Gilboa Tiyul

A while back, my program took my fellow participants and myself on a trip up north to the Gilboa region of Israel. In stark contrast with the southern part of the country which is mostly desert landscape, the North is the heart of Israeli agriculture. The North and especially the Gilboa region has many kibbutzim, and moshavim that dot the landscape. To start off our trip, we took a water hike through Nahal Kibbutzim, which is named after the abundance of kibbutzim in the area. It was a lot of fun walking through the stream and seeing the fields with sunflowers and other crops integral to Israeli agriculture. After our excursion at Nahal Kibbutzim, we camped out at Ganei Huga, which is a campsite near the city of Beit Shean. Ganei Huga has springs which were made into pools for recreation to accompany the camping available to visitors. We made ourselves a barbecue for dinner and slept under the stars. The next day, we traveled to hike Mt Gilboa. Mt Gilboa is mentioned in the Bible as the place in which King Saul battled the Philistines. It was the place in which King Saul and his forces lost to the Philistines and King Saul took his life by falling upon his own sword. The mountain was cursed after the battle by David who says that the mountain shall not see anything grow upon it due to Saul's defeat. Today, the mountain is a nature reserve and the JNF(Jewish National Fund) has done extensive work in the region. Much of the JNF's work on the mountain has been in planting trees on the mountain. The hike on the Gilboa was a lot of fun seeing the agricultural landscape of the region. We even stumbled upon some cattle on the mountain. At the end of our hike, we learned about the story of Alexander Zeid. Zeid was a Zionist who was active in the Hashomer movement and the Kibbutz movement of the Second Aliyah. We learned about his friendly connection with the local Arabs. Even though he had a friendly relationship with the Arabs, he was murdered by a group of Arabs. Wanting to revenge the death, the Haganah took it upon themselves to seek out the murder. Today the murderer's family and the Zeid family are friendly with each other and put aside their ugly past. This I believe is good for coexistence within the land. It shows that people can set aside ugly past incidents to create a working present and future. Overall, the Gilboa was a fantastic trip and I highly suggest hiking the Gilboa. The scenery is magnificent, and the hiking is great too. If you have more time and are a history buff, check out the ruins in Beit Shean. They are really cool if you are into ancient ruins.Enjoy!