Keith (London)

Jerusalem Chronology

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the
world. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews
at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.Israel produces more scientific papers
per capita than any other nation by a large margin- 109 per 10,000
people- as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she
became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup
companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number
of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the
U.S. (3,500 companies, mostly in hi-tech).

When the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli
rescue teams were on the scene within a day- and saved three victims
from the rubble.

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds behind the U.S.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship- and the highest
rate among women and among people over 55-in the world.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number
of NASDAQ listed companies.Relative to its population, Israel is the
largest immigrant- absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in
search of democracy, religious freedom and economic opportunity
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The
per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the U.K.
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an
international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.’”

With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the
aircraft outside of the U.S. According to industry officials, Israel designed
the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now
look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors
combined.

Israel’s Maccabi basketball team won the European championships in
2001.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of bio-tech start-ups.
Israeli tennis player Anna Smashanova is ranked the 15th female player
in the world.

Israel has the largest raptor migration in the world, with hundreds of
thousands of African birds of prey crossing as they fan out in to Asia.

Mighty Morphin ‘Power Rangers” was produced by Haim Saban, an
Israeli whose family fled from Egypt.

Twenty- four percent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees-
ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and
Holland- and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played a
concert wearing gas masks as Scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein fell
on Tel Aviv.

Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

Israel has the world’s second highest per capita of new books.

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with
a net gain in its number of trees.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country
Israel has two official languages: Hebrew and Arabic
Medicine

Israel’s Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so
small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside,
the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Israeli Scientists developed the first fully computerized, no radiation, diagnostic
instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized System for ensuring proper administration of medications Thus removing human error from medical treatment.

Every Year in U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
Technology With more than 3,000 hi-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the
highest concentration of hi tech companies in the world (apart from the
Silicon Valley.)

Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft
-Israel

In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and
agriculturists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to
minimize the amount of water used to grow crops. The Pentium
MMX Chip was designed in Israel at Intel. Voicemail technology was
developed in Israel. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only
R & D facilities outside the U.S. in Israel.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per
capita. The technology for AOL Instant Messenger was developed in
1996 by four young Israelis.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the
workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70
in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force
employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as
well.

A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clearlight device,
produces a high intensity, ultra violet free, narrow –band blue light that
cause acne bacteria to self destruct- all without damaging surrounding
skin or tissue.

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its
largest development center in Israel. An Israeli company was the first
to develop and install a large-scale solar powered and fully functional
electricity generating plant, in southern California’s Mojave desert.
The first PC anti-virus software was developed in Israel in 1979.

2000 BCE Patriarchs and Matriarchs: settlement of the Land of Israel

1250 BCE Moses, desert wanderings; receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai; conquest of Land of Israel by Joshua; rule by Judges

1st TEMPLE PERIOD

1000 BCE Jerusalem becomes King David’s capital; Solomon builds First Temple; division of kingdom into Israel and Judah

586 BCE Destruction of First Temple; Babylonian Exile

2ND TEMPLE PERIOD

Return to Zion; Ezra and Nechemia; construction of Second Temple

332 BCE Jerusalem comes under Greek domination

166 BCE Maccabean Revolt; restoration of Jewish autonomy;
Hasmonean Empire

63 BCE Roman invasion of Israel [Kingdom of Herod; Hillel and Shammai leaders of rabbinic thought]

70 CE Destruction of Jerusalem and Second Temple

EXILE AND DIASPORA (Beginning of rabbinic period)

73 CE Destruction of Masada

132 CE Bar Kochba Revolt; compilation of Mishna by Rabbi Yehuda
Hanassi

324 CE Talmudic period; decline of Israel as Jewish center; rise of Jewish academies in Babylonia

638 CE Arab conquest of Jerusalem; construction of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa mosques; renewal of Jewish settling

1100 CE Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099); in France, Rashi writes commentary on the Bible; Ramban’s settlement marks return of Jews to Jerusalem and worship at the

Western Wall (1267)
1492 CE Jews expelled from Spain
1517 CE Ottoman Empire rules Jerusalem; Sephardic synagogues established; Shulchan Aruch published in Zfat
1789 CE Napoleon In Eretz Yisrael
1860 CE Yemin Moshe was founded as first settlement outside Old City walls
1880 CE Pogroms in Russia; Dreyfus trial; Theodore Herzl; First Aliyah; First Zionist Congress; Tel Aviv founded
1917 CE British Mandate in Palestine; Jewish population increases; rise of Arab nationalism
1938 CE Kristallnacht; British White paper restricts Jewish immigration to Palestine; beginning of Holocaust

MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL

1947 CE Partition Plan

1948 CE State of Israel proclaimed; War of Independence; beginning of waves of immigration from Europe, Yemen and Iraq

1967 CE Six Day War; reunification of Jerusalem

In the last 30 years, we have seen the Yom Kippur war and the War in Lebanon, peace agreements with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, terrorist attacks, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. You will learn about these events on your trip. Which of these might appear on the timeline 500 years from now?

Long and narrow in shape, Israel is about 290 miles (470 km) long and
85 miles (135 km) across at its widest point. Its total area is 22,072 sq. km
of which 21,643 sq. km is land area (Sea of Galilee: 164 sq. km.; Dead Sea:
265sq.km.).

Israel’s total land border measures 857 km., its Mediterranean coastline
194 km, and 12 km on the Red Sea.

The majority of Israelis (92%) live in urban communities. One quarter of
the Israeli population lives either in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Rishon LeZion.
Jerusalem is the largest city with 719,900 residents. Most of Israel’s
population is concentrated in the center of the country around Tel Aviv, which
has a population of 378,900.

Largest Cities by Population

Jerusalem 719,900
Tel Aviv –Yafo 378,900
Haifa 267,000
Rishon LeZion 219,500
Ashdod 200,600

Latest Population Figures for Israel

On its Independence Day, April 24th, 2007 the State of Israel’s
population stands at approximately 7,150,000 inhabitants – compared to
806,000 residents who lived in Israel in 1948, according to the Central
Bureau of Statistics data.

Of the total population, 5,415,000 are Jews (76 percent) while 1,425,000
million (20 percent) are Arabs. 310,000 (4 percent) of the people were
classified as “others”, mostly non-Jewish immigrants from the former
Soviet Union or those whose Jewish status is still undetermined by Interior Ministry.

In the past year the Israeli population has grown by 121,000, a rate of
1.8 percent. Since 2003, the growth rate has remained relatively stable.

The majority (88 percent) of the increase was due to natural births. There
were 148,000 births recorded in Israel in 2006.During that same period,
18,400 new immigrants made aliyah to Israel, accounting for the rest of
the growth (12 percent) in Israel’s population.

There is not another city that has been the cause of so many armed conflicts as Jerusalem. The Jews prayed and pray in her direction three times a day during centuries.
The hustle and bustle of this beautiful town, the noisy local markets, the sanctity of the holy places for Judaism, Christianity and the Islam, and a close association with the Bible al wait to be experienced by travelers of all ages and interests from all walks of life.
Thousands of Christian pilgrims visit Jerusalem every year, and small crosses carved on the stone walls along the steps leading to the Chapel for the Finding of the Cross are silent and touching witnesses to the fulfillment of their dream.

The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel as the Jews call it, is the last remains of the wall surrounding the temple and is sacred to the Jewish People as a religious and national symbol. People push notes of prayers, requests and desires that are addressed to G-d.

The monumentum which resembles a Nabatean tomb, known as Absalom´s tomb, which is cone shaped top and located in near the Old City, has stood in the Kidron Valley facing the Temple Mount since the time of the Second Temple. Jewish People believe that the resurrection of the dead would begin there when the Messiah arrive so it´s a place used during centuries for burying the dead. Many great scholars are buried there.

Although the precise origin of the Hebrew name for Jerusalem, Yerushalayim remains uncertain, scholars have come up with a variety of interpretations. Some say it means “legacy of peace” — a combination of yerusha (legacy) and shalom (peace). “Shalom” is a cognate of the Hebrew name “Shlomo,” i.e., King Solomon,” the builder of the First Temple. Alternatively, the second part of the word could be Salem (Shalem literally “whole” or “in harmony”), an early name for Jerusalem that appears in the Book of Genesis. Others cite the Amarna letters, where the Akkadian name of the city appears as Urušalim, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem (this last part from Wikipedia).

The famed city of Caesarea was built on the site of an older town, Straton Tower, first mentioned in the letters of Zeno, an Egyptian treasury official of the third century BCE.
Zeno disembarked at the harbor while on this way from Egypt to Syria. The remains of the older town, named after a King Straton of Sidon are north of a wall built much later in the Crusader period.

In 96 BCE the city fell into Jewish hands in a Hasmonean campaign to secure the coastline and develop fishing and shipping industries. In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey the Great conquered Caesarea and declared it to be a free town under the authority of the Roman governor of Syria.

The great leap in its development and fame arrived in 22 BCE When Herod the Great gained control of Caesarea and began his colossal building projects there.

Flavius Josephus wrote that Herod “observed there was a city by the seaside that was much decayed (its name was Straton´s Tower)…Herod rebuilt it all with white stone and adorned it with several most splendid palaces…and built a haven”.

Herod indeed planned and entire city, based on the Roman model and including imposing public buildings, a theater, hippodrome, temples and a surrounding wall. A palace was built for the Roman governor of Judea. Two aqueducts were built from the foot of the Carmel Mountains, many sections of them still visible today, including one pillar with an inscription carved by soldiers of the 10th Roman Legion. Herod named the city for the emperor Augustus and its crowning glory was the port – one of the most impressive building projects built anywhere in this period.

The Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who condemned Jesus to be executed, lived at Caesarea and plaque bearing his name and recording a dedication he made has been found. It is the only written evidence of Pilate outside the gospels. Peter, the successor chosen by Jesus made his first direct convert to christianity in Caesarea, of a man named Cornelius. Herod later imprisoned Peter in Jerusalem during Passover, but he escaped and made his way to Caesarea and from there he set sail for Rome and into history.
There had been endless friction between the Jews and non-Jews of Caesarea, so when the revolt against Rome erupted in 66 CE, the conflict quickly became bloody in the city. The Roman general Vespasian (later emperor) made Caesarea his base from which to launch the conquest of Jerusalem.

The remains of the town today date mainly from Crusader period. It was captured during the first Crusader campaign in 1101 and became the center of the marine transport system along the coast.

The Crusaders built and rebuilt the city´s fortifications, especially in 1249 during the campaign of Louis IX of France (who became Saint Louis after his death).

In the 1265 the Mameluk Sultan Baybars conquered Caesarea and destroyed its wall to discourage any resettlement. The city and its surroundings remained in ruins.

In the recent years efforts have been made to expose the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader parts of the city, including the eastern Crusader entrance.

The Pillars of the drawbridge are well preserved the entrance gate was carved with capitals, cornices and other architectural devices that have also survived.

Tioman Hotel

Melaka Hotel 

Judean Desert: Descend to the Judean Desert via the inn of the Good Samaritan. View the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at Qumran.

Drive to Metsuke Dragot Enter the desert with overview of Murabat wadi and the caves where the rebels of Bar Kochba hid. On route stop for a breathtaking view from overlook at Michvar-an ancient Jewish stronghold located on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea on Mt Moab. Continue to Mt Hassason and Ras Nekeb Kamar. Then onto Wadi Tekoah with a short herbal tea break along the way.

Dead Sea: Will end this tour with a swim in the Dead Sea. Late lunch stop for snacks/sandwiches on Dead Sea shore. Drive back to Jerusalem with over view of Jericho and old Roman Road..

Tips and Sugestions

• Bring hat, bathing suit, comfortable shoes.

• Recommended to bring water and light meal

• Minimum 3 participants.