Motza

Motza, also Mozah or Motsa, (

Motza is the site of the

Biblical Mozah is listed among the Benjamite cities of Joshua 18:26. It was referred to in the Talmud as a place where people would come to cut young willow branches as a part of the celebration of Sukkot (Mishnah, Sukkah 4.5: 178).

Emmaus of the Gospels

Motza was identified as the Emmaus of Luke in 1881 by William F. Birch (1840–1916) of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and again in 1893 by Paulo Savi.^[6] Excavations in 2001–2003 headed by Professor Carsten Peter Thiede let him conclude that Khirbet Mizza/Tel Moza was the only credible candidate for the Emmaus of the New Testament.^[7]

Roman Colonia Amosa; Muslim Qalunya

After the demise of the Jewish polity in Jerusalem following the First Jewish–Roman War, Vespasian settled 800 Roman soldiers in the town, which became a Roman settlement known as Colonia Amosa. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, it became known as Qalunya.^[8]

Jewish settlement under Ottoman rule, 1854-WWI

In 1854, farmland was purchased from the nearby Arab village of

In 1871, while plowing his fields, one of the residents, Yehoshua Yellin, discovered a large subterranean hall from the Byzantine period that he turned into a travellers' inn, which provided overnight shelter for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

In 1894 Motza became a moshava (village).^[12]

When Theodor Herzl visited Palestine in 1898, he passed through Motza, which then had a population of 200. Captivated by the landscape, he planted a cypress tree on the hill. After he died in 1904 at age 44, it became an annual pilgrimage site for Zionist youth, who planted more trees around Herzl's tree.^[13] During World War I, Herzl's tree was cut down by the Turks who were levelling forests for firewood and supplies.^[13]

British Mandate

David Remez named the sanatorium opened in the village Arza, 'cedar', in reference to Herzl's tree.^[14] Arza, established in the 1920s, was the first Jewish "health resort" in the country.^[15]

The flourishing orchard of the Broza family is mentioned in the

According to a census conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Motza had a population of 151 inhabitants, in 20 houses.^[19]

In 1933 the villagers founded the neighbouring Upper Motza (Motza Illit).

In December 1948, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 recommended that "the built-up area of Motsa" be included in the Jerusalem "Corpus separatum", which was to be detached from "the rest of Palestine" and "placed under effective United Nations control". However, like other provisions of Resolution 194, this was never carried out in practice, and Motza became part of the State of Israel.

1929 murders

Despite good relations with neighbouring Arab communities,^[

Refugees from Motza sent a letter to the Refugees Aid Committee in Jerusalem describing their plight and asking for help: "Our houses were burned and robbed...we have nothing left. And now we are naked and without food. We need your immediate assistance and ask for nothing more than bread to eat and clothes to wear."[22]

State of Israel

In 2006, the Yellin and Yehuda families helped restore Joshua Yellin's original home, among the oldest and most derelict buildings at the site.^[23]

From a municipal perspective, Motza, now called Ramat Motza, is affiliated with the Jerusalem Municipality. The nearby Motza Illit is under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.^[24]

See also

• En Esur
  , Chalcolithic fortified proto-city in the Sharon Plain

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Motza.

References

1. ^ National Campus for the Archeology of Israel Archived 2007-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
2. ISBN 965-406-007-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
   )
3. ^ First Temple Period Ritual Structure Discovered Near Jerusalem
4. ISBN 0-19-815402-X, s.v. Sukkah 4:5
   , p. 178.
5. ISBN 9781316299753
   .
6. ^ W. F. Birch, "Emmaus", Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement 13 (1881), pp. 237–38; Paulo Savi, "Emmaus", Revue Biblique 2 (1893), pp. 223–27.
7. S2CID 170175267. Archived from the original
   on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
8. ISBN 0-88728-224-5
   .
9. ^ ^{a b} Motza, Atarot, and Neveh Yaacov
10. ^ לגרב ימ בכרב ימ
11. ^ Rogov, Daniel (2012). The Ultimate Rogov's Guide to Israeli Wine. Toby Press. p. 550.
12. ISBN 965-220-186-3
    .
13. ^ ^{a b} Planting from the remains
14. ^ Modern pilgrimage^{[permanent dead link]}
15. ^ How Israel's socialist retreats for workers turned into luxury hotels
16. ^ "Hope Simpson Report". Archived from the original on 2008-01-26. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
17. ^ Herzl's Tree Archived 2007-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
18. ^ סיפור הפרברים: חמישה אתרים בשולי ירושלים
19. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 41
20. OCLC 2733078
    .
21. ISBN 0-8050-4848-0
    .
22. ^ Jewish memorabilia to be auctioned in Jerusalem, Haaretz
23. ^ עבודות שיפוץ ושימור לבית משפחת ילין במוצא
24. ^ Israel Government Maps

• "Talking Picture Magazine", March 1933, p. 45, an article on the film: The Motza Colony, a drama after the event of the murder of the Makleff Family.

External links

• Motza history on Haim Zippori centre for community education (in Hebrew)
• Motza Valley (in Hebrew)

31°47′38″N 35°10′6″E / 31.79389°N 35.16833°E / 31.79389; 35.16833