also revealed by IAA archaeologists right below the two millennia younger Early Bronze Age

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ...

.Elad, Itai et al., "'En Esur (Asawir), Area N: Preliminary Report (26/10/2020)", in HA-ESI 132 (2020).

References

External links

{{Haifa District Haifa District Local councils in Haifa District Populated places established in 1982 1982 establishments in Israel Cities in Israel