Motza Illit

The Book of Joshua lists almost 400 ancient Levantine city names (including alternative names and derivatives in the form of words describing citizens of a town) which refer to over 300 distinct locations in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Each of those cities, with minor exceptions (e.g. Hamath, Gubla) is placed in one of the 12 regions, according to the tribes of Israel and in most cases additional details like neighbouring towns or geographical landmarks are provided. It has been serving as one of the primary sources for identifying and locating a number of Middle Bronze to Iron Age Levantine cities mentioned in ancient Egyptian and Canaanite documents, most notably in the Amarna correspondence.

Qalunya (Arabic: قالونيا, also transliterated Qaluniya) was a Palestinian village located 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) west of Jerusalem. Prior to the village's destruction in 1948, with the exception of 166 dunams, Qalunya's land was privately owned: 3,594 dunams were owned by Arabs, while 1,084 dunams were owned by Jews.

Beit Zayit (Hebrew: בֵּית זַיִת, lit. 'House of Olives') is a moshav in Israel. Located just outside the Jerusalem municipal border to the west, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 1,655.Beit Zayit lies on the edge of the Jerusalem Forest and operates a public swimming pool. Nearby is a dam, built to collect winter flood waters and create the Beit Zayit Reservoir, meant to slow down the flow of the Soreq Stream and allow water to seep into the Western Mountain Aquifer, a task it seems not to fulfill properly (look here for the Hebrew article).

Mevaseret Zion (Hebrew: מבשרת ציון, lit. 'Herald of Zion') is a town and local council located 10 km (6 mi) to the west of Jerusalem, straddling both sides of the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway. Mevaseret Zion is composed of two distinct older townships, Maoz Zion and Mevaseret Yerushalayim, under the jurisdiction of one local council. The newer neighborhoods of Mevaseret Zion were not part of either settlement. Mevaseret Zion is located on a mountain ridge 750 m (2,460 ft) above sea level, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In 2021 it had a population of 24,409, spread over 15 neighborhoods. It is the wealthiest municipality per capita in the Jerusalem District. Mevaseret Zion's current mayor is Yoram Shimon.

Motza, also Mozah or Motsa, (Hebrew: מוֹצָא, Arabic: موتسا) is a neighbourhood on the western edge of West Jerusalem. It is located in the Judean Hills, 600 metres above sea level, connected to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway and the winding mountain road to Har Nof. Established in 1854, Motza was the first Jewish farm founded outside the walls of the Old City in the modern era. It is believed to be located on the site of a Biblical village of the same name mentioned in Joshua 18:26.

Castel National Park (Hebrew: גן לאומי קסטל) is an Israeli national park, which consists of a fortified summit in the Judean Mountains, at the site of the former Palestinian village of Al-Qastal, known to Hebrew-speakers as HaCástel, "the Cástel". It is located 8 km west of Jerusalem on the road linking it to Tel Aviv (Highway 1). The site is mostly known as the place of the key battles of Operation Nachshon, which were fought there in April 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Fierce battles that claimed many lives took place there as Arabs and Jews fought for control of the site, which overlooked the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. Castel exchanged hands several times in the course of the fighting. The tides turned when the revered Arab commander, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, was killed. Many of the Arabs left their positions to attend al-Husayni's funeral at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, April 9. That same day, Castel fell to the Israeli forces virtually unopposed.The national park includes a memorial for the Israeli soldiers who died there, including a monument designed in 1980 by Yitzhak Yamin and a memorial to the convoys that tried to break through the blockade of Jerusalem.

Al-Qastal ("Kastel", Arabic: القسطل) was a Palestinian village located eight kilometers west of Jerusalem and named for a Crusader castle located on the hilltop. Used in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War as a military base by the Army of the Holy War, virtually all of its residents fled during the fighting and the village was eventually captured by the Palmach.

The Har'el interchange was an interchange that connected Highway 1 and Road 3965 near the communities Mevaseret Zion and Motza Illit. The interchange was in the Diamond interchange type, whose bridge is built on the secondary road route and passes over Highway 1, where the traffic is continuous. The interchange opened to traffic in 1971, with the expansion project of Highway 1, which began in the late 1960s. The interchange is named after the Harel Brigade who fought in the area in the 1948 Palestine war.The interchange is located at a high point on Route 1 near the Qastal site. The interchange bridge is based on a concrete bow that supports the upper road surface. In 1995, the road from Mevaseret Zion to Motza Illit was expanded by a second bridge building. In 2010, the Israel National Planning and Building Council approved a plan to expand Highway 1. Two tunnels were built, about 850 meters each, under the Harel interchange. The estimated project was supposed to be in 2015, but its inauguration was postponed to the beginning of 2017. The inauguration of the tunnel was on January 20, 2017.

Emeq HaArazim (Hebrew: עמק הארזים) is a valley in the Judean Mountains of Israel. It is located on the northwestern edge of Jerusalem in the Judean Mountains, at an altitude of over 550 meters. It takes the form of a small depression, which is crossed by the Wadi Sorek, into which Nahal Luz flows from the north and Nahal Halilim from the west. Numerous springs spring up here, especially Einot Telem. The bottom of the valley has the original character of a rural landscape, but along the southern edge of the depression passes the body of Highway 1. In the southeast rises the hill Har HaMenuchot with a large cemetery area. To the west stands the town of Mevaseret Zion on the hills above the valley. Not far from the northern edge of the valley runs the Green Line separating the West Bank and the Palestinian village of Beit Iksa.In the second decade of the 21st century, the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway, a high-speed railway line, was built across the valley with a bridge over the Emeq HaArazim, which holds a national altitude record (almost 100 meters).

Ein Kerem Agricultural School (Hebrew: בית הספר החקלאי עין כרם, Beit HaSefer HaHakla'i Ein Kerem), also known as Ein Kerem Community Environmental School (Hebrew: בית הספר הקהילתי סביבתי עין כרם, Beit HaSefer HaKehilati Svivati Ein Kerem) is a school in central Israel. Located near Ein Kerem, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 164.

Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok (Hebrew: יְשִׁיבַת פחד יצחק) is a yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, established in the late 1970s by Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner in the Har Nof neighborhood. Hutner had served as the long-standing Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Kollel Gur Aryeh in Brooklyn, New York City. Upon the passing of Hutner in 1980, leadership of the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law, Rabbi Yonasan David who is the present Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi Chaim Yitzchok Kaplan serves as the deputy Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok.

On the morning of 18 November 2014, two Palestinian men from Jerusalem entered Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue, in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, and attacked the praying congregants with axes, knives, and a gun. They killed four dual-nationality worshippers, and critically wounded a responding Druze Israeli police officer, who later died of his wounds. They also injured seven male worshippers, one of whom never woke up from a coma and died 11 months later. The two attackers were then shot dead by the police. Several initial reports claimed that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) had declared responsibility for the attack; Other sources say declarations by PFLP militants were either confused or that the group itself disclaimed responsibility. Israeli authorities stated that 'it seemed the men had acted alone'.It was the deadliest terror attack in Jerusalem since the Mercaz HaRav massacre in March 2008. The attack was one of a number of violent attacks on Israelis in the summer and autumn of 2014 being called an intifada by some news sources, despite no official intifada being organized by a Palestinian group, as they were in the first and second intifadas.The UN Security Council condemned the "despicable terrorist attack" in the Jerusalem synagogue.