Atlit (modern town) explained

Atlit
Arname:Arabic: عتليت
Foundation:6900 BCE (Atlit Yam)
13th century(Oirat village)
19th century(Arab village)[1]
1903 (Jewish village settlement)
1948 (Israeli town)
Altunosp:Atlith
District:haifa
Council:Hof HaCarmel
Pushpin Map:Israel haifa#Israel
Pushpin Mapsize:250
Pushpin Label Position:left
Coordinates:32.6872°N 34.9383°W
Grid Position:formerly 144/234, now 144/232 PAL

Atlit (Hebrew: עַתְלִית, Arabic: عتليت) is a coastal town located south of Haifa, Israel. The community is in the Hof HaCarmel Regional Council in the Haifa District of Israel.

Off the coast of Atlit is a submerged Neolithic village. The town of Atlit is named after the nearby Crusader outpost and fortified town of Atlit, also known as Château Pèlerin, which although in ruins remained populated until 1948.

The town was established in 1903 under the auspices of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, approximately two kilometers south of the historical site which was then a small Palestinian village. The Atlit detainee camp is nearby, which was used by the British to intern Jewish refugees and is now a museum.[2] From 1950 until the unification of the municipalities in 2003, Atlit was a local council whose jurisdiction was 14,000 dunams. In the population was .

History

Neolithic

See main article: Atlit Yam. Atlit Yam is an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit. Atlit-Yam provides the earliest known evidence for an agro-pastoral-marine subsistence system on the Levantine coast.[3]

Bronze Age

Atlit shows evidence of human habitation since the early Bronze Age.

Crusader period

See main article: Château Pèlerin. The Crusaders built the historical settlement of Atlit, also known as Château Pèlerin. It was one of the largest citadels in the Holy Land, and became the last remaining Crusader outpost (see also: Fall of Ruad), remaining in Crusader's hands until 1291.[4]

The ruins of the citadel are still visible in modern times. Immediately to the north also lies a large medieval Christian cemetery hosting the graves of men, women and children who lived in the surrounding during the 13th century.[5] [6]

Foundation

In 1903, Jewish settlers began to build a nearby village approximately 2 km south of the ancient site which they also called Atlit.[7] The village was established by Edmond James de Rothschild, with most of the land bought from Arab fishermen.[8] A hundred families settled there but much of it was swampland, and many residents succumbed to malaria.[9] Aaron Aaronsohn established an agricultural station in Atlit in 1911, and during World War I the village was used as a base by the Nili organisation.[8]

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine, during the British Mandate of Palestine period Athlit Colony had a population of 78 Jews and 3 Muslims, while Athlit Salt works had a population of 196 Jews, 1 Muslim and 1 Christian.[10]

The population of the wider had increased in the 1931 census to 413 Muslims, 496 Jews and 39 Christians; in a total of 193 houses; in addition to historical Atlit, this included Atlit Salt Co., Atlit Labour Group, Atlit Quarry, Aaronson Farm, Atlit Station and Atlit Police Post.[11]

The Arab presence underwent a sharp decline in the 1940s due to land sales, so that by the 1945 statistics there were only 150 Arabs still living there (90 Muslims and 60 Christians) alongside 510 Jews.[12] [13]

State of Israel

The circumstances under which the remaining Arabs left in 1948 are unknown.[14] [15] The Atlit detainee camp was used by the British authorities to detain Jewish migrants to Palestine.[16]

It is now a museum of the Ha'apala (illegal Jewish immigration 1934–48). The headquarters of Shayetet 13 marine commandos is located at Atlit naval base on the Atlit promontory, placing the Crusader ruins there off-limits for regular visitors.

Atlit was declared a local council in 1950, but in 2004 was incorporated in the Hof HaCarmel Regional Council as one of a handful of Regional Councils. The late Knesset member Pesah Grupper lived in Atlit. He was head of its local council in the years 1959–1962 and 1969–1971.

Archaeology

In August 2021, marine archeologists headed by Yaakov Sharvit from Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of 1,700-year-old coins weighing a total of 6 kg., dated back to the 4th century AD. According to Sharvit, coins demonstrated that they were assembled together and agglutinated because of oxidation of the metals.[17] [18] [19]

Wildlife

Flamingos heading to Africa for the winter make migration stops in Atlit.[20]

Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods in Atlit are Neve Moshe, Yamit, Giv'at HaPrahim, Giv'at HaBrekhot, Giv'at Sharon, Shoshanat HaYam, HaGoren, Yafe Nof, Argaman, Hofit, Savyonei Atlit and Allon. Atlit is in immediate vicinity of the villages Neve Yam and Ein Carmel.

Twin towns

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: عتليت الأرض والذاكرة. 16 April 2018.
  2. Web site: Pre-State Israel: Atlit Immigration Camp. Jewish Virtual Library. 2017. May 17, 2017.
  3. http://www.emu.edu.tr/underwater/Symposiums/symposiums1/abstracts/marineachology.html Marine archaeology
  4. Book: Holt. Peter Malcolm. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 151. 1986. Addison Wesley Longman Limited. 9781317871521. 104.
  5. Book: Gleize . Yves . Vivas . Mathieu . Dorso . Simon . Castex . Dominique . Les vivants et les morts dans les sociétés médiévales : XLVIIIe Congrès de la SHMESP (Jérusalem, 2017) . Éditions de la Sorbonne . 979-10-351-0577-8 . 187–204 . Le cimetière d’Atlit, un espace des morts au pied de Château-Pèlerin (royaume latin de Jérusalem - xiiie siècle). 3 April 2020 .
  6. Gleize . Yves . Dorso . Simon . 'Atlit, Crusader Cemetery . Hadashot Arkheologiyot . 2019 . 131 .
  7. Sandra M. Sufian (2008) Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920-1947, University of Chicago Press, p103
  8. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/atlit.html Atlit
  9. https://books.google.com/books?id=Zt9Do3WEUQoC&pg=PA103 The Claim of Disspossesion, Arieh Avneri
  10. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 33
  11. Mills, 1932, p. 87
  12. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47
  14. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #387. Also gives "not known" as cause of depopulation
  15. Khalidi, 1992, pp. 146-147
  16. Web site: The End of the Line . Hadassah Magazine. https://archive.today/20130103140834/http://www.hadassah.com/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2003/03_FEB/traveler.htm . dead . January 3, 2013 . February 5, 2016 .
  17. Web site: Ancient 1,700-year-old coins found on Israeli beach. 2021-08-27. The Jerusalem Post JPost.com. 14 August 2021 . en-US.
  18. Web site: Gershon. Livia. Israeli Tour Guide on Camping Trip Discovers 1,700-Year-Old Coins. 2021-08-27. Smithsonian Magazine. en.
  19. Web site: 2021-08-19. 1,700-Year-Old Coins Were Just Discovered Clumped Together on a Beach. 2021-08-27. Observer. en-US.
  20. Web site: ToI Staff . En route to Africa, flamingos make stop near Haifa . 2023-05-16 . www.timesofisrael.com . en-US.

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