Palestine

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Palestine , historic region on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at various times comprising parts of modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza (recognized internationally by nations as independent Palestine), Jordan, and Egypt; also known as the Holy Land. The name is derived from a word meaning "land of the Philistines." This article discusses mainly the geography and the history of Palestine until the United Nations took up the Palestine problem in 1947; for the economy and later history, see Israel , Jordan , and Palestinian Authority , West Bank , and Gaza Strip .

In the Bible, Palestine is called Canaan before the invasion of Joshua; the usual Hebrew name is Eretz Israel [land of Israel]. Palestine is the Holy Land of Jews, having been promised to them by God; of Christians because it was the scene of Jesus' life; and of Muslims because they consider Islam to be the heir of Judaism and Christianity and because Jerusalem is the site, according to Muslim tradition, of Muhammad's ascent to heaven. The Holy Land derives its special character from being a place of pilgrimage. Shrines, shared in common by several religions, cluster most numerously in and about Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Hebron.

Geography

Palestine's boundaries, never constant, always included at least the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. So defined, the region is c.140 mi (225 km) long and c.30 to c.70 mi (50–115 km) wide. Outside these bounds were such biblical lands as Edom , Gilead , Moab , and Hauran. The British mandate of Palestine (1920–48) included also the Negev, a c.100-mile-long (160-km) desert stretching S to the Gulf of Aqaba.

From east to west, Palestine proper comprises three geographic zones: the depression—northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley—in which lies the Jordan River, Lake Hula, the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias), the Dead Sea, and the Arabah, a dry valley S of the Dead Sea; a ridge rising steeply to the west of this cleft; and a coastal plain c.12 mi (20 km) wide. In N Palestine the ridge is interrupted by the Plain of Esdraelon (Jezreel) and the connecting valley of Bet Shean (Beisan), the most fertile part of the region. The highland area to the north is called Galilee , its chief centers being Zefat and Nazareth , near which rises Mt. Tabor. To the south of the Plain of Esdraelon the broad ridge stretches unbroken to the Negev. First there are the hills of Samaria , with northward prongs (to the east Gilboa and to the west Mt. Carmel) fronting on the Bay of Acre. The center of Samaria is Nablus , which lies between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim. The mountains of Judaea are W of the Dead Sea. In Judaea are Jerusalem , Bethlehem , and Hebron . Well to the south, in the Negev, lies Beersheba .

The towns of the coastal plain are Akko (Acre), Haifa , Netanya , and the twin cities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa . Near Tel Aviv are Petah Tiqwa , Lod , Ramla , and Rehovot . To the south is Gaza . The various sections of the plain are named the Valley of Zebulun, or Plain of Acre, S of Akko; Sharon, S of Mt. Carmel; and the Shephelah, or Philistia, in the extreme south.

Agriculture in the Jordan valley centers around Lake Hula and the Sea of Galilee. The chief town is Tiberias . Farther south the valley is too narrow to be of much use, except for providing water power, and there is only one city, Jericho , E of Jerusalem. The surface—c.1,300 ft (400 m) below sea level—of the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan empties, is the lowest spot on the earth's surface.

History

Ancient Palestine

The earliest known inhabitants of Palestine were of the same group as the Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe. By the 4th millennium BC Palestine was inhabited by herders and farmers. It was in the 3d millennium that most of the towns known in historical times came into existence. They became centers of trade for Egyptian and Babylonian goods. During the 2d millennium, Palestine was ruled by the Hyksos and by the Egyptians. Toward the end of this period Moses led the Hebrew people (see Jews ) out of Egypt, across the Sinai, and into Palestine.

Around 1200 BC, the Philistines ( "Sea Peoples" ) invaded the southern coastland and established a powerful kingdom (see Philistia ). The Hebrews were subject to the Philistines until c.1000 BC, when an independent Hebrew kingdom was established under Saul , who was succeeded by David and then by Solomon . After the expansionist reign of Solomon (c.950 BC), the kingdom broke up into two states, Israel, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah, under the house of David, with its capital at Jerusalem. The two kingdoms were later conquered by expanding Mesopotamian states, Israel by Assyria (c.720 BC) and Judah by Babylonia (586 BC).

In 539 BC the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians, was rebuilt (516 BC). Under Persian rule Palestine enjoyed considerable autonomy. Alexander the Great of Macedon, conquered Palestine in 333 BC His successors, the Ptolemies and Seleucids, contested for Palestine. The attempt of the Seleucid Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) to impose Hellenism brought a Jewish revolt under the Maccabees , who set up a new Jewish state in 142 BC The state lasted until 63 BC, when Pompey conquered Palestine for Rome.

Christianity and Islam

Palestine at the time of Jesus was ruled by puppet kings of the Romans, the Herods (see Herod ). When the Jews revolted in AD 66, the Romans destroyed the Temple (AD 70). Another revolt between AD 132 and 135 was also suppressed (see Bar Kokba, Simon ), Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem. When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity (312), Palestine became a center of Christian pilgrimage, and many Jews left the region. Palestine over the next few centuries generally enjoyed peace and prosperity until it was conquered in 614 by the Persians. It was recovered briefly by the Byzantine Romans, but fell to the Muslim Arabs under caliph Umar by the year 640.

At this time (during the Umayyad rule), the importance of Palestine as a holy place for Muslims was emphasized, and in 691 the Dome of the Rock was erected on the site of the Temple of Solomon, which is claimed by Muslims to have been the halting station of Muhammad on his journey to heaven. Close to the Dome, the Aqsa mosque was built. In 750, Palestine passed to the Abbasid caliphate, and this period was marked by unrest between factions that favored the Umayyads and those who preferred the new rulers.

In the 9th cent., Palestine was conquered by the Fatimid dynasty, which had risen to power in North Africa. The Fatimids had many enemies—the Seljuks, Karmatians, Byzantines, and Bedouins—and Palestine became a battlefield. Under the Fatimid caliph al Hakim (996–1021), the Christians and Jews were harshly suppressed, and many churches were destroyed. In 1099, Palestine was captured by the Crusaders (see Crusades ), who established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders were defeated by Saladin at the battle of Hittin (1187), and the Latin Kingdom was ended; they were finally driven out of Palestine by the Mamluks in 1291. Under Mamluk rule Palestine declined.

Turkish Rule

In 1516 the Mamluks were defeated by the Ottoman Turks. The first three centuries of Ottoman rule isolated Palestine from outside influence. In 1831, Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian viceroy nominally subject to the Ottoman sultan, occupied Palestine. Under him and his son the region was opened to European influence. Ottoman control was reasserted in 1840, but Western influence continued. Among the many European settlements established, the most significant in the long run were those of Jews, Russian Jews being the first to come (1882).

Conflict between Arabs and Zionists

In the late 19th cent. the Zionist movement was founded (see Zionism ) with the goal of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and dozens of Zionist colonies were founded there. At the start of the Zionist colonization of Palestine in the late 19th cent., the rural people were Arab peasants (fellahin). Most of the population were Muslims, but in the urban areas there were sizable groups of Arab Christians (at Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem) and of Jews (at Zefat, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Hebron).

At the same time Arab nationalism was developing in the Middle East in opposition to Turkish rule. In World War I the British, with Arab aid, gained control of Palestine. In the Balfour Declaration (1917) the British promised Zionist leaders to aid the establishment of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine, with due regard for the rights of non-Jewish Palestinians. However, the British had also promised Arab leaders to support the creation of independent Arab states. The Arabs believed Palestine was to be among these, an intention that the British later denied.

In 1919 there were about 568,000 Muslims, 74,000 Christians, and 58,000 Jews in Palestine. The first Arab anti-Zionist riots occurred in Palestine in 1920. The League of Nations approved the British mandate in 1922, although the actual administration of the area had begun in 1920. As part of the mandate Britain was given the responsibility for aiding the Jewish homeland and fostering Jewish immigration there. The British stressed that their policy to aid the homeland did not include making all Palestine the homeland, but rather that such a home should exist within Palestine and that there were economic limits on how many immigrants should be admitted (1922 White Paper).

In the 1920s, Jewish immigration was slight, but the Jewish communities made great economic progress. In 1929 there was serious Jewish-Arab violence occasioned by a clash at the Western, or Wailing, Wall in Jerusalem. A British report found that Arabs feared the economic and political consequences of continued Jewish immigration with its attendant land purchases. Zionists were angered when a new White Paper (1930) urged limiting immigration, but they were placated by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (1931).

The rise of Nazism in Europe during the 1930s led to a great increase in immigration. Whereas there were about 5,000 immigrants authorized in 1932, about 62,000 were authorized in 1935. Arabs conducted strikes and boycotts; a general strike in 1936, organized by Haj Amin al Husayni, mufti of Jerusalem, lasted six months. Some Arabs acquired weapons and formed a guerrilla force. The Peel commission (1937), finding British promises to Zionists and Arabs irreconcilable, declared the mandate unworkable and recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish, Arab, and British (largely the holy places) mandatory states. The Zionists reluctantly approved partition, but the Arabs rejected it, objecting particularly to the proposal that the Arab population be forcibly transferred out of the proposed Jewish state.

The British dropped the partition idea and announced a new policy (1939 White Paper). Fifteen thousand Jews a year would be allowed to immigrate for the next five years, after which Jewish immigration would be subject to Arab acquiescence; Jewish land purchases were to be restricted; and within 10 years an independent, binational Palestine would be established. The Zionists were shocked by what they considered a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs also rejected the plan, demanding instead the immediate creation of an Arab Palestine, the prohibition of further immigration, and a review of the status of all Jewish immigrants since 1918.

The outbreak of World War II prevented the implementation of the plan, except for the restriction on land transfers. The Zionists and most Arabs supported Britain in the war (although Haj Amin al Husayni was in Germany and negotiated Palestine's future with Hitler), but tension inside Palestine increased. The Haganah, a secret armed group organized by the Jewish Agency, and the Irgun and the Stern Gang, terrorist groups, were active. British officials were killed by the terrorists. The horrible plight of European Jewry led influential forces in the United States to lobby for support of an independent Jewish state, and President Truman requested that Britain permit the admission of 100,000 Jews. Illegal immigration, often involving survivors of Hitler's death camps, took place on a large scale. The independent Arab states organized the Arab League to exert internationally what pressure they could against the Zionists.

An Anglo-American commission recommended (1946) that Britain continue administering Palestine, rescind the land-transfer restrictions, and admit 100,000 Jews, and that the underground Jewish armed groups be disbanded. A plan for autonomy for Jews and Arabs within Palestine was discussed at a London conference (1947) of British, Arabs, and Zionists, but no agreement could be reached. The British, declaring their mandate unworkable and despairing of finding a solution, turned the Palestine problem over to the United Nations (Feb., 1947). At that time there were about 1,091,000 Muslims, 614,000 Jews, and 146,000 Christians in Palestine.

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine devised a plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a small internationally administered zone including Jerusalem, and the General Assembly adopted the recommendations on Nov. 29, 1947. The Jews accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it. As the British began to withdraw early in 1948, Arabs and Jews prepared for war (see Arab-Israeli Wars ).

Bibliography

See M. Avi-Yonah, A History of the Holy Land (tr. 1969); Esco Foundation for Palestine, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab, and British Policies (2 vol., 1947, repr. 1970); J. C. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine (1950, repr. 1968); J. W. Parkes, The Emergence of the Jewish Problem, 1878–1939 (1946, repr. 1970) and Whose Lands? A History of the Peoples of Palestine (1971); A. Schalit, ed., The Hellenistic Age: Political History of Jewish Palestine from 332 descr='[BCE]' to 67 descr='[BCE]' (1972); M. Russell, Palestine (1985); J. Murphy-O'Connor, The Holy Land: An Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 (1986); I. Abu-Lughod, ed., The Transformations of Palestine (2d ed. 1987); T. Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate (2000); B. Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949 (1987) and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004); G. Krämer, A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel (2002, tr. 2008).

Palestine, British mandate in the eastern Mediterranean where one million indigenous Arabs were in open confrontation with the country's 470,000 Jews, mostly immigrants, whose claim for a homeland in Palestine had been acknowledged by the British since the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

In July 1937 the British Peel commission announced the decision to divide Palestine between the Arabs, the British, and the Jews and this pushed the Arabs into what is now known as the Arab Revolt. It was led by Hadj Amin el-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, but once he had been forced to flee, and other Arab leaders had been interned, the revolt was crushed and Arab political life became paralysed, and remained so throughout the war. But approaching hostilities, and the need for oil, made the British government reverse its policy of partition. In May 1939 it announced its intention of creating a single independent state, to include both Arabs and Jews, within ten years. It virtually prohibited the sale of land to Jews and limited any further Jewish immigration to 75,000 over the next five years. No more immigration would then be permitted without Arab agreement.

The British aim was not only to obtain Arab acquiescence—in which, by and large, it was successful—but to pose the Jews an insoluble dilemma that if they opposed the British in Palestine they would, in effect, be aiding their Nazi persecutors. Not surprisingly, the Jewish Agency, which worked for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, opted to co-operate, and the Histradut, the Jewish labour organization, mobilized its agricultural and industrial resources to help the UK's war effort. At first the economy faltered and unemployment rose, but from 1941 war production boosted it considerably. By 1943 63% of the Jewish workforce was employed in the production of matériel for the British forces; and during the course of the war Jewish-owned factories tripled from 2,000 to 6,000, 47 new settlements were established, and cultivation was increased by 70%.

When the war started 136,000 Jewish men and women volunteered to join the armed forces. The first unit to see action was a mixed (Arab and Jew) company which served with the Royal Pioneer Corps in the fighting which preceded the fall of France in June 1940. In October 1940 men from this company became the nucleus of No. 51 (Middle East) Commando which fought in the East African campaign. When this was disbanded in late 1941 some of its members joined the Middle East Commando.

It was hoped that a Jewish Legion, similar to the one which had fought in the First World War, could be formed, but the British, fearing its creation would lead to another Arab rising, refused permission. However, the Jews were determined to fight. Many joined the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs), forming three companies which became known as the Palestine Regiment, and by August 1942 there were 18,000 Palestinian Jews serving with the British forces in the Middle East. About 25% served in the front line and a thousand, of whom only 45 survived, helped defend Bir Hakeim. Eventually a 5,000-strong Jewish Brigade was formed which from early 1945 fought in the Italian campaign as part of the British Eighth Army. Between March and September 1944, 32 parachutists were dropped into occupied Europe to help the Jewish populations escape the Final Solution. Estimates vary, but perhaps as many as 30,000 Jews served in the British armed forces, as did 9,000 Palestinian Arabs. Palestine itself had little direct contact with the war, though during the summer of 1940 the Italians bombed coastal towns killing about 200 people.

Apart from those serving in the British forces, special units called Palmach (Plugoth Machatz, or commando strike-force) were formed by the British from the clandestine Jewish army, the Haganah, to defend the country or to perform acts of sabotage should it be overrun. Some Palmach units were also used for intelligence and sabotage missions in advance of the Syrian campaign, as guides at its start, and in an abortive attempt to raid the oil refineries in Tripoli. However, once the German threat had passed the British closed Palmach training bases, reclaimed the arms they had distributed, and unsuccessfully demanded the dissolution of those units whose members had not volunteered to serve with the British.

While actively aiding the British, the Haganah openly flouted their authority by using every conceivable method to give sanctuary to as many European and Middle Eastern Jews as possible. This infuriated the British, who saw Jewish immigration as a German tactic to undermine stability in the Middle East, or even as a means of importing spies. Many illegal immigrants were interned on Mauritius and enforcement of the British immigration policy led to several disasters, including the loss of two ships (the Patria and Struma) and many of their passengers. In fact, both the British and the Americans, after holding the Bermuda conference in April 1943, opposed any plans for the mass rescue of Jews from occupied Europe. However, in 1944 Roosevelt did authorize the establishment of the War Refugee Board and British immigration policy was circumvented to allow the few thousand European Jews who escaped into neutral countries to enter Palestine.

In 1943, Churchill, who considered British policy towards Palestinian Jews ‘a gross breach of faith’ with them, set up a committee under Herbert Morrison which recommended its reversal. But this was strongly opposed by Anthony Eden among others, who understandably feared an Arab backlash, and there the matter rested. The Jewish Agency chairman, David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), whose desire for confrontation with the British had been outvoted by his executive, now mobilized strong support from American Zionists. In May 1942 these held a conference at New York's Biltmore Hotel, and then issued a manifesto (the Biltmore programme) which demanded Jewish sovereignty over Palestine, so that all Jews who survived the war would have a home to go to. It was ignored.

By 1944 the Jewish Agency had, in the words of the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, Field Marshal Maitland Wilson, arrogated ‘to itself the powers and status of an independent government’. But though it strongly opposed the terrorist methods of the more extremist groups, such as the Irgun and the Stern gang, it was violence that eventually ended the British mandate and gave birth to the State of Israel on 14 May 1948. See consequences of the war.

Bibliography

Porat, D. , The Blue and Yellow Stars of David (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).

Palestine An area between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. It was ruled by the Kings of Judah until the expulsion of the Jewish people after the unsuccessful Bar Kochba rising, 132–5 ad. Since then it has been populated by a majority of Arabs, though it remained a central reference point to the dispersed Jewish people as their homeland, Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). In the light of renewed pogroms in eastern Europe, a first wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine began in 1882, and there was another wave in 1904–14. Though the second wave contained many intellectuals and people of middle-class origins, the 60,000 Jews who had immigrated in total by 1914 were driven less by a vision of a new state than by the hope of making a new living, free from persecution.

In 1918 the area, which had been under the authority of the Ottoman Empire since 1517 came under British rule, formalized as a League of Nations Mandate in 1920. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 had fostered the hope of a Jewish state in Palestine, which was given further impetus by a third wave of Jewish immigration (around 35,000 people), this time with explicitly Zionist aims. At the same time, however, British encouragement of Arab nationalism, partly through T. E. Lawrence, also fostered an increasing sense of identity among Palestinian Arabs. They began to feel threatened, particularly by relatively sophisticated and well-organized Jewish quasi-state institutions, such as the Histadruth or Haganah. Arab attacks on Jewish settlers climaxed in 1929, when over 200 Jews were massacred in Hebron, and in 1936–9, during the Arab uprising. Tensions intensified partly because Jewish immigration continued, as 80,000 people arrived in 1924–31. In 1932–8, 200,000 Jews immigrated, fleeing from the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe (particularly, though not exclusively, in Germany and Austria). The unspeakable suffering of Jews in Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz changed world opinion, and made the creation of an Israeli state inevitable.

Palestinian Arabs, supported by Arabs elsewhere, refused to accept this, and in 1948–9 they rose against the new state of Israel, but to no avail. Western Palestine came under Jewish rule, the Gaza Strip under Egyptian sovereignty, and eastern Palestine became Jordanian territory as the West Bank. The latter territories came under Israeli administration after the Six Day War in 1967; but perhaps the darkest days for Arabs in Palestine (Palestinians) came in 1970, when their leaders and many of their people were violently expelled from Jordan by fellow Arabs. They gradually recovered from this blow, and became increasingly self-confident as their leadership, especially the PLO, grew in international stature. The Palestinians' most concerted effort to have their claim for their own state recognized came in the Intifadah uprising, which finally convinced Israel that it could not defy Palestinian demands forever. In 1988, in response to Jordan's final renunciation of its claims to the West Bank, the PLO declared it the independent state of Palestine, and later that year finally recognized the state of Israel.

Israel refused to accept the legitimacy of the PLO until the Oslo Accord and Gaza–Jericho Agreement (1993). Under these agreements, a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established, with Arafat being elected its first President in 1996. This controlled most of the Gaza strip, as well as a number of disparate Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Following the election of Netanyahu in 1996, it became increasingly clear that the Oslo Accord, with its promise of an eventual independent Palestinian state, had collapsed. Given this apparent failure of his policies, which was compounded by the dire economic situation of the population in the areas under PNA control, Arafat lost more and more popular support. Meanwhile, a growing number of Palestinian youths became radicalized and lent their support to the Intifadah. In a desperate bid to quell the growing violence emanating from the Palestinian territories, Israel reoccupied the whole of the West Bank territories in March 2002. Meanwhile, throughout the 1990s Israel increased its stake in the Palestinian territories through its construction of Jewish settlements in areas under Israeli control. Between 1993 and 2002 the number of Jewish settlements there doubled, with an estimated 200,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and a further 120,000 in East Jerusalem. To protect Israel from the further incursion of suicide attacks, in 2002 Israel began to construct a security wall between the border of Israel and the Palestine. This was criticized by pro-Palestinian observers because the wall included some Palestinian territory on the Israeli side. Paradoxically, it was also criticized by right-wing Israelis, as a de facto recognition of Palestinian separateness. Arafat yielded to pressure by sharing power with a Prime Minister, but his continued control of the paramilitary police forces kept his control of the PNA intact.

Palestine Territory in the Middle East, on the e shore of the Mediterranean Sea; considered a Holy Land by Jews, Christians and Muslims.Palestine has been settled continuously since 4000 bc. The Jews moved into Palestine from Egypt c.2000 bc but were subjects of the Philistines until 1020 bc, when Saul, David, and Solomon established Hebrew kingdoms. The region was then under Assyrian and, later, Persian control before coming under Roman rule in 63 bc. In succeeding centuries, Palestine became a focus of Christian pilgrimage. Muslim Arabs conquered the region in 640. In 1099, Palestine fell to the Crusaders, but in 1291 they in turn were routed by the Mamluks. The area was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, when British forces defeated the Turks at Megiddo. The Balfour Declaration encouraged Jewish immigration. After World War I, the British held a League of Nations mandate over the land w of the River Jordan (now once again called Palestine). Tension between Jews and the Arab majority led to an uprising in 1936. World War II and Nazi persecution brought many Jews to Palestine, and in 1947 Britain, unable to satisfy both Jewish and Arab aspirations, consigned the problem to the United Nations. The UN proposed a plan for separate Jewish and Arab states. This was rejected by the Arabs, and in 1948 (after the first of several Arab-Israeli Wars) most of ancient Palestine became part of the new state of Israel; the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt and the West Bank of the River Jordan by Jordan. These two areas were subsequently occupied by Israel in 1967. From the 1960s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led Palestinian opposition to Israeli rule, which included acts of terrorism and the Intifada in the occupied territories. In 1993, Israel reached an agreement with the PLO, and in 1994 the Palestine National Authority took over nominal administration of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Failure to find a peaceful settlement saw the resurgence of the Intifada in November 2000. The death of Yasir Arafat led to the election in January 2005 of Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) as Palestinian leader.

http://www.pna.org

Palestine The traditional extremity of biblical Palestine was Dan in the north and Beersheba in the south (1 Sam. 3: 20), which are about 240 km. (150 miles) apart. There are two inland seas (Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea) and the River Jordan joins them, flowing through a deep valley, often flooded. The Sea of Galilee (also known as Gennesaret, or Tiberias) is about 21 km. (13 miles) long by 12.8 km. (8 miles) across, and has an abundant stock of edible fish. But the Dead Sea, much bigger, is in very inhospitable country, below sea level. The River Jordan rises in the Lebanon mountains and is fed by numerous small streams, such as the Cherith (1 Kgs. 17: 1–7).

Two valleys run across the centre of the country from the Mediterranean Sea on the west to the River Jordan—the plain of Megiddo (or Esdraelon) and the valley of Jezreel.

The main range of mountains runs from north to south just to the west of the Jordan, from upper Galilee to the desert. Beyond the mountains and by the Mediterranean, south of the plain of Megiddo, are the fertile plains of Philistia and Sharon, but at the northern end the plain is interrupted by the Carmel range of hills, in the middle of which is a pass at Megiddo. Here was the vital point to control military and commercial traffic between Egypt and Syria and the east. It was the scene of great battles, as when Josiah tried to resist the Egyptians (2 Kgs. 23: 29 f.).

Other mountains mentioned in the Bible are Hermon, a few miles north of Dan, Tabor, west of the Sea of Galilee, and Sinai, south of Palestine and north of the Red Sea. The wilderness round Sinai is linked to Beersheba by a desert area known as the Negeb.

Palestine , city (1990 pop. 18,042), seat of Anderson co., E Tex.; inc. 1871. It is a market, processing, and rail center for a rich oil area and for the truck crops, livestock, and other produce of the rolling red hills. It has meatpacking plants, and school supplies, crushed stone, aircraft hardware, and concrete are produced. The city has many Victorian homes.

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