The Upper Galilee is a geographical-political term in use since the end of the Second Temple period, originally referring to a mountainous area overlapping the present northern Israel and southern Lebanon, its borders being the Litani river in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Beit HaKerem valley and Lower Galilee in the south and the Jordan river and Hula Valley in the east.^[1]

In present-day Israeli terminology, the term is mainly used in reference to the part that is under Israeli sovereignty.

[edit] Geography

A view looking north from the top of Har Meron in the Upper Galilee. Parts of southern Lebanon are visible in the background.

Old road from Rosh Pina to Safed, Upper Galilee, Israel.

Following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the Balfour Declaration in which the British Empire promised to create "A Jewish National Home" in Palestine, the Zionist Movement presented to the Versailles Peace Conference a document calling for including in the British Mandate of Palestine the entire territory up to the Litani river — with a view to this becoming eventually part of a future Jewish state.

In the event, only less than half this area came to be actually included in British Mandatory Palestine, the final border being influenced both by diplomatic maneuverings and struggles between Britain and France and by fighting on the ground, especially the March 1920 battle of Tel Hai.

For a considerable time after the border was defined so to make the northern portion of the territory concerned part of the French mandated territory that became Lebanon, many Zionist geographers — and Israeli geographers in the state's early years — continued to speak of "The Upper Galilee" as being "the northern sub-area of the Galilee region of Israel and Lebanon".

Under this definition, "The Upper Galilee" covers an area spreading over 1,500 km², about 700 in Israel and the rest in Lebanon. This included the highland region, located in South Lebanon and known in Arabic as Jabal Amel,^[2] which was at for some time known in Hebrew as "The Lebanese Galilee".^[1] As defined in geographical terms, "it is separated from the Lower Galilee by the Beit HaKerem valley; its mountains are taller and valleys are deeper than those in the Lower Galilee; its tallest peak is Har Meron at 1,208 m above sea level. Safed is one of the major cities in this region".

Historically, since this area was never controlled by the Jews and did not have significant connections to Jewish nationalism other than geography, it was never considered within the bounds of "the heartland of historical Israel", and even today is not considered part of Greater Israel in the discourse of the Israeli right wing.

In recent decades, however, this usage has virtually disappeared from the general Israeli discourse, the term "Upper Galilee" being used solely in reference to the part located in Israel. In a paradoxical way, exactly the fact of South Lebanon being continually under Israeli military occupation between 1982 and 2000 helped increase Israelis' feeling of alienation from this area.

Israeli soldiers stationed there and tasked with fighting guerrillas from Hizbullah and smaller Lebanese organizations felt themselves to be in a foreign and hostile land, a feeling shared by their families and eventually the Israeli public at large. No Israeli political grouping, even on the far right, ever proposes annexation of the territory or establishing Israeli settlements in it.

On the other hand, "Upper Galilee" became well-established as the name for the northern portion of Israel. Using the same name also to designate part of the territory of a hostile country inhabited by staunch enemies would have seemed strange, whatever the geographical considerations; consequently, use of "Upper Galilee" as also including the part on the Lebanese side of the border has completely disappeared from general Israeli usage.

[edit] See also

• North District (Israel)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• www.galil-elion.org.il