Kiryat Tiv'on

An ancient Jewish town called Tiv'on existed in the general area. It was mentioned in the Talmud and Mishnah.[2] It is mentioned several times in Talmudic literature in connection with various sages, some of whom lived there.[3]

In 1859, the village of Tubaun[4] was estimated to have a tillage of 22 feddans.[5] In 1875, Victor Guérin found that the village had 200 inhabitants.[6] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Tubaun as a small adobe village, on high ground, at the edge of the wood.[5] A population list from about 1887 showed that Tuba'un had about 90 inhabitants; all Muslims.[7]

The 1922 census of Palestine showed that Tub'un had 151 inhabitants, all Muslim.[8]

The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the Sursock Purchase. In 1925 a Zionist organisation purchased 30 feddans in Kiskis (present Alonim) and Tabon (present Kiryat Tiv'on) from the Sursuk family of Beirut. At the time, there were 36 families living there.[9] In the 1931 census Tabun had a population of 239, still all Muslim, in a total of 48 houses.[10] From 1931, and lasting several years, the Jewish Agency struggled to evict the tenant farmers from Tabaun, from the land which was to become Tivon.[11]

In the 1945 statistics, al Tivon (Alonim) (previously Qusqus Taboun) had 370 Muslim and 320 Jewish inhabitants, with a total land area of 5,823 dunams.[12][13] Of this, 141 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,038 for cereals,[14] while 3,644 dunams were classified as non-cultivable land.[15]

Kiryat Amal 1938

Kiryat Amal 1939

Tiv’on 1945

Kiryat Tiv'on was established in 1958 merging three small villages Tiv'on (founded in 1947), Kiryat Amal (founded in 1937) and Elro'i (founded in 1935). Kiryat Haroshet, founded by a rabbi from Jablona, Poland who settled there with his followers in 1935, became part of Kiryat Tiv'on in 1979.

Tiv'on was built on land owned by a British Jewish couple who bought the land in early 1945. It was later developed by the Jewish National Fund based on an urban plan drawn up by Alexander Klein, a Russian Jewish architect who was commissioned by the Jewish National Fund.[16]

The symbol of Kiryat Tiv'on is the cyclamen, a flower that grows between the rocks, reflecting the town's appreciation of nature and its efforts to preserve the landscape and safeguard the environment.[17]