Page 32 - Discover Israel Magazine - 2015 Edition
P. 32
At Old Gesher, you’ll enjoy the Naharayim
Experience, where lowing water, sound, to evacuate the women and children from
colored lights and other efects take you Naharayim. Almost immediately afterward,
back to the old days. You’ll learn that even the Jordan Legion attacked Kibbutz Gesher.
after Rutenberg got his franchise, plenty of The restored kibbutz dining room Then, on Friday May 14, the day Israel
obstacles remained. Who would build the declared independence, the Iraqi army
dam to regulate the Jordan’s low at the Sea entered Naharayim, breaking an agreement
of Galilee? Who would construct the 42-foot- between King Abdullah and the workers.
high dam over the Yarmukh, with its massive Within a few hours their community was in
sluice gates for diverting the river into a 300- ruins. The workers barricaded themselves
acre artiicial lake, or the 1200-foot-long in the turbine hall, but had to surrender the
canal that sent the water plummeting down next day. Forty-three workers were taken
50 feet through iron pipes to the turbines? In prisoner, and were repatriated only nine
spite of the grueling conditions, the project months later.
attracted laborers from across the country,
providing work for 700 hungry pioneers. It was an emotional time when the new border
arrangements made access to Naharayim
Not even a natural disaster could stop possible again, especially for those whose
construction for long. In 1931, a lood personal history was connected to the place.
In May 1996, two buses with “Naharayim
transformers and the whole project seemed children” – many of whom were now senior
in danger. It was the laborers who saved the citizens -- set out to visit their childhood
swept away the recently installed 20-ton Animal quarantine station at the border, ca.1920
day, ofering to work for room and board until homes, hosted by oicials of the Hashemite
Rutenberg could ind investors to replace Kingdom of Jordan. Among the ruins, many
the ruined components. Inside of a year, the found the houses and gardens they once
two transformers were replaced, a third was knew.
installed, and the plant went into operation.
About two miles north of Old Gesher, the
You’ll also see remains of bridges at Old second part of your visit awaits, at Naharayim
Gesher, dating from Roman and Turkish itself. At the visitors center, before you start
times, the British railroad bridge that out on your tour, you may encounter a very
connected Transjordan with Tiberias and special lady, Orna Shimoni, from nearby
Beit She’an (gesher means “bridge” in Kibbutz Ashdot-Yaakov, who lovingly cares
Hebrew), and an old inn where caravans for a garden planted here memory of seven
spent the night, all of which attest to the girls killed by a Jordanian soldier in March
centrality of the major four-way junction 1997.
that was here. You’ll sit at the old wooden This train brought materials to build the Naharayim
tables in the restored dining room of Kibbutz The entire fascinating saga of the two sites,
Gesher where the pioneers once took their Power Station Old Gesher and Naharayim, comes together
meals, to see an imaginative audiovisual here as you walk along the Dam Trail to see
presentation of kibbutz life in the early part the massive loodgates over the Yarmukh,
of the 20th century. and stand on the Island of Peace, where
your local guide will point out the conluence
With today’s Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of the Jordan and the Yarmukh, the railroad
as your backdrop to the east, you’ll also that once connected Haifa to Damascus, the
discover that the power station and the Israel-Jordan border, the cultivated ields
workers’ neighborhood fell outside the of Kibbutz Ashdot-Yaakov, the workers’
boundaries of British Mandatory Palestine. neighborhood, and the hydroelectric-station
Many of the workers were citizens of – powered not only by water, but by vision
Transjordan, a status they believed would and determination.
protect them and their plant, even after
Palestine was partitioned in November 1947
and chaos ensued.
Old Gesher was restored by the Council for the Res-
A Mandate-era armored car
On the eve of the War of Independence, toration and Preservation of Historic Sites, the Israel
Golda Meir held two secret meetings with Electric Corporation, the Tourism Ministry, Kibbutz
Emir Abdullah of Transjordan (the great- Gesher, and other bodies. Special arrangements for
grandfather of the present king, Abdullah II) at the mobility-challenged, hearing- and sight-impaired
Naharayim – where she arrived disguised as are available at Old Gesher. The Jewish National Fund
and the Restoration Council assisted in the restoration
a veiled Arab woman – seeking to convince of Naharayim. For hours and group tours at both sites
him not to join the ighting. But join he did, call: Old Gesher, +972-4-6762685 and Naharayim at
and at the end of April 1948 it was decided +972-4-6709143.
A bus from the 1940s
32
DISCOVER ISRAEL
Experience, where lowing water, sound, to evacuate the women and children from
colored lights and other efects take you Naharayim. Almost immediately afterward,
back to the old days. You’ll learn that even the Jordan Legion attacked Kibbutz Gesher.
after Rutenberg got his franchise, plenty of The restored kibbutz dining room Then, on Friday May 14, the day Israel
obstacles remained. Who would build the declared independence, the Iraqi army
dam to regulate the Jordan’s low at the Sea entered Naharayim, breaking an agreement
of Galilee? Who would construct the 42-foot- between King Abdullah and the workers.
high dam over the Yarmukh, with its massive Within a few hours their community was in
sluice gates for diverting the river into a 300- ruins. The workers barricaded themselves
acre artiicial lake, or the 1200-foot-long in the turbine hall, but had to surrender the
canal that sent the water plummeting down next day. Forty-three workers were taken
50 feet through iron pipes to the turbines? In prisoner, and were repatriated only nine
spite of the grueling conditions, the project months later.
attracted laborers from across the country,
providing work for 700 hungry pioneers. It was an emotional time when the new border
arrangements made access to Naharayim
Not even a natural disaster could stop possible again, especially for those whose
construction for long. In 1931, a lood personal history was connected to the place.
In May 1996, two buses with “Naharayim
transformers and the whole project seemed children” – many of whom were now senior
in danger. It was the laborers who saved the citizens -- set out to visit their childhood
swept away the recently installed 20-ton Animal quarantine station at the border, ca.1920
day, ofering to work for room and board until homes, hosted by oicials of the Hashemite
Rutenberg could ind investors to replace Kingdom of Jordan. Among the ruins, many
the ruined components. Inside of a year, the found the houses and gardens they once
two transformers were replaced, a third was knew.
installed, and the plant went into operation.
About two miles north of Old Gesher, the
You’ll also see remains of bridges at Old second part of your visit awaits, at Naharayim
Gesher, dating from Roman and Turkish itself. At the visitors center, before you start
times, the British railroad bridge that out on your tour, you may encounter a very
connected Transjordan with Tiberias and special lady, Orna Shimoni, from nearby
Beit She’an (gesher means “bridge” in Kibbutz Ashdot-Yaakov, who lovingly cares
Hebrew), and an old inn where caravans for a garden planted here memory of seven
spent the night, all of which attest to the girls killed by a Jordanian soldier in March
centrality of the major four-way junction 1997.
that was here. You’ll sit at the old wooden This train brought materials to build the Naharayim
tables in the restored dining room of Kibbutz The entire fascinating saga of the two sites,
Gesher where the pioneers once took their Power Station Old Gesher and Naharayim, comes together
meals, to see an imaginative audiovisual here as you walk along the Dam Trail to see
presentation of kibbutz life in the early part the massive loodgates over the Yarmukh,
of the 20th century. and stand on the Island of Peace, where
your local guide will point out the conluence
With today’s Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of the Jordan and the Yarmukh, the railroad
as your backdrop to the east, you’ll also that once connected Haifa to Damascus, the
discover that the power station and the Israel-Jordan border, the cultivated ields
workers’ neighborhood fell outside the of Kibbutz Ashdot-Yaakov, the workers’
boundaries of British Mandatory Palestine. neighborhood, and the hydroelectric-station
Many of the workers were citizens of – powered not only by water, but by vision
Transjordan, a status they believed would and determination.
protect them and their plant, even after
Palestine was partitioned in November 1947
and chaos ensued.
Old Gesher was restored by the Council for the Res-
A Mandate-era armored car
On the eve of the War of Independence, toration and Preservation of Historic Sites, the Israel
Golda Meir held two secret meetings with Electric Corporation, the Tourism Ministry, Kibbutz
Emir Abdullah of Transjordan (the great- Gesher, and other bodies. Special arrangements for
grandfather of the present king, Abdullah II) at the mobility-challenged, hearing- and sight-impaired
Naharayim – where she arrived disguised as are available at Old Gesher. The Jewish National Fund
and the Restoration Council assisted in the restoration
a veiled Arab woman – seeking to convince of Naharayim. For hours and group tours at both sites
him not to join the ighting. But join he did, call: Old Gesher, +972-4-6762685 and Naharayim at
and at the end of April 1948 it was decided +972-4-6709143.
A bus from the 1940s
32
DISCOVER ISRAEL
