Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem District, Israel

🇮🇱 Beit Shemesh is a city located approximately 30 km (19 mi) west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District.

History The small archaeological tell north-east of the modern city was identified in the late 1830s as Biblical Beth Shemesh – it was known as Ain Shams – by Edward Robinson. The tel was excavated in numerous phases during the 20th century.

Early development town years The area that compromised Beit Shemesh today was under Ottoman rule and later British Mandate of Palestine. The Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood area was the site belonging to the Arab village Bayt Nattif, which was built on remnants of an ancient Judean town, with various remnants of Jewish settlement from the time, such as a mosaic floor, wineries and other remains, especially from the period of the Hasmonean kings and earlier. This area is currently under dispute about preservation, having been the subject of a grassroots campaign. Under the proposed United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the town was slated to be part of an internationalized Jerusalem.

On 6 December 1950, the Hartuv displaced persons camp "Ma'abarat Har-Tuv" was established on the site of the current-day Moshav Naham. The first inhabitants were Jewish Bulgarian immigrants. They were joined by more Jewish immigrants from Bulgaria, Iran, Iraq, Romania, Morocco and Kurdistan.

In 1952 the first permanent houses were built in Beit Shemesh. In its early years, Beit Shemesh came to typify the "Development Town" with a largely Maghrebi immigrant population. In 1977, following a writeup in Haaretz newspaper, Beit Shemesh was perceived as the main outpost for Menachem Begin's Likud party. He promised to rehabilitate neighborhoods and when Likud came to power that year, investment in the city increased.

History: 21st century The Israel Police maintains a bomb disposal specialist unit and training centre in Beit Shemesh.

The Nahala UMenucha neighborhood and Ramat Beit Shemesh were built in the 1990s, doubling the size of the city. In 2017, the Israeli government approved a master plan to build 17,000 new housing units along with 130 acres zoned as new commercial space for businesses and hotels. It is expected that the city could be home to as many as 250,000 residents by 2025 and 350,000 by 2035. A new commercial centre in the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood is planned to be the city's largest. In 2020, the construction of a hospital in Beit Shemesh, which will be run as a branch of Hadassah Medical Center, was approved.

Economy Beit Shemesh has two industrial zones containing mainly small industry, particularly in the Northern industrial zone which is typified by carpentry and metalwork workshops, garages and wholesale and retail outlets. The Western industrial zone contains several larger companies including Beit Shemesh Engines Ltd. (BSEL) which manufactures and repairs jet engines and jet engine components, Barzellan and others. Nearby in the Noham industrial zone are situated various other factories and offices. Since the high tech boom of 1996–2001 Beit Shemesh has been host to several hi-tech startups including Omek Interactive.

Transport Bus transportation within Beit Shemesh and most inter-city routes is operated by Tnufah and Kavim as of 2021 replacing the former Superbus, which began service on 5 January 2009. The Egged Bus Cooperative, which previously operated all bus service in and to Beit Shemesh, still operates to some distant cities but no longer operates from Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem. Nateev express operates busses to Tsfat and Netivot.

Tnufa operates the inter-city bus routes as of 2021 The travel time between Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem by bus is between 40 min and 1 hour. Transportation to Tel aviv is between an hour and an hour and fifteen minutes.

The new express lines to Jerusalem are direct with new addition such as bus line 600 and the night lines.

Kavim operates over 40 bus routes with over 200 eco friendly electric busses serving all areas of the city as of 2021.

Beit Shemesh Railway Station provides hourly service on the Israel Railways Herzliya–Lod–Jerusalem line. The station is located in the north industrial zone of Beit Shemesh at the Big Fashion Mall and shopping centre across from Shaarei Hair Mall. It was renovated in 2003 after being in operation for close to 100 years.

The bullet train from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem takes 20 min to Ben Gurion International Airport and 30 min to Tel Aviv departing every 30 min.

It was renovated and reopened on 13 September 2003, having existed for over a century at the same location. The station has three platforms.