Kishon River

Kishon, near Haifa

The Kishon or Kishon (Hebrew קישון ) is a river in northern Israel. It rises north-east of the mountains of Gilboa, drained the Jezreel Valley, it flows in a northwesterly direction on the east side of the Carmel Mountains near Haifa along and empties into the bay in the Mediterranean Sea.

In its upper reaches the Kishon dries out during the summer, in the lower course he leads the other hand water all year round; so it belongs - as the Yarkon - one of the few rivers in Israel, the year-round flowing. With a length of 70 kilometers of the Kishon is indeed a very short river, but he still has a relatively large catchment area, causing more frequent floods. In the estuary, therefore, was in the past a vast swamp, which made ​​it difficult to colonization long time.

The Kishon is considered one of the most polluted rivers of Israel. In the area of ​​Haifa Bay, many industrial enterprises ( esp. the chemical industry) settled that conduct large volumes of wastewater into the river.

Biblical references

In the Bible the river stands with two related events:

• After the first book of Kings, the prophet Elijah to God after the decision on Carmel the priests of Baal killed at the " river Kishon " (1 Kings 18,40 EU).
• Already in the period of the Judges to have taken place at the Kishon, a great battle between the led by Deborah and Barak Israelites and the Canaanites. Here is the Israelites flood of Kishon have come to help, should have remained in which the chariots of the Canaanites put (Jg 4 EU; 5 EU). Referred to also Psalm 83,10 EU.

Literary mentions

• In the satire About the use of computers by Ephraim Kishon this fight against a tax reminder for repair work ( in a port ) that were allegedly performed on him - the financial computer in Jerusalem holds the author apparently for the same flow.