Canada Park

Canada Park, also known as Ayalon-Canada Park or Ayalon Park, lies east of Latrun in the Ayalon Valley, north of the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv road. It extends on both sides of Highway 3 after the Latrun interchange, between Sho’eva and Latrun, where the Shephelah hills meet the Jerusalem hills.[7][2] One report places it just over the Green Line in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — while another describes it more broadly as a park in central Israel.[3][4]

Published descriptions of the park’s area differ. A Ynet guide gives about 7,000 dunams.[2] Later reporting gives approximately 12,000 dunams, while The Times of Israel rendered that estimate as about 3,000 acres.[3][4] The landscape includes low, rounded hills, numerous springs, woodland, and recreation areas. Facilities and activities include picnic sites, walking paths, and mountain-biking routes.[4][5]

The Ayalon Valley forms an approach toward the Judean Hills.[8] Latrun’s position at the meeting point of routes connecting Jerusalem with the coastal plain and northern Judean Hills has contributed to the area’s strategic importance.[7]

The Ayalon Valley has a long historical and religious record. Biblical and historical accounts of the valley include Joshua 10:12: “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.” The village of Yalu stands on an ancient tell in the valley.[8] The wider Latrun area also saw fighting between Hasmonean and Seleucid forces in the second century BCE, battles between Israeli forces and Jordan’s Arab Legion during the 1948 War of Independence, and Israel’s capture of the Latrun police building in 1967.[2]

Accounts of the villages and the park’s establishment differ. The Jewish Virtual Library says that Imwas, Yalo, and Bayt Nuba were razed during the 1967 war, that residents took refuge in the West Bank and Jordan, and that Canada Park was later established on the land.[1] A 2022 Times of Israel report says Imwas and Yalo were captured from Jordan, razed, and their residents expelled on orders of the Israeli leadership, linking the actions to plans to widen the Jerusalem Corridor.[9]

A 2025 Ynet report describes the area as a no-man’s-land between Israel and Jordan until 1967 and says three villages stood there, whose residents “fled or were expelled.”[4] Penny Green and Amelia Smith describe the park as built over the remains of Imwas, Yalo, and Beit Nuba. They claim that as many as 10,000 people were expelled and almost 1,500 homes demolished during the 1967 war, and argue that the park was created to prevent displaced Palestinians from returning.[10] These are attributed and contested accounts rather than a single agreed narrative.

A Mako walking guide offers a different account, naming four villages—Imwas, Beit Nuba, Yalu, and Dayr Ayyub—and saying their residents fled at the end of the War of Independence and the villages were destroyed.[5] This differs from accounts that place the villages’ destruction and residents’ departure in 1967 and identify three villages rather than four.

The date given for the park’s establishment also varies. A Jewish Virtual Library entry says that a large park was established in 1976 on what it describes as deserted village land, while a Times of Israel report places its establishment around 1975.[8][9]

The available sources do not provide current population figures for the park. Their demographic discussion instead concerns the former villages and their residents. Sources variously name Imwas, Yalo or Yalu, and Beit Nuba or Bayt Nuba; one guide also includes Dayr Ayyub.[1][5] Reported circumstances range from flight at the end of the War of Independence to flight or expulsion in 1967.[4][5]

Green and Smith’s chapter “Evicting Palestine” includes a section titled “The Jewish National Fund, Planting Trees to Cover up Palestinian Villages.” It claims that visitors are not informed at the site about the villages or the park’s location beyond the Green Line and argues that the park was built to prevent Palestinians from returning.[10] Other accounts describe the area as deserted village land or say residents took refuge in the West Bank and Jordan.[1][8] Claims about the park’s purpose, the displacement and destruction, and the site’s political location remain contested.[1][10]

The park’s name reflects contributions from Canada’s Jewish community, which helped fund its establishment.[2] A 2022 report describes Canadian fundraising and a tree certificate issued to a donor in 1975. With help from an Israeli researcher, the donor later concluded that the associated tree may have been planted in Canada Park, but he could neither identify it nor confirm that it had actually been planted.[9]

Canada Park is used for walking, picnicking, mountain biking, and other outdoor recreation. A reported walking route passes woodland, springs, wine presses, a sheikh’s tomb, and remains of a Roman settlement. One guide describes a route of about four kilometres by car and roughly an hour on foot.[4][5] Published estimates of annual visitation differ: The Times of Israel estimated two to three million visitors before the 2025 fires, while a 2025 Ynet report gave an annual figure of 1.2 million.[3][4]

Tel Ayalon contains remains associated with biblical Ayalon, including a mound, wells, and portions of the Crusader fortress Castellum Arnoldi.[11] Potsherds found on the tell indicate continuous occupation from the Late Bronze Age onward, and the village of Yalu was built on the tell.[8]

Remains in and around the park are associated with the ancient city of Emmaus, later known as Emmaus-Nicopolis. They lie on both sides of the road, and a walking route in the Springs Valley follows two aqueducts attributed to the Late Roman period and dated to the third or fourth centuries CE. One came from Khirbet Iqed and the other from an underground spring. The city was apparently abandoned following a severe epidemic.[2][11]

A Roman bathhouse near the Emmaus church has four rooms and substantial surviving portions.[2] A nearby spring feeds a short aqueduct leading to a recreational lake.[11] Other remains include wine presses, cisterns, a rock-cut family tomb, and building remains, some of which at Khirbet Iqed date to the Hellenistic period.[5][11]

At Beit HaShalom, church remains include a central apse, two side apses, and part of a mosaic floor.[5] Khirbet Iqed contains a fortress described as probably Hasmonean, agricultural installations cut into rock, and a 25-metre hiding tunnel.[2] Other hiding tunnels there have been associated with Bar Kokhba’s fighters in the second century CE.[5]

A structure known locally as the tomb of Sheikh Ibn Jabal is attributed to Mankursh, a Mamluk official, and dated to 1288. One account identifies Mankursh as governor of Jerusalem’s citadel, while another notes his emblem on the lintel. The identification with Ibn Jabal comes from a separate local tradition.[5][2]

Wildfires in late April and early May 2025 severely damaged Canada Park. A forester estimated that flames affected about 70 percent of the park’s flora—roughly 8,000 dunams out of an area reported as about 12,000 dunams. He said that, if the park did not burn again, recovery to the point where it could be called a forest would take at least 20 years. Plans described after the fire included planting trees farther apart and creating vegetation-free buffer zones.[3]

The fire crossed Highway 1 and caught in the park’s treetops after burning south of the road. Park manager Yaakov Dadon recalled that a fire engine was left behind during a retreat and its crew escaped by climbing aboard another engine. About 7,000 dunams in the area were reported scorched. Dadon recalled carob, fig, almond, pomegranate, and olive trees growing there.[4] After surveying the damage, forester Nitai Zakharia described the park as “a gem” and “heaven on earth that was burned.”[3]

Some ancient olive trees survived despite burned trunks and canopies. KKL-JNF transferred the living stumps to a nursery; fresh leaves appeared after about a month, followed by new roots several weeks later. The stumps were being rehabilitated as bonsai for eventual public display at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and KKL-JNF’s Eshtaol Nursery.[6]