Birya was an ancient Jewish settlement in the Upper Galilee and in 1946, members of the Palmach* built a stone fortress here, as a base for the defence of Jews in nearby Safed and as a way-station for Jewish immigrants arriving from Syria.
Under the British Mandate, the army tried to destroy this outpost by shelling and imprisoning the pioneers but time and again, more and more returned until the British finally gave up – I’m guessing these were some of their outbuildings or else temporary residences for new immigrants arriving after the 1948 war of Independence.
The Biriya Forests were planted by the Jewish National Fund in the 1950s covering an area of 20 sq. km mostly Jerusalem, Brutia, and Canary pine as well as cypress and the Atlantic cedar. Unemployed settlers were employed to plant trees in the area, using new forestry techniques that made it possible to utilize the barren soil.
Palmach: the strike force of the Haganah, the main paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (pre-1948 Jewish community in British ‘Palestine’) see History
Triptych Tuesday: Three monochrome views of same time, same place
PoetryPix 