The Haifa District Planning and Building Commission has deposited a plan for construction of a business park in Atlit The new park will be only 14 kilometers south of the Matam High-Tech & Business Park The new park will also compete with the nearby business parks in Tirat HaCarmel and Yokne'am The question is whether the south Haifa region can generate enough jobs for all these parks which is being promoted by the Israel Land Authority is on 20 acres of agricultural land at the northern entrance to the town The plan includes 80,000 square meters of business space and 4,000 square meters of commercial space The Planning Authority says that the plan offers a mix of uses the historic British detention camp from the Mandate period which is in the Hof HaCarmel Regional Council jurisdiction According to the outline plan approved for the town two years ago it is planned to nearly double to 13,000 residents by 2030 an effort will be made to preserve its natural landscape The plan also seeks to provide jobs and revenue for Atlit to assist the town's economic growth Some in the region have expressed astonishment to "Globes" that the Haifa District Planning and Building Commission was going ahead with another business park instead of strengthening the existing ones Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Site developed by     Copyright © Yedioth Internet 2016The descriptions of the place that we’re not allowed to see fire the imagination Those interviewed for this article competed among themselves in the superlatives they attached to the Crusader fortress in Atlit Each chose different words to say that the fortress in Atlit is a marvelous the most beautiful along the Mediterranean coastline '#' : location.hash;window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery = location.search === '' && location.href.slice(0 location.href.length - window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash.length).indexOf('?') !== -1 '?' : location.search;if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) {var ogU = location.pathname + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash;history.replaceState(null "\/atlit-yam-a-journey-into-israels-sunken-past\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=ICimeTb.aJuqO_7Xug.LMDhNjJHPRIVOojR9La0zukE-1746518825-1.0.1.1-y1xHDpMjmZL9cJYOLKCoD8u2vU95SQM9_Up39difWGU" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null ogU);}}document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(cpo);}()); One kilometre out in the Mediterranean Sea an ancient village lies hidden beneath the waves It has been so well preserved by the sandy seabed that weevils sit in the grain stores human skeletons lie undisturbed in their graves and a mysterious stone circle still stands as it was first erected The 40,000-square-metre site dates from around 7000 BC making it one of the earliest – and largest – drowned settlements known so the site is described as a village rather than a city but its people lived in spacious stone houses The site lay buried for 9000 years until quarrying of sand exposed some of the ancient remains a marine archaeologist and member of the Israel Prehistoric Society when he was surveying the area for shipwrecks has put many of the artefacts in grave danger then hurries to chart newly visible areas and remove any objects that could be damaged by the sea “We only excavate where there is imminent danger of destruction,” he says The site provides unprecedented insight into life in Neolithic times – when people had just discovered how to domesticate plants and animals “It was the biggest revolution in the history of mankind,” says Galili Animal bones show that the inhabitants of Atlit-Yam hunted wild animals Off the coast of the village of Atlit lie the submerged ruins of the Neolithic site of Atlit-Yam lies around 10 m beneath the current sea level and covers an area of 40,000 m² The site was discovered in 1984 by marine archaeologist Ehud Galili and since then underwater excavations have unearthed houses At the center of the settlement seven megaliths are arranged in a stone semicircle around a freshwater spring which may once have been the site of water rituals Scientists believe that Atlit-Yam was abandoned suddenly as a result of a tsunami hitting the region probably caused by a volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean area Large piles of fish discovered at the site appear to support this theory Of particular interest to archaeologists were the discovery of two skeletons which have revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis A submerged archeological park still holds the wonders of a Roman Sodom This archaeological site features an early version of today’s refrigerators Carved into a towering rock mountain in Al Ula this once served as a religious and political center in Hegra The remains of a luxurious 14th-century church built by the last despot of Serbia A pair of stupas that archaeologists believe were built to honor the parents of Siddhartha Gautama (aka Lord Buddha) Showcasing some of the best-preserved temples of the Champa Kingdom One of the world's best-preserved Roman amphitheaters is also one of the most unusual; it's made of black volcanic rock Hanay/Wikimedia CommonsAtlit Yam is an ancient village that was likely abandoned and lost beneath the waters off the coast of Israel around 6300 B.C.E making it one of the world’s oldest sunken civilizations The ancient village once covered nearly 10 acres of land Despite the fact that Atlit Yam has been sitting on the seafloor for some 8,000 years the skeletons of Atlit Yam’s ancient residents remain undisturbed in their graves The village sat unnoticed and undisturbed beneath the water for millennia marine archaeologist Ehud Galili spotted the ruins of the sunken city while searching for shipwrecks Since then, a number of fascinating artifacts have been discovered at the site, ranging from animal bones to massive 1,300-pound stone megaliths arranged in a semicircle. In 2008, the remains of a woman and child who had suffered from tuberculosis were found at Atlit Yam. According to the CDC, these represent the first known cases of the disease. Overall, Atlit Yam has presented historians with remarkable new insight into ancient life, suggesting that prehistoric humans were more advanced than we think. Israel/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Waving Palestinian flags and wearing T-shirts proclaiming Jerusalem to be "the eternal capital of Palestine," thousands of Israel's Arab minority turned out on Thursday for a rally to commemorate a war lost 70 years ago.In a field south of Haifa near an Arab village that was depopulated and abandoned in 1948 children read the lyrics of nationalist anthems from their iPhones listening to dignitarites and musicians.The gathering was something of an anomaly: the same day that Israelis celebrate the 70th anniversary of their Independence Day when they lost their homeland in the conflict that surrounded the birth of the modern Jewish state.This year the gathering was near Atlit a small coastal village south of Haifa from which and fled to other towns or into neighboring countries such as Lebanon where they and their descendants remain refugees today."I never miss any event related to the Nakba," said Sami Salman a carpenter originally from Nazareth who attended the rally "Many people left for Lebanon back then but fortunately for us we did not have enough money to go I am very glad about that now."Unable to attend but watching the event on televison was Khaled Ali Hassan a Palestinian refugee who lives in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut 80 miles up the coast of the Mediterranean in Lebanon.His father came from the village of Ijzim but was never able to go back after he fled the conflict in 1948 Lebanon has around 450,000 Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations refugee agency many living in the country’s 12 refugee camps."When he used to speak of Palestine he would stop when the tears came to his eyes," said Hassan 53.He noted the irony that the Israeli celebrations and Palestinian mourning are intertwined is their day of joy," he said.STRANGE JUXTAPOSITIONCertainly there was a strange juxtaposition on the crowded holiday streets around Haifa on Thursday morning.Coaches from Jerusalem Nazareth and other towns filled with Arabs headed to the Nakba rally past long lines of cars bearing blue and white Israeli flags heading in the opposite direction to the coast for the traditional picnics and beach parties at which Israelis celebrate Independence Day.The fate of the emptied villages and the Palestinians displaced and driven into exile was part of what Palestinians — and some Israeli scholars — say was a systematic programme of ethnic cleansing ordered by Zionist leaders to clear the way for the Jewish state.Israel rejects this saying that the refugee problem resulted from a war launched by Palestinians opposed to a U.N and by Arab states which invaded as soon as the British Mandate expired in 1948.Before fighting began in late 1947 about a million Arabs and 600,000 Jews lived in what was to become Israel Israel emerged with 78 percent of Mandate Palestine would have given it 56 percent.The Arabs at the rally were mostly the descendants of the Palestinians who did not leave to other countries.One of the main issues promoted by the organisers is the longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees a demand that has been revised in recent weeks in an ongoing protest by Palestinians at the Gaza-Israel border.Successive Israeli governments have ruled out any right of return fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority.But the refugees have not given up hope even amid the stench of the sewers in a Lebanese camp."I won’t live to see it but my children might," said Abdel Majid Al Shura "Seventy years is nothing in the history of the world."Reporting by Stephen Farrell in Atlit and Ayat Basma in Beirut; Editing by Mark Heinrich Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved Anita Diamant reimagined the lives of women in biblical times seeks out a woman’s narrative in a real event that took place in Israel three years prior to statehood located near Haifa on the Mediterranean coast was created by the British to enforce the White Paper of 1939 cutting off Jewish immigration to Palestine “Illegal” or clandestine immigration continued and those captured were held at the Atlit camp “delousing barracks,” and barbed wire fences was a cruel reminder of places they had fled four young women under the age of twenty support each other in facing an uncertain future in Atlit: Shayndel blond Dutch Jew who survived in hiding; and Leonie the girls help the Palmach (a unit of the Haganah) stage a breakout from the British camp liberating more than 200 prisoners on the eve of their deportation to Mauritius The escape is followed by a night trek in the Carmel Mountains to the kibbutz Diamant tells this true story through the eyes of her characters—inspired by a photograph of four unknown women standing arm in arm that she found in Beit Oren’s archives Fetterman is the literary editor of Reform Judaism magazine Fetterman was the literary editor of Reform Judaism magazine 2020Get email notification for articles from Ariel David FollowFeb 4 2020A veterinarian taking a morning swim along Israel’s northern shores last year spotted something one doesn’t usually see at the bottom of the sea: hieroglyphs arduous route before reaching the Promised Land in 1943 2015Get email notification for articles from David B 861 Polish-Jewish refugee children – many of them orphans – who had made their way out of occupied Europe arrived in Mandatory Palestine after a stay of several months in Iran Dubbed the “Tehran Children,” they were received by the Jewish Agency and greeted warmly by the Jewish community in Palestine By 2013-11-04T23:49:00+00:00 Former Le Pacte sales executive joins sales veteran’s fledgling Paris-based sales company Former Le Pacte sales executive Naomi Denamur has joined fledgling Paris-based Indie Sales where she will be in charge of international sales and acquisitions alongside company founder Nicolas Eschbach which she joined in 2009 to head-up a newly created library division before moving on to general film sales she worked at Celluloid Dreams and Spain’s Imagina she has handled films by a number of high-profile directors including François Ozon Mathieu Amalric and Wim Wenders as well as documentaries such as the Amazonia 3D and feature-length animation titles including The Day Of The Crows Denamur’s first outing in her new role will be the Rome Film Festival’s International Film Market The company also announced on Monday that it had acquired international rights to Shirel Amitay’s feature-length Set against the backdrop of the period surrounding the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 Yael Abecassis and Judith Chemla as three sisters who return to their family home – set amid picturesque olive groves – to sell it off following the deaths of their elderly parents They discover that selling off the past is not that easy The picture marks the feature-length debut for Amitay a long-time collaborator with directors Claire Simon and Jacques Rivette Prior to entering pre-production for Atlit Amitay was assistant director on Simon’s Gare du Nord Atlit is currently shooting in Israel and is due for a spring 2014 delivery Former TF1 sales and acquisition chief Eschbach launched Indie Sales last Cannes alongside producer Eric Névé with ambitions to distribute 12 titles a year a private fund specialising in French audiovisual investment EXCLUSIVE: Film shoots in Dublin and Dundalk this summer Company’s latest foray into genre will open theatrically on October 10 Bookmark this page and keep track of the latest film release dates in the UK & Ireland Bookmark this page to keep track of all the latest festival dates Oscar winner proposing federal tax incentives Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations Site powered by Webvision Cloud Robotic submarines and ‘internet of underwater things’ to transform hunt for sunken cities and ancient shipwrecks No one knows what happened at Atlit-Yam The ancient village appeared to be thriving until 7000BC Community life played out around an impressive monument: seven half-tonne stones that stood in a semicircular embrace around a spring where people came to drink The village that once sat on the Mediterranean coast now lies 10 metres beneath the waves off Israel’s shore It was inundated when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age Buried under sand at the bottom of the sea it now ranks as the largest and best preserved prehistoric settlement ever found on the seafloor Atlit-Yam is a trove from the Neolithic world tools and the remains of past lives has revealed how the bustling village once worked “It looks as though it was inhabited until the day it was submerged,” said Benedetto Allotta head of industrial engineering at the University of Florence But for all the secrets the site has shared work will start on a new project to transform the search for sunken cities ancient shipwrecks and other subsea curiosities Archeosub will build a new generation of robotic submarines “You can find plenty of human settlements not far from the coast,” Allotta said “In the Mediterranean there will be a lot more Atlit-Yams waiting to be explored and studied.” Researchers from University of Porto preparing to ready to launch an AUV Photograph: Marco Merola/Courtesy of SunriseThe goal of Archeosub is to put sophisticated AUVs in the hands of cash-strapped researchers heavy technology of the military and oil industries into far cheaper and lighter robots They must be affordable for archaeological organisations and light enough to launch by hand from a small boat rather than from a winch on a large research vessel Slashing the cost and weight is only the start. The team behind Archeosub has begun to make the AUVs smarter too. When thrown overboard, the submarines can become part of an “internet of underwater things” which brings the power of wifi to the deep work out the most efficient way to survey a site The underwater archaeological site of Marzamemi The site is the final resting place of a Roman ship which sank while ferrying marble and breccia for an early Christian church in the 6th century AD Photograph: Salvo Emma/Courtesy of SunriseCreating an internet beneath the waves is no breeze Slip under the surface and the electromagnetic waves used in wifi networks travel only centimetres a more complex mix of technologies is called for are used to communicate over long distances underwater But more creative solutions are also envisaged where an AUV working on the seabed offloads data to a second which then surfaces and beams it home by satellite link Work is underway on AUVs that can beam pictures from the seabed over acoustic waves Surface buoys that receive GPS signals tell the AUVs where they are “If you want to build an internet of underwater things, you cannot use the technology we have developed for the terrestrial world,” said Chiara Petrioli, a computer engineer who leads the work under the Sunrise project at Rome University. “You have to be smarter.” David Lane, a professor of autonomous engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, has created a marine version of Dropbox for the underwater internet of things. It allows AUVs to share information from seafloor scans and other data. So if an AUV on a first pass survey spies an intriguing object on the seabed, it can share the coordinates with a nearby AUV that carries better cameras and sonar, and arrange for a closer inspection once it has left the area. “The use of these vehicles has huge potential for marine archaeology,” Lane said. “There’s a lot of history wrapped up in what’s lying on the seabed.” Read moreOne site where Allotta plans to deploy the new AUVs is the Gulf of Baratti off the coast of Tuscany a remarkable shipwreck was discovered there in 18 metres of water the 2000-year-old vessel was a travelling medical emporium More than 100 wooden vials were found on board including tin containers of tablets that may have been dissolved and used as eyewash shedding cargoes of olive oil and wine held in huge terracotta pots called dolia Allotta hopes to have the first test results from the Archeosub project in the summer we don’t have the right technology to give to archaeologists,” he said An excavated skeleton of a Neolithic woman and an infant buried with her show signs of tuberculosis making them the oldest known TB cases confirmed with DNA The 9,000-year-old bones were found submerged about six miles off the coast of Haifa where the ancient village of Atlit-Yam once existed the discovery shows that the infectious disease is 3,000 years older than previously thought Tuberculosis is and has been a major cause of human death and disease worldwide although only about 10 percent of all those infected become ill This high latent infection rate suggests a close relationship between humans and TB throughout history TB in humans is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and is spread in the air but another bacteria called Mycobacterium bovis also caused some death by TB in a small subset of humans who caught it from milk milk products or meat from infected cattle There has been ongoing debate about the evolution of these and other bacteria that can cause TB the analysis of the DNA in the Atlit-Yam skeletons confirms a theory that bovine TB evolved later than human TB The oldest cases of human TB confirmed by ancient DNA include reports from Ancient Egypt (3500 B.C to 2650 B.C.) and Neolithic Sweden (3200 B.C including on a Homo erectus fossil from to 490,000 to 510,000 years ago in Turkey Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox One of the earliest cases of TB in Britain found along with tools and bones from goats The people who lived at Atlit-Yam were some of the first to make the transition from being hunter-gatherers to being more settled farmers and the settlement is one of the earliest with evidence of domesticated cattle When researcher Israel Hershkovitz of Tel-Aviv University examined the infant and adult woman skeletons (presumed to be the baby’s mother) he noticed the characteristic bone lesions that are signs of TB The mother and child probably both died of TB Helen Donoghue and Mark Spigelman of University College London then analyzed the bones’ DNA as well as fats in the cell walls from M The DNA was sufficiently well preserved for molecular typing to be carried out and confirm infection with the human strain of tuberculosis “What is fascinating is that the infecting organism is definitely the human strain of tuberculosis in contrast to the original theory that human TB evolved from bovine TB after animal domestication,” Donoghue said “This gives us the best evidence yet that in a community with domesticated animals but before dairying the infecting strain was actually the human pathogen,” she said The animal bones found at the site show that animals were an important food source and this probably led to an increase in the human population that helped the TB to be maintained and spread The DNA for the strain of TB found in the skeletons had lost a particular piece which is characteristic of a common family of strains present in the world today “The fact that this deletion had occurred 9,000 years ago gives us a much better idea of the rate of change of the bacterium over time and indicates an extremely long association with humans,” she said The finding also could help improve scientists’ understanding of modern TB and thus allow the development of more effective treatments Colleagues at the University of Birmingham Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem also assisted in the research Leverhulme Trust and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Robin LloydSocial Links NavigationRobin Lloyd was a senior editor at Space.com and Live Science from 2007 to 2009 degree in sociology from Smith College and a Ph.D degree in sociology from the University of California at Santa Barbara She is currently a freelance science writer based in New York City and a contributing editor at Scientific American as well as an adjunct professor at New York University's Science Health and Environmental Reporting Program.  Archaeologists discover hundreds of metal objects 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