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| Hebrew Version |
Gan Hapa`amon (Liberty Bell Garden) where we started our tour is the beginning of the River of the Rephaites, to the west of the hill where Jebusite Jerusalem had been built. On our tour, we reached the continuation of the river, which is where the Battir village is situated. The valley descends from a height of some 800 meters to the Ein Yalo fields, 675 meters above sea level and is about 6 kilometers long. This is the big valley of Jerusalem and it functioned during biblical times together with the smaller Kidron river as the cradle for the city's cereal growing. The main difference between the two valleys is that the Valley of the Rephaites is situated to the west of the country's main water divide; this is why it is cooler and enjoys a later harvest. The Valley of the Rephaites is already mentioned in the Bible as the border of the territory of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua, 15:8): It then went up the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites on the south (that is, Jerusalem), went up to the top of the hill opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the Valley of the Rephaites to the north. After King David conquered Jerusalem, the battles between him and the Philistines were waged in the Valley of the Rephaites (2 Samuel, 5:17-18): When the Philistines heard that David had been designated king over Israel, they all went up to search for David. When David heard about it, he went down to the fortress. Now the Philistines had come and had spread out in the valley of the Rephaites. A village named Battir is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but some interpreters would see in "the mountains of Bethar" mentioned in the Song of Songs, 2:17, the mountains surrounding Battir: Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee, Be like a gazelle or a young stag On the mountains of Bethar. Likewise, a place named "Baiter" is included in the list of the towns of Judea in the Book of Joshua, 15, in a verse preserved in the Septuagint (59.a) although not in the Hebrew version of the Bible. Archaeological finds confirm that a settlement existed in this place at the time of the kings. More detailed information concerning Bethar – as the place was then called - only comes from the time of the Bar Kochva revolt of 134-135 C.E.. The town was then occupied and demolished by the Romans. Bar Kochva himself was killed in the fighting and with his death the revolt came to an end. The ancient site of Bethat lies in the fields of Battir and is named to this day Khirbet al-Yahud - the ruins of the Jews. The traumatic impression left by these tragic events is evidenced in the Rabbinic literature, in Midrash Eicha Rabba and in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Gittin : "Four hundred synagogues existed in the town of Beitar and in each of them there were four hundred teachers and each teacher had four hundred school children and when the enemy entered there he stabbed them with his sticks and when the enemy became stronger and trapped them, he wrapped them in their scrolls and set them on fire" (Gittin 58:1) Sometime after the destruction of Bethar, in the Roman-Byzantine period, a new village developed on the slope near the ruins of the old settlement. This is the present-day Battir, which is mentioned by the Church Father Eusebius. The village is situated in a strategic junction near the Jerusalem-Beit Govrin-Ashkelon road. The Battir inhabitants, who number some 4,000 souls, have preserved a traditional agriculture of growing fruit trees and vegetables on the terraces. The water is carried by a system of channels from the ancient spring at the center of the village. When the railway was constructed in the region, part of the lands of Battir remained on the other side of the railway and after the 1948 war remained in Israeli territory, while the village itself and the adjacent lands were in Jordanian territory. In the framework of the Rhodes armistice agreements of 1949, Israel signed an agreement with Jordan under which the railway remained within Israeli territory but the Battir villagers could continue to hold their lands inside Israel. A short while later, it was also agreed that the villagers would be free to cultivate their lands on both sides of the railway. This arrangement persisted over the years until the second Intifadah. There was no barrier separating the Jordanian lands from the Israeli land and the inhabitants were free to approach their lands with all the necessary agricultural tools and transportation vehicles. Through the years the residents of Battir earned their living from farming, mainly from growing olives and vegetables, but in the course of the Israeli occupation, most of the men began working outside the village, in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. Since the beginning of the Intifada in 2000, when Israel no longer allowed Palestinians from the occupied territories to enter its area, the number of those working outside was drastically reduced and now stands at no higher than 200. As a result of severe unemployment many residents took to putting up hawking stands inside the village and today there are no less than thirty shops as compared to a mere ten before the Intifada. The village also relies on light industry and has five wood workshops, three aluminium workshops, a stone sawing mill, three smithies and two olive oil extraction facilities. A particularly nice place is the swimming pool in the midst of a beautiful garden. The village has an integrative boys' school with 500 students and a girls' school with 450 girl students. About 100 students attend educational institutions outside the village, for the most part prestigious church schools in Bethlehem, like the German Protestant Talita-Kumi. There are likewise nearly 200 students studying at universities in Bethlehem, Hebron, Abu Dis, Bir Zeit and Nablus. The village also has a small health center with a general practitioner, one pharmacy, but no X-ray facility, or an operating room. For these services the residents have to turn to the health system of Bethlehem. Also for childbirth the residents try to reach Bethlehem. As a result of the closure of the road to motor-vehicles, the patients are forced to travel part of the road on foot or their relatives have to carry them. |
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