Misgav Regional Council

The Misgav Regional Council (, Mo'atza Azorit Misgav ISO 259-3 Moˁaça ʔazorit Miśgabb) is a regional council in the Galilee region in northern Israel. The regional council is home to 27,421 people, and comprises 35 small towns, mostly community settlements but also several Kibbutzim and Moshavim. The population of 29 of these is primarily Jewish, and 6 are Bedouin. The region is noted for the way that communities and non-Jewish communities live side-by-side. The administrative designation regional council does not imply that every town in some contiguous geographic region belongs to it. Most Arab-Israeli towns in the region are not part of the regional council, and are considered separate local councils. Neither is Karmiel, a city which lies in the heart of the Misgav region but does not belong to the regional council. The population of Karmiel alone is more than twice that of the entire Misgav Regional Council. History In the early 1970s, the Galilee region in general, including what is now the area of Misgav, was predominantly populated by Arab communities including those of Druze and Bedouin origin who were living on and farming much of the arable land. Those involved in the development of the region designated that land which was not in use as nature reserves in light of the rapid urbanization which Israel was seeing at the time. That area which was not designated as a nature reserve was planned to be a series of settlements on the Galilean hilltops - the idea of the mitzpeh was conceived.