Shomron Trip VI: The Hilltops of Itamar

As hostile political winds continue to blow against the existence of Jews beyond the 1949 armistice or "green" line, today's version of Czarist Russia's "Pale of Settlement," each settlement has to adopt its own strategy for survival. In the case of Itamar, not near the green line and far from the security fence, the strategy has focused on holding the line against encroachment from neighboring Beit Furik to the north and Awarta to the south by holding hilltops on the outer periphery of its jurisdictional area. This keeps the center clearly in Jewish hands for future growth. Ten kilometers to the east, an enormous distance by Israeli standards, lies the Jordan River Valley. Sparsely populated, ringed by cliffs capable of stopping any tank assault, the Jordan Valley has consistently been considered a "consensus area," i.e., an area which most Israelis believe should remain under Israeli control under any outcome. Itamar's strategy has been to spread eastward, building small outposts on hilltop after hilltop, to create a contiguous area of Jewish sovereignty all the way back to the Jordan Valley.

A map from Peace Now's list of outposts which it is demanding be destroyed. I've circled the chain of hilltops claimed by Itamar.

Hilltops appear on topographical maps as small "+" symbols followed by the elevation in meters. These elevations are used as temporary names for outposts. The first hilltop we will visit is at 851 meters, hence it's name "Hill 851."

Foreground: the more densely populated section of Itamar. Background: hilltop outposts.

"This road," Menachem, our resident guide tells us, "was built five or six times. We would sneak out here with the tractors at night. The next day the army would find it and destroy it. Then we'd build again, and they would destroy again. Eventually, they got tired of destroying it, and now they actually use it for patrols."

Our bus begins its ascent, weighted down with a full load of students, steel armor plating and bullet-proof glass, the motor begins overheating. But onward we go!

Chabad of Itamar, under construction.

Eventually we arrive at hill 851.

Some soldiers guarding hill 851.

I thought that was a pretty cool pic, so here's a zoomed-in version.

The outpost itself isn't much to write home about. A few ramshakle houses, mostly built up log-cabin type skins over trailer interiors. But hill 851 provides a strategic view over Shchem (Nablus,) which has always been a hotbed of terror.

A boychik soldier in his base. He was happy to pose for photographs.

Yours truly, looking from the bunker out over Beit Furik.

A trailer converted to a log cabin.
Scattered houses of Hill 851

While wandering around Hill 851, we find a modest shrine, labeled, "Tomb of Gidon the Judge."

"When we were building the outpost, there were a few stones stacked up on this spot. Nothing major. We accidentally bumped into them with a bulldozer and knocked them over. We didn't think much of it, but the woman who was driving the bulldozer had recurring nightmares that she had destroyed something important. When they didn't go away, we took her to some of the major kabbalists. They told her that she had demolished the grave of Gid'on Hashofet (Gideon the Judge, whose leadership in war is described in the book of Judges.) We built this little shrine for him. We don't have any external proof or long-standing traditions about this gravesite. Still, it's nice to have."

Menachem, Itamar resident, Mahon Meir graduate, and our guide.

"Tzedukkah (Charity) for Gid'on HaShofet"

The "Grave" of Gid'on HaShofet


Rav Listman, "This is ten times bigger than the trailers at my outpost."

Continuing along, we passed through several similar hilltop outposts, some more and some less developed.

Further up: It's a windy day at the Givot Olam outpost.

A tourist attraction out here in the middle of nowhere, the "Three Seas" tower. From the top of the tower, on a clear day, one can see the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee.

And more and more and more hilltops. Itamar seems to go on forever.

Tisha B'Av

Well, we've just passed the 1,939th Tisha B'Av (9th of Av) the annual day of mourning comemmorating the destruction of the first and second temples, as well as various other calamities throughout Jewish history including the sin of the spies (detailed in Parshat Shlach), as well as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and the outbreak of the First World War.

Of course, the Islamic Wakf (Muslim religious authority) which administers the Temple Mount (and the mosque which rests atop it) celebrated by continuing their destruction of archaeological ruins, including the digging of a ten foot deep trench to replace leaky pipes, blasting apart the strata of the previous civilizations they succeeded. Kinda ironic since the word "wakf" means "stop" in Arabic, a reference to the Wakf's nominal duty of preventing destruction and preserving holy sites. Destruction of antiquities is a serious criminal offense in Israel, but Israeli government interference on the Temple Mount would cause an outrage throughout the Muslim world, which would be a real diplomatic pain in the neck for the current administration to deal with, and a security nightmare for the Jerusalem police, so official Israel yawns and looks the other way.

In Jerusalem, events to commemorate the destruction moved apace. The scrappy ten or twenty members of the "Temple Mount Faithful" showed up with their cornerstone to take up to the Temple Mount in order to initiate the temple's rebuilding, the police came out in force to stop them, and the media swooped down on "The Faithful" to draw out the most provocative comment possible for the evening news. If sinat chinam, baseless hatred, destroyed the second temple as the Talmud attests, then we've got some work to do before it can be rebuilt.

Of course other events of unity occurred throughout the city. A group of worshipers visited Kever Rachel, Rachel's Tomb, to visit our foremother. We're told that she was buried in a field along the ancient Jerusalem-Babylon highway outside of Beit Lechem (Bethlehem,) separate from the rest of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs in Hebron, so that she would be there to cry for her children as they were dragged off into the Babylonian Exile after the destruction of the first temple.

Another group made a march around the old city walls in an expression of love for the holy city. Of course, I wanted to go to all of these, but the 25-hour fast (no food, no water) was really a killer. Usually I handle fasts pretty well, but for some reason I decided to go jogging in 90 degree (Fahrenheit) weather a mere three hours before the fast, and was unable to make up the water loss in time. Talk about nausea and a splitting headache! So I slept, or clutched my throbbing head, for most of the day. Hopefully, I'll miss these events next year as well, because they will have been canceled and the Temple will have been rebuilt already. 1,939 years is long enough to wait!

Shomron Trip V: Organic Agriculture

Previous posts in this series:
Shomron Trip I: The Ride to Shchem
Shomron Trip II: Mayim Chayim
Shomron Trip III: On Mount Grizzim
Shomron Trip IV: Itamar


Settlements like Maaleh Adumim and Kochav Yaakov have experienced rapid growth over the years due to their proximity to Jerusalem, providing them with the ample employment and cultural benefits of city life. In the hills of northern Shomron, 40 minutes' drive from coastal cities like Netanya, 40 minutes being an eternity in Israel, each community has had to find creative ways of self-sufficiency. In Itamar's case, the settlers turned to agriculture. Shchem (Nablus) has sprawled outward and already consumed all the arable land in the valleys, so the settlers had to explore new forms of agriculture.

Alon Zimmerman's hilltop farm.

Because Arabs can not sell land to Jews on pain of death at the hands of their brethren, Itamar has focused on transforming the rocky, dead hilltops into productive agricultural land.

Yours truly, in front of Itamar.

our tour of Alon Zimmerman's farm included new fruits in the hothouses. The hothouses provide protection from the strong winds of the exposed hilltops, and provide enough heat to grow trees which would otherwise not survive the harsh environment.

Entering the hothouses.

Alon shows us his products.

Drip irrigation

Apples. These are still "orlah" (covered.) A Jew is required not to touch fruit-bearing trees until the third year after their planting.

Al agriculture is organic, without hazardous pesticides. "Previous conquerors demonstrated that they did not hold the land holy because the agriculture they practiced destroyed it. When the Crusaders conquered Eretz Yisrael, they planted sugar cane. Within three years the sugar cane had completely stripped the soil of its nutrients." Later, he doesn't add, the nomadic Arabs defeated the Crusaders and overgrazed the area.


The Tanach speaks of the great forests which once carpeted the hills and valleys of the Shomron. While today the land outside of Jewish settlements is completely barren and devoid of trees, the name of a nearby Arab village attests to the once plentiful lumber. The village is named Hattib, Arabic for "cut," which implies a village of woodcutters. Historical records indicate that the last trees in the Shomron were felled by the Ottoman Empire during World War I in a failed attempt to build a rail line to reinforce their retreating troops. With the disappearance of the forests which once blanketed the Shomron, the winds carried away precious topsoil and exposed the rocks which lay beneath.

The forests are slowly returning to the Shomron within Jewish settlements.

"We find that God rewards those who respect the land. Since we started using organic techniques, every year, we have harvested more and more."

Strawberry patches.

Strawberries. I've never tasted anything so sweet. As if they had already been dipped in sugar.

Next year, starting in Rosh Hashannah, will be a Shmittah, or sabbatical year. During the Shmittah year, which comes every seven years, all land lays fallow, a sort of sabbath for the soil. There is a controversial halachic loophole, Heter Mechirah, which permits the temporary sale of land to a goy (Jews are permitted to work land owned by goyim,) in order to prevent famine or loss of the land. Hydroponic farming is permitted during Shmittah since the crops do not come into contact with the soil.

"It's a difficult decision, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I might have to do heter mechirah. Of course," he says, glancing at a massive rainwater collection pond he built, "I've been thinking of hydrophonic or fish farming, so maybe I'll take a year and try that out."

Perhaps hydroponic gardening is the answer?

The greatest challenge yet came not from Shmittah but from the Arabs, during the Intifada. It started in September of 2000, right at harvest time.

"One day, the truck just didn't come to take our tomatoes to market. I called the truck driver. He was terrified to come out here. I really didn't know what to do. It seemed like all my crops were going to sit and rot. That night I talked with my wife. All our wives got together, and they started playing with recipes. Pretty soon, they had figured out how to make pasta sauces, sun dried tomatoes, and preserves. Things that would last on the shelves. We opened a factory on the settlement, and were able to save the crop."

Alon's success has been replicated on many of the hilltops of Itamar, stretching out over mile after mile of the once barren hilltops.


Next stop... Hill 851.

Paragliders

On my recent trip to Kfar Haroeh and Netanya, specifically our visit to the beach, I couldn't miss the paragliders swooping back and forth along the coast, so I decided to post the photos here.

The coast here ends in a steep cliff, so sea breezes moving inland are deflected upward. This updraft is enough to suspend the paragliders above the shoreline, and you can see them dancing along the coast, darting between buildings. Looks fun.

Shomron Trip IV: Itamar

Previous posts in this series:
Shomron Trip I: The Ride to Shchem
Shomron Trip II: Mayim Chayim
Shomron Trip III: On Mount Grizzim

Yours truly, Itamar behind me.

We arrived in Itamar, unloaded from the bus, and were herded to the top of the hill.

Uh... what are we doing?

Made it to the top first, with my new binoculars.

Our guide, Menachem, gave us a brief rundown on the origins of Itamar. The place was actually founded by a garin (seed) group of yeshiva students from our very own Machon Meir. Originally, they had wanted to name it Tel Chayim (the hill of life,) but the government was opposed because there were already too many places with similar names. Looking through the pages of the Tanach, they realized that Itamar, son of Aharon the Cohen (and nephew of Moses himself) was buried a few kilometers down the road, in what is now the Arab village of Awarta. The name Itamar stuck.

At the top of the more heavily settled section of Itamar one finds the ancient ruins typical of almost every hilltop in Israel. Sifting through the rocks and rubble on the ground, one finds shards of loose pottery all around.

A piece of a pitcher handle.

Pottery shards strewn about.

Moving higher on the hill, one comes to an ancient mikvah. One way of proving the Jewishness of particular ancient ruins is to find a mikvah. In this case, there is evidence of two layers of civilization. First, one finds a mikvah, meeting the requirements of Jewish Halachah. However, notice on the bottom left of the entrance there seem to be the remains of steps. However, the steps were later removed. It seems clear that this was originaly a Jewish settlement, but later civilizations had no use for the mikvah and so chiseled off the steps, turning it into a cistern. Cisterns do not require steps because one need only drop in a bucket from above rather than completely immerse one's body.

A mikvah, hewn from the stones. You can see the remnants of the steps on the bottom left vertical wall.

Chisel marks pointing down and to the left, which would indicate that the chiseler was left handed. Also note the traced edges of the former steps.

Rebuilt terraces.

Another mikvah.

But today, Itamar is again a thriving Jewish settlement.

Flowers on fruit-bearing cacti.

A small farm house. On the next ridgeline is Awarta.

Afterwards we descend back to the more "thickly" settled area of Itamar. "Thickly settled," is, of course, a relative term out here.

Clusters of houses in Itamar, with Mount Eval seen in the background.

The modest homes of Itamar.

Unlike the neighboring community of Elon Moreh, Itamar subsists largely on agriculture. However, growing edible foods on the barren hilltops has proved to be much more challenging than in the valleys below. Our next stop is an organic hilltop farm.