Galilee - Geography, Modern Galilee

N region of former Palestine and now of Israel, bounded W by the Mediterranean Sea, N by Lebanon, E by Syria, L Tiberias, and the Jordan valley, and S by the Jezreel plain; chiefly associated in Biblical times with the ministry of Jesus; main centre of Judaism in Palestine after the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70); scene of fierce fighting during the Arab invasion of Israel, 1948.

The Galilee (Hebrew: הגליל ha-Galil, Arabic: الجليل‎ al-Jaleel), meaning "circuit", is a large region overlapping with much of the North District of Israel. It is traditionally divided into three regions:

The Upper Galilee The Lower Galilee The Western Galilee

Geography

The Galilee includes more than one-third of present-day Israel, extending from Dan on the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, to the ridges of Carmel and Gilboa on the south, and from the Jordan Valley on the east across the plains of Jezreel and Akko to the shores of the Mediterranean on the west."

The Western Galilee, also called the "Northern Coastal Plain", stretches from north of Haifa up to Rosh HaNikra on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

The Lower Galilee reaches from Mount Carmel and the Gilboa ridge in the south to the Beit HaKerem Valley in the north.

The Upper Galilee extends from the Beit HaKerem Valley northwards to the Lebanese border. Its eastern border is the Sea of Galilee and the mountains of the Golan Heights. The "Finger of the Galilee" (Hebrew: אצבע הגליל, Etzba HaGalil) is a region of the Upper Galilee and contains the towns Metulla and Qiryat Shemona and the rivers of Dan and Banias.

Most of the Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of about 500-700 meters. The relatively low tempartures and the large amounts of rainfall every year made the Galilee a center of flora and wildlife. The streams and waterfalls, the latter mainly in the Upper Galilee, along with vast fields of greenery and colorful wildflowers make it a popular tourist attraction in Israel.

In Roman times, the region was divided into Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, which comprised the whole northern section of the country, and was the largest of the three.

Galilee was the home of Jesus during at least thirty years of his life. a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in and to north of the Galilee.

During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, one of the most important Crusader seigneuries.

A prominent 18th-century ruler of the Galilee (under nominal Ottoman authority) was Dhaher El-Omar.

In the early 20th century, the Galilee was inhabited by Arabs, Druzes and minorities such as Circassians and Jews.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war the entire Galilee came under Israel's control.

During the 1970's and the early 1980's, the PLO sometimes launched attacks on towns of the Upper and Western Galilee from Lebanon. Israel initiated Operation Litani (1979) and Operation Peace For Galilee (1982) with the stated objectives of destroying the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon and protects the citizens of the Galilee.

Until the year 2000, Hezbollah (and earlier Amal) continued to fight the Israeli Defence Forces, sometimes shelling Upper Galilee communities and towns with Katyusha rockets).

The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was characterized by round-the-clock Katyusha rocket attacks (with a greatly extended range) by Hezbollah on the entire Galilee, with long-range ground-launched missiles purportedly supplied by Iran via Syria, hitting as far south as the Sharon plain, Jezreel Valley, and Jordan Valley below the Sea of Galilee.

Modern Galilee

Modern Galilee is one of the few areas of Israel to have retained a large Arab population after the founding of the State in 1948, with a particularly large Druze population. The "heart of the Galilee" - the districts of Carmel, Upper Nazareth, Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Migdal Ha'emek and Afula - has an Arab majority of 78%, despite Jewish Agency efforts to change the demographic balance. The population of the Galilee as a whole is 50% Jewish, 50% Arab (including Druze and Bedouin) and minorities.

Because of its hilly terrain, most of the settlements in the Galilee are small villages connected by relatively few roads.

The Galilee is a popular destination for vacationing Israelis from other parts of the country who enjoy its scenery, recreational, and gastronomic offerings.