Ancient period Settlement in Jish dates back 3,000 years. The village is mentioned in the
Mishnah as
Gush Halav, a city "surrounded by walls since the time of
Joshua Ben Nun" (m. Arakhin 9:6).
Canaanite and
Israelite remains from the Early Bronze and Iron Ages have also been found there. According to the
Talmud, the inhabitants also engaged in the production of
silk.
Jerome recorded that
Paul the Apostle lived with his parents in "Giscalis in Judea," which is understood to be Gischala. After the fall of
Gamla, Gush Halav was the last
Jewish stronghold in the
Galilee and
Golan region during the
Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73 CE), and the home of
John of Giscala. Two ancient
synagogues were discovered at Jish. The first was located at the top of the hill, below the current Maronite Church. The second one was discovered at the foot of the hill, close to a spring; one of its columns is inscribed in Aramaic with the name of a particular "Yose son of Tanhum". In addition to Jewish structures and burial sites dated to the 3rd through 6th centuries, Christian artifacts from the Byzantine period have been found at the site. According to local tradition, two nearby rock-cut tombs contain the graves of 1st century BCE Jewish sages
Shemaiah and
Avtalyon. Jewish life in the 10th and 11th centuries is attested to by documents in the
Cairo Geniza. In 1172, the Jewish traveler
Benjamin of Tudela found about 20 Jews living there. In 1322, during his journey through the Land of Israel,
Ishtori Haparchi noted that the Jewish community of Gush Halav read the
Megillat Esther in
Purim on both the 14th and the 15th of
Adar.
Ottoman Empire In 1596, Jish appeared in
Ottoman tax registers as being in the
Nahiya of
Jira, of the
Liwa Safad. It had a population of 71 households and 20 bachelors, all
Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on goats and beehives, but most of its taxes were in the form of a fixed sum: total taxes amounted to around 30,750
akçe. In the 17th century, the village had been inhabited by
Druze, but they later departed from it. According to
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi,
Maronites first settled in Jish during the early 18th century. This may have happened as a result of the
Battle of Ain Dara (1711), in which the
Qaysis defeated the Yamanis and drove many of them from
Mount Lebanon. Ben-Zvi recorded a local tradition, according to which two families in the village preceded the Maronite immigration; One of them—the Hashouls, the oldest family in the village— were Maronites of Jewish ancestry and were originally known by the name Shaul. The
Galilee earthquake of 1837 caused widespread damage and over 200 deaths. According to
Andrew Thomson, no houses in Jish were left standing. The church fell, killing 130 people, and the old town walls collapsed. A total of 235 people died, and the ground was left fissured. At the end of the 19th century, Jish was described as a "well-built village of good masonry" with about 600 Christian and 200 Muslim inhabitants. A population list from about 1887 showed
El Jish to have about 1,935 inhabitants; 975 Christians and 960 Muslims.
British Mandate At the time of the
1922 census of Palestine, Jish had a population of 721–380 Christians and 341 Muslims. The Christians were classified as 71%
Maronite and 29% Greek Catholic (or
Melchite). By the
1931 census, Jish had 182 inhabited houses and a population of 358 Christians and 397 Muslims. In the
1945 statistics, Jish had a population of 1,090; 350 Christians and 740 Muslims, and the village spanned 12,602
dunams, mostly Arab-owned. Of this, 1,506 dunums were plantations and irrigable land, 6,656 used for
cereals, while 72 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Israel 1948 Palestine war Israeli forces captured Jish on 29 October 1948, during
Operation Hiram. A massacre was perpetrated by Israeli troops. Historian
Saleh Abdel Jawad has estimated "at least 100 fatalities". Historian
Benny Morris wrote that "the troops apparently murdered about 10 Moroccan POWs (who had served with the Syrian Army) and a number of civilians, including, apparently, four Maronite Christians, and a woman and her baby." The Israeli prime minister,
David Ben-Gurion, ordered an investigation of the deaths but no
IDF soldiers were brought to trial, though a military investigation concluded with the order that those responsible for the unjustified killings were to be tried 'immediately'. Moreover,
Mordechai Maklef, then an operations officer on the Northern Front (and later IDF chief of staff), revealed that in some operations “the potential enemy” was eliminated, meaning civilians. He cited cases including
Safsaf,
Jish,
Eilabun,
Lod,
Ramla, and larger-scale actions in the south, adding that the intention was expulsion and implying that mass displacement could not be carried out without such acts of terrrorism (טרור). Many of the residents of Jish were forced to leave the village in 1948 and became
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Some Christians from the nearby town of
Kafr Bir'im resettled in Jish,
Elias Chacour, now Archbishop of the
Melkite Greek Catholic Church, whose family resettled in Jish, wrote that when he was eight years old he discovered a mass grave containing two dozen bodies.
21st century Maronite Church in Jish, 2019 In December 2010, a hiking and bicycle path known as the Coexistence Trail was inaugurated, linking Jish with
Dalton, a neighboring Jewish village. The 2,500 meter-long trail, accessible to people with disabilities, sits 850 meters above sea level and has several lookout points, including a view of Dalton Lake, where rainwater is collected and stored for agricultural use. Jish is known for its efforts to revive
Aramaic as a living language. In 2011, the Israeli
Ministry of Education approved a program to teach the language in Jish elementary schools. Some local
Maronite activists in Jish say that Aramaic is essential to their existence as a people, in the same way that
Hebrew and
Arabic are for Jews and Arabs. ==Demographics==