Bethlehem of Galilee

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Bayt Lahm, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad. The population was 27 households and two bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, cotton, vegetable and fruit gardens, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 1200 Akçe.[10][11]

In 1859, the British consul Rogers stated that the population was 110, and the tillage at sixteen feddans.[12]

In 1875 Victor Guérin visited and noted that Bethlehem was a small village, which had succeeded a town of the same name.[13] He further noted the ruins of two buildings; one, completely destroyed, had been constructed of good cut stones; the entrance was at the south façade. He thought, from its orientation north and south, that it was a synagogue. The other building, which lay east and west, may have been a Christian church. On its site were seen a few shafts, four of which were still in situ and half covered up.[14]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "The ancient Bethlehem of Zebulon. A village principally built of adobe on high ground in the border of the wooded country. The nearest water is in Wady el Melek, on the north (Ras el 'Ain), and at the springs near Muwarah on the south."[12]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kh. Beit Lahm had about 55 inhabitants, all Muslims.[15]

In 1906 Templers from the German Colony in Haifa established a colony in Galilee,[16] naming it for the ancient city.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British authorities, Bait Lam had a population of 224; 111 Christians and 113 Muslims.[17] Of the Christians, 95 were Protestant and 16 were Greek Catholics (Melkites).[18] This had increased slightly by the 1931 census to a population of 235; 135 Muslim, 99 Christians and 1 Jew, in a total of 51 inhabited houses.[19]

Restored historic home in Bethlehem of Galilee

In 1932 the Nazi Party gained its first two members in Palestine; Karl Ruff and Walter Aberle from the Templer colony in Haifa.[20] In the course of the 1930s, Bethlehemites also joined the party, indicating the fading affinity to the Templers' original ideals. By August 1939, 17% of all German Christians in Palestine were members of the Nazi Party.[21] After the Nazi takeover in Germany, all international schools of German language subsidized or fully financed by government funds were obliged to employ teachers aligned to the Nazi Party. In 1933, Templer functionaries appealed to Paul von Hindenburg and the Foreign Office not to use swastika symbols for German institutions in Palestine and voiced opposition to the boycott of German Jewish shops.[22] Later, this opposition subsided. On 20 August 1939 the German government called on German Christians in Palestine to join the Wehrmacht and 350 men enlisted.

After the start of World War II, all Germans in Palestine were declared enemy aliens. The British authorities sent them to Sarona, Bethlehem (Galilee), Waldheim (today's Allonei Abba) and Wilhelma. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, mostly young families with children, were deported to Australia, leaving those who were too old or sick. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men who had enlisted in the Wehrmacht, were released - via Turkey - to Germany for the purpose of family reunification.[23]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Lam consisted of 370 people; 210 Muslims and 160 Christians,[24] and the total land area was 7,526 dunams according to an official land and population survey.[25] 6 dunams of land were designated for citrus and bananas, 278 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 4,796 for cereals,[26] while 51 dunams were built-up areas.[27]

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released but the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany. In 1947, they were allowed to emigrate to Australia.[28]

On 17 April 1948 the Haganah captured the village, and it was subsequently depopulated. By 14 May 1948, when Israel declared independence, only 50 Templers remained in the country.[29] It was resettled by Jewish farmers, becoming a moshav. Much of the original Templer architecture survives, and is similar in style to the homes built by the Templers in other parts of the country, such as Sarona in Tel Aviv, Wilhelma (today Bnei Atarot) and the German colonies of Haifa and Jerusalem.

In recent years, tourism has replaced agriculture as the main economic branch. A dairy, an herb farm, restaurants and country-style accommodation are among the tourist-oriented businesses in the village today.[16]