Kiryat Shmona
- Hebrew:
- קריית שמונה (Qiryat Shemona)
Kiryat Shmona, town, at the northwest of the Hula Valley, extreme northern Israel. The name Kiryat Shmona (“Town of the Eight”) commemorates the eight martyrs of nearby Tel Hai, a Jewish outpost that was attacked by a group of Arabs in 1920. The town, the only urban settlement of the valley, was founded in 1950 as an immigrants’ transit camp (maʿabara) on the site of the former Arab village of Khalasah. Metula, the northernmost community of Israel per its pre-1967 boundaries, is 6 miles (10 km) north.
In the 1950s many of the town’s inhabitants were engaged in public-works projects connected with the drainage of the Hula swamps. Light industries (diamond cutting and the production of textiles, ceramics, and plastics) were later established, and many residents were engaged in seasonal agricultural labor in the nearby collective settlements (kibbutzim). In the late 20th century it became a hub for industry related to agricultural technology and food technology.
Kiryat Shmona is the seat of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, and its development received further impetus when Israeli settlements began to appear in the Golan Heights. Pop. (2022 est.) 23,083.
