Eli's Lookout

You won't find "Eli's Lookout" on any ordinance map. Just the same if you are looking for a vantage point with a wonderful view of our part of the Jezreel Valley, often referred to as the Harod Valley, Eli's Lookout is the place to go to. By sheer dint of dogged determination and do-it-yourself aptitude Eli turned a rocky outcrop at the top of the hill above the kibbutz into a garden escape ideally suited for a family breakfast, a picnic, for celebrating a birthday party and of course as an observation point.

The lookout consists of pergolas with picnic tables, benches and facilities set among lawns and flower beds. Eli, by the way, is alive, well and enjoying his own memorial.

The gravel road that leads up to the observation point passes close to a wine vat dating from the seventh century. It was a dual purpose vat used also as an olive press and is one of a number found on the hilly rise between Ein Harod and our neighbour Tel Yosef. Although only a superficial archeological survey was conducted at the site, it appears that throughout the Roman-Byzantine era and perhaps earlier a number of communities occupied this hilltop. Over twenty water cisterns, several wine vats and the ruins of a structure which was probably a synagogue were discovered here. It seems that at some time a Jewish community existed here. On the northern and southern slopes of the hill cactus (sabra) hedges are give-away signs that at a later date another community lived here.

On some ordinance maps the hill is named Kumi, an oblique reference to an Arab village that existed here till March 1948.

The Arab/Jewish Women’s Peace Coalition in Edmonton, Canada better known by the acronym AJWPC, was formed in 1991. A delegation from this small group of women dedicated to furthering the cause of peace between Arabs and Jews, visited Israel last week. Two months ago a member of the group wrote to me asking if I would agree to meet them, show them the kibbutz and discuss reciprocal relations between Arabs and Jews living in the Gilboa region. The visit to Ein Harod was added to the group's tour itinerary which according to the flyer they printed would include, "Visiting refugee camps, the Holocaust museum - Yad Vashem, towns in the occupied territories, Jewish/Israeli settlements, sites of suicide bombings, and meet with Palestinians and Israelis working together. There are many local organizations working for social justice, peace and reconciliation, and the reaction to our speaking engagements over the last 18 years have clearly indicated that the public is hungry for this knowledge. We plan to meet with Bereaved Parents Circle, Be’t Selem, Palestine Red Crescent Society and Women 4 Peace." AJWPC is certainly a noble cause with good intentions.

Last Thursday the group was due to come here. Eli's Lookout was the ideal venue for our meeting. Weather permitting I thought we would view the region from this vantage point and continue our discussion over coffee and cake in the kibbutz club house. I had planned a brief stop by the wine vat in order to add some historical background and show the transitory nature of settlement here. If appropriate I thought I would mention the cactus hedges.

On Thursday morning Karen, the group's coordinator called to cancel the scheduled visit to Ein Harod. It seems they had to jettison something from their overloaded itinerary. I'm sure it was my loss; I missed entertaining ten charming Canadian ladies and maybe an opportunity to counterbalance their tour programme with a touch of realism.

Over the years I have described the Jezreel Valley and other vistas from a number of vantage points to groups of kibbutz volunteers, Ulpan students, U.N soldiers from Ghana, Fiji, Sweden, Denmark and many other countries.

I have shared the view from Eli's Lookout with church groups, ramblers, cyclists, regular tourists and even an Indian chief.

It occurred to me that my standard presentation might not be suitable for the AJWPC. They wanted to hear about coexistence between Arabs and Jews in our provincial enclave, peace activism and allied topics.

So I planned to tell them how Israelis, Arabs and Jews in the Gilboa region generally manage to live in harmonious symbiosis. This would be prefixed by the following preamble:

By no stretch of the imagination could the first Jewish settlers in this valley have conjured up this view, the patchwork of cultivated fields, fish ponds, orchards and citrus groves that covers the valley floor framed by the wooded slopes of mount Gilboa and the orderly settlement clusters that dot the landscape.

Mark Twain visited the Jezreel Valley in 1867. He saw desolation and a swamp, not the biblical land flowing with milk and honey. His impressions are recorded in “Innocents Abroad.” - “Of all the lands for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, the valleys unsightly deserts….it is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land…” A year before the first Jewish pioneers arrived here a British government surveyor reiterated Mark Twain's impressions in a description of the valley included in his report to the British High Commissioner, “When first I saw it in 1920 it was desolation. Four or five small squalid Arab villages, long distances apart from each other, could be seen on the summits of low hills here and there. For the rest, not a tree…….the country was infested with malaria…”

Ein Harod was founded in 1921. A few months later the pioneers of Tel Yosef,Geva, Hefziba, Beit Alpha and Kfar Yehezkel pitched their tents in the valley, all new communities.

In 1929 Ein Harod moved to the north side of the valley where it is situated today. About the same time members of Kibbutz Beit Alpha discovered the ruins of an ancient synagogue when they were digging irrigation channels for their fields.

The synagogue is located close to the ruins of Khirbet Beit Ilfa an Arab village whose name is a corrupted form of the name of the original Jewish community that existed here in the late Byzantine period.

The ancient communities at Beit Alpha, on our hill and in other places in the valley were incorporated in both regional Roman and Byzantine municipalities ruled from Scythopolis ( Beit Shean). Although high quality linen fabrics were Scythopolis' main export product, wine and olive oil produced in nearby villages were also marketed through the town. Today this provincial centre is known by its original name Beit Shean. It is thought that earthquakes, maybe a landslide and changes in trade routes following the Muslim conquest 634-638 brought about the demise of these communities. Today kibbutz and moshav communities farm the land and manufacture industrial products where the ancient Greek and Aramaic speaking communities once thrived.

There are thirty three communities in the Gilboa region. Eight of them are kibbutzim, twenty are moshavim and rural community centres and the remaining five communities are Arab villages. Forty percent of the region's 26,000 residents are Arabs. The Gilboa region is primarily an agricultural district, however industrial enterprises, some of them hi-tech and very profitable exist alongside established modern agricultural branches. Service branches and tourism complete the occupational spectrum.

Scanning the landscape from Eli's Lookout the cactus hedges are not-to-be ignored features, unless you choose to overlook them. They are the only physical reminder that an Arab village called Kumi or Qumya existed here.

According to the geographer Zeev Vilnai the Arab settlement in this region, mostly the Zouabi clan, migrated from the area near Irbid in Jordan. They came here in 1873 at the invitation of the Ottoman government. However, Knesset member Hanin Zouabi relies more on family sources when she claims that her ancestors came from Iraq 500 years ago.

As far as I know the people who lived in Kumi/Qumya came here about the same time as the Zouabi clan but weren't related to them. However there were some Zouabi families in the village and a few Bedouins who lived on its outskirts.

Conflicting narratives make it difficult to arrive at the truth.Professor Vilnai relied on the Ottoman land registration records whereas Zouabi prefers the family oral tradition. Deciding what happened to Kumi/Qumya depends on the narrative you choose.

Our local narrative claims that a few weeks before Ben Gurion declared Israel's independence the British mandatory authority concerned for the welfare of isolated Arab villages advised the Sheikh of Kumi/Qumya to evacuate the village. According to eye witnesses the villagers were evacuated by British army trucks late in March 1948. Some were moved over the river into Jordan others were taken to Nazareth and the Zouabi families joined relatives in a nearby Arab village - Naoura.

A conflicting Arab account claims “the village was assaulted by the forces of the Golani Brigade on March 26, 1948 during Operation Gideon. Its inhabitants fled in fear of being caught in the fighting.” However, it's known and documented that Operation Gideon took place at the beginning of May 1948, by that date Kumi/Qumya was deserted so there was no reason to attack it.

Members of Ein Harod who remember the village well describe it as a motley group of wattle and daub houses. The camel stable and the sheik’s house were the only two stone buildings in the village The Arab narrative describes Qumya in much grander terms.

A few months ago an NGO called The Arab Centre for Applied Social Research Jadal published a paper by Areej Sabbagh-Khoury entitled "The Internally Displaced Palestinians in Israel." The author claims a displaced persons rights group called ADRID “keeps the memory of the destroyed villages alive by organizing marches to these villages as part of the annual commemoration of the Nakba, and specifically on Israel’s Independence Day.

Sabbagh-Khoury intimates that the time has come for internally displaced Palestinians in Israel to claim the “right of return.” This is wishful thinking and will never happen.

The “right of return” is still on the Palestinian agenda and only a few realistic Palestinian intellectuals admit it is a dream that will never be realised.

Our local council claims Jews and Arabs coexist well in the Gilboa region and I’m sure it’s true. We work together, buy, sell and cooperate in many fields because this is the best way we can live together.

“This is as good as it gets.”

Have a good weekend.

Beni 29^th of October, 2009.