History

Prehistory and Biblical era

An archeological site called Tel Be'er Sheva , a few kilometers north-east of modern day Beersheba has evidence of being populated since the 4th millennium BC . It was destroyed and rebuilt many times during its history.

Etymology and the Biblical narrative

Biblically, the site of Beersheba is mentioned in two of the three Genesis stories of a wife confused for a sister as a location where an oath of non-aggression was made between the Philistines , represented by a king named Abimelech , and the Israelites. The bible describes the oath being made on two separate occasions by the Israelites , once represented by Abraham , and once by Isaac . Beersheba is also mentioned in Joshua 19:2. Beersheba was the southernmost city of Israel in Biblical times - hence the expression "from Dan to Beersheba" was sometimes used to describe the whole kingdom.

Soroka Hospital, Beersheba.

Between the two Abimelech stories, there are several different etymologies given for the origin of Beersheba's name:

in memory of the oath of Abraham and Abimelech ( well of the oath ) in memory of seven wells dug by Isaac ( seven wells ), though only three or four are identified in memory of the oath of Isaac and Abimelech ( well of the oath ) in memory of the seven ewes which stood witness to Abraham and Abimelech's oath ( well of the seven ).

In the midrash , which generally exhibits a xenophobic attitude toward the Philistines, the last of these is seen as particularly reproachful, and the setting aside of these ewes is interpreted to have directly condemned seven righteous descendants of Abraham to death by the hand of Abimelech's descendants, namely condemning Hophni , Phinehas , Samson , Saul , and Saul's three sons, to death by the Philistines. In addition, the midrash extends the numerology to also be the ultimate cause of the destruction of seven sacred objects - named as the Tabernacle of the Congregation , the Second and First Temples , and unnamed sacred objects in Gilgal , Nob , Gideon , and Shiloh - and the reason that the Ark of the Covenant comes to abide amongst the Philistines for seven months.

The underlying origin of the still existing site is uncertain, though it certainly exhibits archaeological signs of religious use. There are many wells on the site, but only three are dated as far back as the early first millennium , each having been refaced by the Romans. These are likely to be the three wells mentioned in the Isaac story - Esek, Sitnah, and Rehoboth. The presence of three rather than seven wells, together with the awkwardness of interpreting Beersheba as seven wells , which grammatically should be written as Shebabeer , has led to this possibility being generally discounted as a folk etymology .

The stories also state that a religious foundation was made by the patriarchs at the site, with Isaac building an altar , and Abraham an Asherah grove. Until the reforms of Josiah , it appears that Beersheba was regarded as an holy place of great importance, it being frequently mentioned in the later parts of the bible as a noteworthy location for people to have an association with. In critical thought, it is hence seen as something that needed to be explained by the biblical authors, who chose to use folk etymologies and myths to do so. The most likely etymology to be correct is that which renders Be'er Sheva as well of the oath , though whether the oath refers to a single oath that took place in that location, or in fact refers to the general religious practice on the site - making of oaths - is a matter of debate.

According to the documentary hypothesis , both the Elohist and Yahwist used a pre-existing source or folk-tale surrounding the site in producing their narrative of an oath having been made between a patriarch and Abimelech, the regional philistine overlord. Where they differ is in the atmosphere of the story - Abraham makes a fair treaty with Abimelech on friendly terms, but Isaac's makes his treaty with Abimelech in an atmosphere of squabbling.

Later history Beersheba at the British conquest from the Ottoman forces during the First World War (1917). This built-up area is now known as the "Old City". A memorial designed by Dani Karavan in the east of Beersheba commemorates the Israeli conquest of the city from Egyptian forces.

The latest inhabitants of Tel Be'er Sheva were the Byzantines , who abandoned the city in the 7th century . The Turkish Ottomans , who had controlled Israel since the 16th century , barely paid any interest to Beersheba until the end of the 19th century . At the beginning of the 19th Century Be'er Sheva was noted by European pilgrims as ruined, with a well and Bedouin living nearby.

The Ottomans built a police station in Beersheba at the end of the 19th century in order to control the Bedouin. This attracted a small settlement to the East of the city of Bedouin wishing to abandon nomadic life and some Arabs from Hebron , Gaza and elsewhere. The Ottomans planned and built a perfect town centre with straight roads and small characteristic buildings built with local materials (many of which still stand today but in disrepair). The Ottomans also built a train station and a railway to Ashkelon and Gaza .

On October 31 , 1917 , as part of the Sinai and Palestine campaign during World War I , the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade , under Brigadier General William Grant, charged more than four miles at the Turkish trenches, overran them and captured the wells at Beersheba. This is often reported as the last successful cavalry charge in history. During the period of the British Mandate of Palestine Beersheba remained a small administrative centre, with police and local courts most residents worked for the British. According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan Beersheba was destined to be part of an Arab entity. On 21 October 1948 , as part of Operation Yoav , the Israel Defence Forces captured Beersheba from the Egyptian Army , which had invaded Israel and captured Beersheba in May 1948.

Until 2004 there were almost no terrorist attacks in Beersheba but on 31 August 2004, sixteen people were killed in two suicide bombings on buses in Beersheba for which the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility. On August 28 , 2005 , another suicide bomber attacked this time at the central bus station seriously injuring two security guards. (Those parts of Israel that border on the West Bank where there is an effective security fence have been proven to be almost free of terrorist attacks, the southern section of the fence, nearest to Beersheba, is not expected to be effective until 2006.)