Ramat Eshkol (Hebrew:רמת אשכול;pronunciationⓘ) (alsoRamot EshkolHebrew:רמות אשכול) is anIsraeli settlement and neighborhood in northernEast Jerusalem.[1] It was built on land captured from Jordan in theSix-Day War andoccupied by Israel since 1967, and was the first settlement built inEast Jerusalem beyond theGreen Line by Israel.[2] As of 2017, about 8,975 people live in the neighborhood.
In 1966, the border withJordan ran parallel toShmuel HaNavi Street. Beyond was ano man's land and the bunkers and fortifications ofAmmunition Hill, the site of fierce battles between Jordanian and Israeli forces in the 1967 war.[citation needed]
According toARIJ, Israel confiscated 416dunams of land from thePalestinian neighbourhood ofShuafat in order to construct Ramat Eshkol.[3]
Ramat Eshkol (lit. "Eshkol Heights") was the first new neighborhood built in Jerusalem after the Six Day War, along the route to Mount Scopus,Hadassah Hospital and theHebrew University.[4]
Plans were drawn up for tree-lined streets, small parks, a neighborhood health clinic and a commercial center with a supermarket. Most of the new apartment buildings were limited to four floors. The architecture included prefab elements, but outside walls were faced with a veneer ofJerusalem stone.[5] Ramat Eshkol was designed as a middle-class neighborhood.[6]
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Construction on Sderot Eshkol (Eshkol Boulevard), named for Israeli prime ministerLevi Eshkol, began in 1968[7]
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Israel Levitt of theIsrael Defense Forces Engineering Corps cleared the mines on what is now Etzion Gaver street. Levitt, also a trained architect, designed the first buildings there. In January 1970, the first occupants moved in. There were no roads, and the nearest bus was on Shmuel Hanavi. The firstminyan was held in an air raid shelter on Etzion Gaver street, before the completion of a synagogue.
Government policy at the time was to create a contiguous link from Shmuel Hanavi toFrench Hill and the campus ofHebrew University of Jerusalem onMount Scopus.[8] A new bus line, number 9, was inaugurated to link the Mount Scopus campus with the campus inGivat Ram, built when the road to Mount Scopus was blocked by the Jordanians. The route of the bus followed the route of theconvoy attacked on April 13, 1948, killing doctors and nurses ofHadassah Hospital.
Building also began at this time inGivat HaMivtar. Plots were raffled off for the construction of single-family homes. A time limit was imposed on construction and access was difficult. The only access was via a muddy track. The construction of private homes on Ramat Hagolan Street in Ramat Eshkol also employed the lottery method.
After the Six-Day War, Ammunition Hill was restored and turned into a park and memorial site. Ramat Eshkol also has a park dedicated toRaoul Wallenberg, theSwedish diplomat who saved many Jews during World War II. The neighborhood's largest park is Gan HaHamishah Asar (Park of the Fifteen) commemorating fifteen soldiers killed in 1969 in one day of fighting during theWar of Attrition. It also has a park named Gan Eshkolot which is named after a tomb inside with twogrape cluster designs on both sides of the tomb's entrance which are called in Hebreweshkol.
The Eshkolot Tomb in Ramat Eshkol was discovered in 1897. It was the burial site of a prosperous Jerusalem family in the 1st century, part of a large necropolis that surrounded Jerusalem in theSecond Temple period.[9]Eshkolot is the plural ofeshkol, meaning "cluster of grapes"; the tomb is named for the stone carving of acluster of grapes over the entrance.[10]Three ossuaries with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions were also recovered from a rock-hewn single chamber cave on Ramat Hagolan Street in Ramat Eshkol.[11]
31°48′07″N35°13′22″E / 31.80194°N 35.22278°E /31.80194; 35.22278