32°55′43″N 35°18′10″E / 32.9287°N 35.3028°E / 32.9287; 35.3028

Beit HaKerem Valley (Hebrew: בקעת בית כרם), also known as al-Shaghur (Arabic: الشاغور, romanized: al-Shāghūr), is a valley in the Galilee region in northern Israel.

The valley is the dividing feature between the Upper Galilee featuring relatively high mountains and the Lower Galilee to the south, with lower mountains.^[1][2]

The five Arab local authorities (Bi'ina, Deir al-Asad, Majd al-Krum, Nahf and Rameh) and two Jewish local authorities (Karmiel and Misgav) of the Beit HaKerem Valley have formed a "cluster" of municipalities, connecting municipal leaders to create long-term development strategies, enhance economic development, and attract and receive additional government funding.^[3]

Administrative history

Under Mamluk rule, in 1370, the Shaghur was part of an amal (subdistrict) in the province of Safed called 'al-Shaghurayn wa Ma'ilya' and in 1418 as 'al-Shaghur'. The Shaghur was recorded as a subdivision of the Acre subdistrict of Safed Sanjak in the mid-16th century, during Ottoman rule.^[4] In 1838, the scholar Edward Robinson noted that al-Shaghur was the district between Acre, Safed and Nazareth and contained the villages of Yaquq, Maghar, al-Mansura, Eilabun, Arraba, Sakhnin Majd al-Krum, Deir al-Asad, Bi'ina, Rameh, Kafr Inan, Deir Hanna and Nahf.^[5]