Gilo

History and Geography

Gilo (Hebrew: גילֹה) is an Israeli settlement north of the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, southwest of the Palestinian village of Beit Safafa and directly south of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Baka.[1][2] Gilo consists of 2,859 dunams that lie on top of al Slaiyeb mountain.[3][4] A majority of Gilo's lands belonged to Jewish institutions or individuals prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War with 1,116 dunams confiscated from Beit Jala after the Six Day War of 1967.[5][6] Gilo was named after a biblical Judean town whose name was preserved by the neighboring Beit Jala (citation needed). It is separated from the West Jerusalem downtown by a large, forrested recreation area. To Gilo's south, a deep gorge lies in between it and Beit Jala. The Tunnels Highway to Gush Etzion runs underneath it on the east, and the settlement of Har Gilo, which shares its name, is visible across the gorge on the adjacent peak.

Demographics

As of 2002, 40,000 people reside in the neighborhood, making it one of the largest in the city.

Between 2000-2002, during the course of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, over 400 incidences of shooting from Beit Jala into Gilo took place. Though no residents were killed, some were seriously injured and there was much damage to property. The Israeli Government ultimately bulletproofed the outer row of homes[7].

References

• 1. B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (PDF)]
• 2. Jewish Agency for Israel
• 3. Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies & Municipality of Jerusalem. Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2002-2003. Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. ISSN 0333-9831
• 4. Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. Letter to the Chicago Tribune, 28 November, 2000.
• 5. "The Strangulation of Beit Jala" by the [Applied Research Institution-Jerusalem], April, 2006.

See Also

• The shooting on Gilo neighborhood
• Beit Jala
• Har Gilo