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Druze villages
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Maghar
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Maghar is a very old village, first settled 3,000 years ago. It lies some 1,160 feet above sea level and is built on the southern slopes of Mount Hazon. It is close to the border between the Upper and Lower Galilee, overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the Valley of Genossar to the east and Karnei Hittin to the south, and is encircled by an emerald sea of olive trees. To the east of the village is the National Water Carrier of Israel, the canal that brings the waters of the Sea of Galilee to the arid Negev. The Tsalmon site, the location of the canal’s first reservoir, is just south of the village, near Eilabun. Local tradition has three possible meanings for the village’s name. The first relates to the great number of caves found in Mount Hazon, which served both as homes and as burial grounds during ancient times, particularly during the Philistine, Persian and Roman periods. The second explanation has a Jerusalemite priestly family, the Ma’arias, fleeing to the Galilee after the destruction of the Second Temple and settling on Mount Hazon, later giving their name to the settlement. The third opinion holds that Druze from the western quarter (Arab. Ma’arab) attacked the Muslim village of Arabeh in 1683 in revenge for the massacre of the Druze population of Wadi Salameh by Daher al-Omar. Today the village is mostly Druze (58% of the population), with significant Christian (21.5%) and Muslim (20.5%) minorities; the overall population is more than 20,000. The local council, established in 1956, has a jurisdiction of over 5,680 acres, 1,235 of which are built on and 2,500 are covered with olive orchards, while the remaining are being developed as an industrial park. Maghar is currently undergoing comprehensive development ahead of its becoming a town. Village authorities invest not only in infrastructure but also in the development of educational, culture and social services for all age groups, such as a community center and two theaters. More than a third of the population consists of school children who attend more than 50 kindergartens, five elementary schools (one of which caters for children with special needs), two comprehensive high schools and two vocational colleges.
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