Beit Eshel
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name =Beit Eshel
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|image_skyline = Beteshel.jpg
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|pushpin_map =Mandatory Palestine
|pushpin_label_position =bottom
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|established_date = 1943
|coordinates = {{coord|31|14|06|N|34|48|46.48|E|region:IQ|display=inline,title}}
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Beit Eshel ({{langx|he|בֵּית אֵשֶׁל}}) was a Jewish settlement established in the Negev desert in Mandate Palestine in 1943 as one of the "three lookouts" in the northern Negev, alongside Revivim and Gvulot. It was located two kilometres southeast of Beersheba.
Name
According to the Jewish National Fund, the name means "House of the Tamarisk" and refers to the tamarisks planted by the patriarch Abraham at Beersheba.{{cite book | title=Jewish Villages in Israel | author=Jewish National Fund | year=1949 | publisher=Hamadpis Liphshitz Press | location=Jerusalem | pages=17}}
History
The pioneers of Beit Eshel were Holocaust survivors from Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. As one of three outposts, the residents of Beit Eshel were tasked with checking the viability of agriculture in the area based on climate analysis, availability of water, etc. In 1947 the village had a population of over 100.
In May 1948, when Egypt invaded Israel in the early stages of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Beit Eshel was cut off from Jewish territory and was shelled heavily by the Egyptians. According to the Haganah, this attack was repulsed.{{cite news |author= Gene Currivan |page= 2 |title= Air War Spreads |date= May 22, 1948 |work= New York Times |url-access= subscription |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1948/05/22/archives/air-war-spreads.html |access-date= 20 January 2024}} 8 men and women were killed, many buildings destroyed or damaged, and the Egyptians continued to fire at the village sporadically.{{citation needed |date=January 2024}} In October 1948, with the IDF capture of the city of Beersheba, Beit Eshel was liberated.{{citation needed |date=January 2024}} However, the settlers of Beit Eshel couldn't cope with the large scale destruction, decided to abandon the settlement and to establish a new moshav named HaYogev in the Jezreel Valley.{{citation needed |date=January 2024}}
File:מראה בבית-אשל בנגב-JNF012095.jpeg|Beit Eshel 1945
File:Beit Eshel ii.jpg|Beit Eshel after recapture by the Israeli army. 1948
=Heritage site=
In 1960, a group of Beersheva residents established a volunteer society to preserve Beit Eshel as a national heritage site.[http://www.eretz.com/NEW/stayputbeers.shtml Stayput Beersheba]
Archaeology
Excavations at Beit Eshel in 2003 by a joint team of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Archaeological Division of Ben Gurion University of the Negev unearthed Ghassulian flint sickle blades from the fifth millennium BCE, suggesting that the site was a Ghassulian (Chalcolithic) flint workshop.[https://www.academia.edu/1072733/The_Ghassulian_sickle_blades_workshop_of_Beit_Eshel_Beer_Sheva_Israel The Ghassulian sickle blades workshop of Beit Eshel, Beer Sheva, Israel]
See also
- 11 points in the Negev, Zionist settlement project
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Jewish villages depopulated during the Israeli War of Independence}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Populated places established in 1943
Category:Geography of Southern District (Israel)
Category:Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine
Category:Jewish villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War