Kfar Giladi () is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle of northern Israel.
Kfar Giladi is also notable for archaeological discoveries such as Neolithic and Chalcolithic findings
History
Kfar Giladi was founded in 1916 by members of
Hashomer on land owned by the Jewish Colonisation Association. It was named after Israel Giladi, one of the founders of the Hashomer movement. The area was subject to intermittent border adjustments between the British and the French, and in 1919, the British relinquished the northern section of the Upper Galilee containing
Tel Hai,
Metula, Hamra, and Kfar Giladi to the
France jurisdiction. After the Arab attack on Tel Hai in 1920, it was temporarily abandoned. Ten months later, the settlers returned. Several older buildings stand on the kibbutz that memorialize previous battles on the site, before and during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
In 1921 a top secret arms store was dug 10 metres into the hillside. Measuring 5 by 5 metres square and 2 metres high its entrance was concealed in a stable. It was never discovered by the Mandate authorities.[Ben Zvi, Rahel Yanait (1976; translated by Marie Syrkin 1989) Before Golda: Manya Shochat. A Biography. Biblio Press, New York. p.114]
Between 1916 and 1932, the population totaled 40–70. In 1932, the kibbutz absorbed 100 newcomers, mainly young immigrants. From 1922 to 1948, between 8,000–10,000 Jewish immigrants were smuggled into Palestine through Kibbutz Giladi, circumventing the Mandatory ban on aliyah.
In an operation known as Mivtzah HaElef, 1,300 Jewish children were smuggled out of Syria between 1945 and 1948. At the kibbutz, the children were dressed in work clothes and hidden in the kibbutz chicken coops and cowsheds.
In August 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War, twelve reserve IDF soldiers were killed after being hit by a Katyusha rocket launched by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon. The group of artillery gunners were gathering on the kibbutz in preparation for action in the conflict.
Gaza war
During the
Gaza war, northern Israeli border communities, including Kfar Giladi, faced targeted attacks by
Hezbollah and Palestinian factions based in Lebanon, and were evacuated.
[ IDF to evacuate civilians from 28 communities along Lebanese border amid attacks]
2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
On 30 September 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a limited ground invasion into
Southern Lebanon. On that same day, the IDF declared that Kfar Giladi became a closed military area.
File:כפר גלעדי - החצר-JNF008584.jpeg|Kfar Giladi 1930
File:שדה בכפר גלעדי בעמק החולה-JNF034433.jpeg|Kfar Giladi 1930
File:כפר גלעדי - מר××” כללי.-JNF044251.jpeg|Kfar Giladi 1934
File:Zoltan Kluger. Kfar Gileadi (Upper Galilee).jpg|Kfar Giladi 1937
File:Kfar Giladi.jpg|Palmach camp at Kfar Giladi. 1948
File:Kfar Giladi ii.jpg|Members of the Palmach from Kfar Giladi on exercise. c. 1947
Landmarks
Eight historic buildings built in 1922 are being preserved and restored. Built of Galilee stone and materials imported from Lebanon, they are among the few remaining vestiges of early kibbutz housing.
Archaeology
Neolithic and Chalcolithic remains
An archaeological site at Kfar Giladi was excavated in 1957 and 1962.
[Kaplan, J., Kfar Giladi, Israel Exploration Journal, 8:274, 1958] It revealed remains four stages of occupation in different periods. An early
Neolithic stage was suggested to date between 6400 and 5800
Before Christ. Finds included Dark faced burnished ware with incisions and
rope patterns.
included
,
,
and denticulated
sickle blade elements. Similar finds were located in a later neolithic stage including a female
clay figurine dating between 5800 and 5400 BC. Two later periods of occupation were attributed to
Chalcolithic occupations similar to
Wadi Rabah.
Another nearby Neolithic site was excavated in 1973.
Mausoleum Yad Hezekiah – Giv'at ha-Shoqet
In 1961, J. Kaplan conducted an excavation at Giv'at ha-Shoqet, a hill located southwest of the built area of Kfar Giladi, and revealed a
mausoleum with three burial levels. The uppermost level, Stratum I, contained an empty sarcophagus inscribed with the
Hebrew name Hezekiah, indicating it belonged to a
Jews individual. Kaplan proposed that the mausoleum was built to house this sarcophagus.
The layer below, Stratum II, situated beneath the mausoleum floor, contained seven rectangular graves, some featuring lead coffins adorned with depictions such as Hercules; one of them had a gold diadem and bracelet adorned with semi-precious stones. The lowest stratum (stratum III) included a marble sarcophagus belonging to Heracleides.
Kaplan identified two usage periods: the first (Stratum I and III) dating to no later than the Severan dynasty (192–235 AD), with Hezekiah and Heracleides buried, and the second (Stratum II) with the seven graves dating around 290–310 AD.
Climate
See also
-
Keeping the Kibbutz (2010 documentary about Kfar Giladi)
-
Kfar Giladi–Tel Hai Cemetery
External links
